Re: Mapping the Origins and Expansion of the Indo-European Language

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:

> W dniu 2012-09-05 11:45, Francesco Brighenti pisze:
>
> There is of course no connection between Slavic *vydra (from
> *udrah2) and the attested names of the Odra (the oldest documents,
> from the 9th c. onwards, have Od(d)dera, Odora vel sim., but there
> is some indirect evidence that the medial vowel is epenthetic). A
> connection between <Odra> and "Old European" hydronyms

Perhaps "Old European" (in the sense of an older, non-IE European substratum) goes too far. Given the existence of the Avestan form aðu- 'canal, watercourse', which you appropriately cite, and which may derive from *a-du- (~ *ad-ro- -- see at ttp://tinyurl.com/8phx4md ), it is safer to conclude this might be an independent PIE root paralleling *uod-r-/*uod-n-.

Please see also my reply to another similar series of posts by Shivraj Singh on the IndiaArchaeoly List (back in 2008) at

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/IndiaArchaeology/message/7036

Cheers,
Francesco



*****************************************

> like <Adra> is possible but hard to prove. There are
> speculative proposals linking <Odra> to Avestan aðu- 'canal,
> watercourse', since quite a few *-u- stems have *-ro- variants, but it's
> again a mere possibility. Ptolemy's <Ouiadoua> (*wiadwa?) could then
> represent something like *wi-adu- (or even a dissimilated *dwi-adu-)
> 'branching watercourse' -- if we could only be sure that it referred to
> the lower course of the Odra.
>
> Piotr
>