Volga – the First River of Europe

VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Masaryk University Fields of research: Indo-European studies, especially Slavic, Baltic, Celtic, Anatolian, Tocharian, Indo-Iranian languages; Fenno-Ugric; Afro-Asiatic; etymology; genetic classification; mathematic models in historical linguistics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.35321/all81-03 VOLGA – THE FIRST RIVER OF EUROPE Volga – pirmoji Europos upė Чтобы не было раздора Между вольными людьми, Волга, Волга, мать родная, На, красавицу возьми! “So that peace may reign for ever In this band so free and brave, Volga, Volga, Mother Volga, Make this lovely girl a grave!” Дмитрий Николаевич Садовников¹ in 1883 ANNOTATION The present study summarizes all designations of the Volga River and when it is possible, in wider context of primary texts, arranged in Appendix. The second task is a survey and discussion of existing etymologies. The third goal consists in offer of new solutions, if those existing are not convincing enough. Finally, some general conclusions are formulated. KEYWORDS: River, Volga, hydronym, etymology. ¹ Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenka_Razin> [accessed 01.11.2019]. 52 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXI Volga – the First River of Europe ANOTACIJA Šis tyrimas apibendrina visus Volgos upės įvardijimus kiek įmanoma platesniame straipsnio priede pateiktų pirminių tekstų kontekste. Antrasis tyrimo tikslas – ištirti ir aptarti esamas etimologijas, trečiasis – pasiūlyti naujus sprendimus, jeigu esami nėra pakankamai įtikinami. Straipsnio pabaigoje pateikiamos bendrosios išvados. ESMINIAI ŽODŽIAI: upė, Volga, vandenvardis, etimologija. With its 3,534 km of length (before the system of dam lakes it was 3,693 km) and basin 1,380,000 km² the Volga River is the biggest watercourse in Europe, the westernmost big river of Eurasia and the biggest endorheic river in the world. For such long rivers it is typical that they bear several names in various languages. The following seven hydronyms, arranged in alphabetic order, will be analyzed in detail in both etymological perspective and from the point of view of semantic motivation. 1. Ἀράξης 1.0. Herodotus [1.201–202] (c. 450 BCE) mentioned Ἀράξης as a river comparable with or even bigger than the Ister, i.e. the Danube. This Araxes needed to flow through 40 streams, but only one of them emptied into the Caspian Sea. In its delta there would have been islands of the size of Lesbos (1,630 km²). This description can only be applicable to the Volga (originally 3,693 km; basin 1,380,000 km²; discharge 8,060 m³/s in Astraxán; the delta of the Volga consists of c. 500 channels² on the area of 27,224 km²) and not to the river Ἀράξης, known in Modern Armenian as Araks, Turkish, Persian, Kurdish Aras, Azerbaijani Araz (1,072 km; 102,000 km²; discharge 285 m³/s by the mouth into the Kura), rising near Erzurum City in East Turkey in the same area as the source ² Available at: <https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/5650/volga-river-delta> [accessed 01.11.2019]. Straipsniai / Articles 53 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK of the Euphrates3. This Araks was described as swift, but narrow4, in contrary to the description of Herodotus. 1.1. “Swift stream” can be a convincing motivation for designation of this shorter and faster river rising on slopes of mountains with an altitude over 3,000 m, traditionally explained with help of Armenian arag, erag “quick, swift, fast” (cf. Tomaschek 1895, c. 404), which itself is of Iranian origin, cf. Parthian (Turfan) rg “quick, swift”, Avestan rayu- “leicht beweglich, flink” (Olsen 1999: 868; Bailey 1979: 359). The initial vowel represents a typical Armenian prothesis before the borrowings in r̥-5. Let us add that in classical Armenian sources the river was called Erask‘, while Old Georgian had Rakšī6, still without the initial vowel. 1.2. If Herodotus really described the Volga as Ἀράξης, the ‘swift’-etymology is not applicable, since the altitude of the Volga’s source is only 228 m and with regard to the length of the stream, originally almost 3,700 km, the speed of the stream is extremely slow. In this case it would be thinkable to explain the river-name as Iranian *a-raxsa- “harmless”, cf. Young Avestan acc.sg. (ā-stem?) 3 This was known already to Pompey in 68 BCE according to the witness of Plutarch in his curriculum of Pompey [33.1: Πομπήιος δὲ εἰς Ἀρμενίαν ἐνέβαλε τοῦ νέου Τιγράνου καλούντος αὐτόν ἤδη γὰρ ἀφειστήκει τοῦ πατρός, καὶ συνήντησε τῷ Πομπήιω περὶ τὸν Ἀράξην ποταμόν, ὃς ἀνίσχει μὲν ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν τῷ Εὐφράτῃ τόπων, ἀποτρεπόμενος δὲ πρὸς τὰς ἀνατολὰς εἰς τὸ Κάσπιον ἐμβάλλει πέλαγος, “Pompey then invaded Armenia on the invitation of young Tigranes, who was now in revolt from his father, and who met Pompey near the river Araxes, which takes its rise in the same regions as the Euphrates, but turns towards the east and empties into the Caspian Sea” (Plutarch 1917: Pompey. – Plutarch’s Lives, with an English Translation by Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press – London: Heinemann, 1917). Available at: <http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0007.tlg045.perseus-grc1:33.1-[accessed 01.11.2019]; <http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0007.tlg045.perseus-eng1:33.1> [accessed 01.11.2019]. 4 Cf. Virgil: Aeneid 8.728: pontem indignatus Araxes “the Araxes, angry at having been bridged”. See also the lemma Araxes in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. II, Fasc. 3 (1986), pp. 268–271, by W. B. Fisher (& C. E. Bosworth). Available at: <http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/araxes-river> [accessed 01.11.2019]. 5 Cf. Armenian aroy̌r “brass” < Iranian *rauða-, cf. Manichaean Middle Persian rwy, Zoroastrian Middle Persian lwd “copper, brass”; Armenian erang “color” vs. Manichaean Middle Persian rng; Sanskrit raṅga- “color, dye”; Armenian erak “vein” vs. Zoroastrian Middle Persian rk’ id. etc. (Olsen 1999: 869, 879). 6 W. B. Fisher, C. E. Bosworth. Available at: <http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/araxes-river> [accessed 01.11.2019]. 54 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXI Volga – the First River of Europe raxsam “harm” [Vištāsp Yašt 2.127; translation of James Darmstetter⁸]. A similar semantic motivation was used e.g. for the Pacific Ocean. 1.3.1. Among hydronyms names which are motivated by colors are relatively frequent. A promising candidate could be Iranian *raxšā- “dark-colored” > Khotanese rraša “dark-colored”, Sogdian rγš “bay horse”, Persian raxš “mixed red and white, between black and fusc” > Wakhi rakš “grey, brown” (Steblin-Kamenskij 1999: 292), Kurdic raš “black, dark” (Bailey 1979: 362; Cabolov 2010: 194). The open question is interpretation of the initial vowel. The easiest solution would be the negative *a-, i.e. *a-raxšā- = “non-dark”. But it would be rather strange that any word denoting a light color was not directly used instead. On the other hand, at least the middle stream of the Volga has been called “black” (see below). 1.3.2. Another possibility is the compound *ha-raxšā- “all dark”, cf. Avestan ha- “together”, Khotanese ha “all” (ESI] 3: 345–353; Bailey 1979: 438). 1.3.3. The third possibility is the compound *āh-raxšā- “dark mouth”, cf. Avestan āh-, Khotanese āha- “mouth” (Bartholomae 1904: 345, 351, 357; Bailey 1979: 29–30; ESI] 1: 303–304). The hypothetical meaning “dark mouth” would perhaps reflect the fact that in the delta of Volga there are oil deposits⁹. 1.3.4. In principle, it is also possible to admit that Herodotus combined two quasi-homonymous hydronyms, one with initial vowel, representing the ‘Armenian prothesis’ (Araks/Ars/Araz; in past Eraskʿ, but Old Georgian Rakšī) and the second without it (*Raxsaor *Raxšā-; perhaps Volga). The result was a levelling leading to the form *Araχšāwith the analogous initial a-. 2. *As(a)tEl > Ἀσστὴλ/Ἄσσατὴλ ~ Ἀττίλας ~ Ἄτελ ~ Τίλ ~ Ätil 2.0.1. Byzantine sources (in chronological order; see Moravcsik 1958: 78–79): Ἀττίλας … river by Zemarchus, c. 570 (mediated by Menander Protector) Τίλ … river by Theophylactus Simocatta, Historiae, written c. 630 about the end of the 6ᵗʰ cent. Ἄτελ … river by Theophanes Homologetes (†818), Chronicle (AD 284–813; about c. 680) ⁷ Available at: <http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/iran/airan/avesta/avest.htm> [accessed 01.11.2019]. ⁸ Available at: <http://www.avesta.org/fragment/vytsbe.htm> [accessed 01.11.2019]. ⁹ Available at: <https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/5650/volga-river-delta> [accessed 01.11.2019]. Straipsniai / Articles 55 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Ἄσθηλ ... river and fortress in Khazaria in Byzantine geographic notices from the 8th cent. Ἀσατήλ ... episcopate in Khazaria according to one Parisian manuscript (c. 800?) Ἄτηλ ... river by Constantine Porphyrogenitus (first half of the 10th cent. about the 9th cent.) Ἀτελκούζου ... place, where Pechenegs lived in the time of Constantine (ibid.) Ἐτέλ καὶ Κουσού ... place formerly inhabited by Turks (= Hungarians), later by Pechenegs (ibid). 2.0.2. Armenian sources (Pritsak 1956: 407): Et‘il in Geography of Pseudo-Mowsēs Chorenac‘i in a copy of Anania Šira-kac‘i (c. AD 700). At‘l by Gregor of Akanc‘ (†1333). 2.0.3. Sources written in the Hebrew script (Gaster 1899: 67, § 34.14): Htl {חטל} in Yosippon (c. AD 900). 2.0.4. Sources written in the Arabic script (Marquart 1929: 96; Pritsak 1954: 407–408): Itil by Ibn Rusta (c. 903) and al-Muqaddasī (996) Ātl & Ʀtl by Ibn Faḍlān (922) ʔIṭl by al-Balḫī (†934) Iṭil by Iṣṭaḫrī (mid of the 10th cent.) and Idrīsī (1157) ʔātil by Ibn Ḥawqal (977/8) Ātil by Maḥmūd Kašġarī (c. 1070) and Marwazī (1120) ʔatal by Abū Ḥāmid al-Andalusī al-Ġarnāṭī (1080–1170) Itil by Yāqūt (†1229) Ītīl by Ğuwainī (†1283) Ṣdīl in Šaġarat al-atrāk (c. 1457) Ṣadl by al-Iṣfahānī (c. 1509) Ṣadal or Ṣadil in Derbend-nāmeh etc. 2.0.5. Records of the European travellers from the 13th cent.: Frater Richard Ethyl; Rubruk Etilia, Ethilia, Edilia; Marco Polo Edilia; Benedictus Polonus Ethyl (Gombocz 1917: 183; Pritsak 1956: 409). 2.0.6. The hydronym is attested in the Turkic languages from the 11th cent. (Maḥmūd Kašġarī) and in the Mongolic languages from the 13th cent. (Secret history of Mongols): Karakhanid Etil ‘river name, perhaps Volga’ [Maḥmūd Kašġarī, 11th cent.; Legend about Oghuz–Qaghan from the 13th cent.] (DTS 187), Chaghatay Ātil, Ādil ‘Volga’, Ak–Ādil ‘Kama’, lit. ‘White Ādil’, Kazakh & Nogai Edil, Teleut Ädäl, Bashkir Idal ‘Volga’, Kazan Tatar Izal, Idal ‘Volga’, Kara Idal ‘Volga’ = 56 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXI Volga – the First River of Europe ‘Black Idal’ vs. Ak Idal ‘Kama’¹⁰ = ‘White Idal’, Chuvash ADăl ‘Volga’, Šură-ADăl ‘Kama’, lit. ‘White ADăl’ (Gombocz 1917: 183; Radlov I: 842, 857, 1509; Räsänen 1969: 52). Later occasionally in the appellative role: Chaghatay ädil “river, stream”, dim. ädil-ča & ădil-čik “rivulet”, Kazan Tatar idal “big river” (> Mansi eĕtl “water of sea”) vs. idal-čäk “rivulet” (Pritsak 1956: 415). Middle Mongol Idil ‘Volga River’ [Secret History of Mongols, §§ 262, 270], Ežil ‘city destroyed by the Mongols’ [Secret History of Mongols, § 274], Kalmyk Idžl (mörn) ‘Volga (river)’ (Ramstedt 1935: 205). The following etymologies or etymological comments have been (or could be) proposed: 2.1. Klaproth (1826) differentiated ’Aṭṭílas ‘Volga’ (p. 117) and Tíl ‘Kama’ (p. 274), ascribing the meaning “black” to the latter one (p. 268). Arising from his conception of a relation between the ancient Avars and modern Avars from Daghestan, he compared the hydronym with Andi dir, but the term “black” should be b-ečedir in Andi, besides Karata b-ečetiro-b, Hunzib çədilu, Bezhta çodolo etc. (Klimov & Xalilov 2003: 354; according to NCED 556 Andi -dir is a derivational suffix). Concerning the attribute “black”, cf. Pritsak (1956: 411), referring to Theophylactus Simocatta’s Historiae [258.9]: (written c. 630 about the end of the 6ᵗʰ cent.), where ἔνθα ὁ Τίλ διαρρεῖ ποταμός, ὃν Μέλανα Τούρκοις ἀποκαλεῖν <ἔθος> “wo der Til-Fluss hindurch-fliesst, den die Türken ‘den Schwarzen’ <zu>nennen<pflegen>” (see Haussig 1953: 283, 287), and further the frequent Turkic designation of the Volga as “black”, Qara Idil or Qara Itil. Pritsak (1956: 411) interpreted it as “big”, like the name Qara Mö́ren for Huang Ho by Rašīd ad-Dīn (†1318). 2.2. Haussig (1953: 426) reconstructed the form ’Aστıλ as *’As-Til = *‘river of ’Ασιοι’, where the form Tíl was recorded by Theophylactus Simocatta (already Abel-Rémusat 1820, 320 identified in Tíl the Volga River). But Haussig was not able to offer any witness that Tíl represented the appellative meaning ‘river’ vel sim. not only in Turkic. 2.3. Pritsak (1956: 404–419; 1982: 444) analyzed both the personal and river name ’Aттíλας and the river name ’Aστıλ as a hypothetical Old Bulgarian compound, consisting of the components *as “great, old” and *til “sea”, i.e. “oceanic = universal {ruler}” (cf. the Mongol title Dalaj-in Qa’an, with its Turkic translation Talui-nuŋ Xanï – see Pelliot 1923: 24–25: ‘le khan océanique’; Pritsak ¹⁰ Alternatively, the Kama was called Čölmen-Idal in Kazan Tatar, i.e. “the river of wasteland”, similarly Chuvash čolma and Old Bulgarian Čölmän-Itıl (Tomaschek 1889: 33) vs. Old Turkish çöl, Kazakh śöl etc. “steppe, wasteland” (Räsänen 1969: 117). Straipsniai / Articles 57 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK 1956: 417), with evidence in the following Turkic forms: Chuvash as-lă “gross, vornehm”¹¹, Chaghatay äs-li “great, strong”, Old Uyghur, Middle Turkic äs-ki “old” etc. (Räsänen 1969: 50), and Old Turkic talüy “sea”, Old Uyghur taluj “sea” or “lake”, Sary-Uyghur talej, tali, tali “lake, sea, ocean” etc. (Räsänen 1969: 130; Clauson 1972: 502). The term could be of Chinese origin, if it represented an adaptation of the Chinese river-name 大漠 dà(i)lěi¹² < Late Middle Chinese *tha(i)lɣjʹ < Early Middle Chinese *daʾlwiʹ or *dajhlwiʹ (Hirth 1895: 18). But it is questionable that this Chinese borrowing could have been transformed into the component Tíl already in the 6th cent. More probable is another idea of Pritsak that Tíl corresponded to the Chuvash hydronym TilĚe (> Russian Tel’ca), where the last syllable reflected the Turkic diminutive suffix *-čǎ/*-čě, Pritsak (1956: 410–412) identified the same root in the rather enigmatic river-name Qara Tíl from the basin of the Syr-Darya by Nizām ad-Dīn (†1404), alternatively called Qara Tal by ‘Anonymous author of Iskander’ from 1414. Another Qara Tal emptied into Balkhash Lake according to Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam. The real appellative use of the root *til-/*tílwas found by Pritsak (1956: 413) only in Tungusic: Evenki tilkan “flood”, Even ṭilqa, Ulchi čílčan, Nanai čílqā id., besides the verb in Evenki tilka-, Even ṭilqən-, Ulcha čílčan-, Nanai čílqa- “to overflow, splatter” (Cincius 1977: 180–181). In EDAL it is compared with Turkic *d(i)äl(i)- “to overflow” > Old Uyghur, Karakhanid taš-, Turkmen dāš-, Kirghiz, Tatar taštĭ-, Yakut tahijetc., id., besides Oirat tašṭin “flood” (Räsänen 1969: 466; Clauson 1972: 559; ESTJ 3: 169–170), and Mongolic *čilga- / *čal-gi- “to overflow” > Written Mongolian čilga-, čalgi-, Khalkha calgi-, Ordos čal-gi-, Buryat salgĭ-, šalšagana-, šald. The Chuvash hydronym Tiland its Central Asiatic counterparts Tíl / Tal can be connected with Turkic *d(i)äl(i)- “to overflow”. In this case the hydronym Ἀστῆλ is analyzable as the Old Bulgarian compound *as-tiál “super-overflowing” or “{river bringing} big floods”. Note: It is necessary to mention that Eugene Helimski (2000, 2004; plus Evgenij Xelimskiј 2000, 2003) tried to present arguments about a Tungusic component in language(s) of the Avar Kaganat. It is natural to add the Tungusic candidate for the first component *asof the hydronym Ἀστῆλ etc. It could be ¹¹ Pritsak (1956: 414) tried to identify the component *äsin the Hunnic name Έσκάμ = *äs-kam “great priest”, and in the name of the Khazarian majordomus, called ʾaštarḥān (Ṭabarī), i.e. “great tarxan”, or rāštarḥān (Yaʿqūbī), with the first Arabic component raʾs “head; top; leader”, i.e. *“over-tarxan”. He added, the same etymology could be ascribed to the city-name Astraxán, although it was known only from the 14ᵗʰ cent. ¹² 大 dà, dài “big, great, large, wide, deep” < Late Middle Chinese *thaʾ, *thajʹ < Early Middle Chinese *daʾ, *dajh & 濁 lěi “river name” < Late Middle Chinese *lyjʹ < Early Middle Chinese *lwiʹ (Pulleyblank 1991: 69, 185). 58 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXI Volga – the First River of Europe the Tungusic root *as- “very; many” > Udihe asahᶦ “very”, Ulča asir id., Nanai asō, asor “not very”, Manchu asi, asuru “very; many, much, frequently” (Cincius 1975: 54–55). The compound *as(V)til would mean *“{river bringing} very {big} floods”, i.e. almost the same as the Old Bulgarian interpretation. 2.4. Axmetjanov (2001: 76) derived the forms of the type Karakhanid Etil from *ertil, perhaps via *ettil, and proposed the same origin as for the hydronym Irtyš; which should be derived according to him from the verb attested in Old Uyghur, Cumanic, Shor ert-, Khakas, Chuvash irt-, Yakut irdě- “to pass” (Räsänen 1969: 46). 2.5. Taking in account the record ’Αστῆλ, there is an alternative Turkic solution, based on the hypothetic compound *ast¹³–(h)ȫl¹⁴ “lower dampness”, which could be ascribed to the delta of the Volga River. 2.6. Alternatively, the form ’Αστῆλ allows us to think about an early Hungarian compound, consisting of Old Hungarian (AD 1055) azaa, azah “Fluß, Bach” (UEW 3) ~ ‘fehe rea’, Modern Hungarian (dial.) aszó “Wasserriβ, zeitweiliger Wasserlauf; Trockental” (EWU I: 54), “Tal, Niederung; ein Tal, in dem in Regenperioden und zur Zeit der Frühjahrschneeschmelze ein kleiner Bach fließt, das aber sonst trocken ist” (UEW 3); and Hungarian tele (first 1372), tel, dial. telle ‘voll, gefüllt’, tel- ‘voll werden, sich füllen’, teljes, arch. teles ‘ganz, vollständig, total, komplett; voll’, töl-t ‘(Flüssigkeit) schütten, gießen, (Getränke) einschenken; füllen, anfüllen’ (EWU II: 1497–1500; UEW 518: together with Mansi Tᵊ täwl, P tayla and Khanty Vj. O tel ‘voll’ are derivable from FU *tälk³ or *täwdę). The hypothetic compound asz(a)tele could designate ‘valley full {of water}’ or ‘river full {of water}’. Note 1: Constantine Porphyrogenitus had also recorded the compound Ἀτελκούζου [§ 38.30], explained as places, in which the nation of Pechenegs lived in his time. Further it appeared in the syntagm Ἐτελ {ποταμός} καὶ¹⁵ ¹³ Turkmen, Crimea-Tatar, Crimea-Karaim, Karakalpak, Uyghur ast, Uzbek åst, Kirghiz, Tatar as(t), Bashkir aş(t)/aθ(t) “below” (Sevortjan 1974: 195–196); cf. Karakhanid (11ᵗʰ cent.) astīn “under, beneath”, (13ᵗʰ cent.) astındaɣı “situated below”, Chaghatay ast(i) “beneath”, Cumanic astında “beneath” etc. (Clauson 1972: 242). ¹⁴ Proto-Turkic *(h)ȫl > Old Turkic (Manichaean), Old Uyghur (Buddhist) (both 8ᵗʰ cent.) ȫl “moist” (about land), Karakhanid öl [Maḥmūd Kašġari: Qutadğu Bilig] “moist, wet”, Middle Turkic öl (Sanglax) id., (Payet de Courteille) “marsh”, Chaghatay (15ᵗʰ cent.) öl “moist”, also used for darya “sea”, Turkish öl “moist, wet”, Osman öl “pool”, Turkmen öl, dial. hȫl “moist, wet”, Khalaj hēl, hēl, Kirghiz öl, Karakalpak hȫl, Uzbek hul id., Uyghur hȫl “damp, moist”, Khakassian öl “moist, wet”, Shor ül, Oyrat ül, Tuva, Tofalar öl, Yakut üöl “moist, wet”, Chuvash vile id. (Räsänen 1969: 371; Clauson 1972: 124; Sevortjan 1974: 524–525). ¹⁵ Marquart (1903: 33, fn. 3) explained the conjunction as a mistake of a copist, who thought that Κουζού was an alternative name for Ἐτελ. Straipsniai / Articles 59 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Kουζού [§ 40.24], which was explained more explicitly as “the place in which the Turks (= Hungarians) used formerly to be is called after the name of the river that runs through it, Etel and Kouzou, and in it the Pechenegs live now” (translated by Jenkins). Menges (1944–1945: 259) thought that this term designated either another river or it became an appellative. Following Zeuss (1837: 751), Markwart (1903: 33) speculated that the word Kουζού was an equivalent of Greek μεσοποταμία, identifying in Kουζού Hungarian köze (3 sg. possess. of köz “center, middle”), which was also used in Hungarian names of districts, e.g. Szamos-köz, Mura-köze, Rába-köze. Hungarian köz is derivable from Fenno-Ugric *kütz (UEW 163; EWU II, 827) ~ *kütï “middle” (Sammallahti 1988: 544). Note 2: Müllenhoff (1906: 75) proposed that the hydronym Δάϊς [Ptolemy 6.14.2,4,5], Δαϊχ [Zemarchus], Γεϊήχ [Constantine Porphyrogenitus 37.2], later Jajïk, cf. Chuvash Jejăk, Kazakh Žajyk, from 1775 called the Ural River (Vasmer IV: 551–552), might be of Uralic origin, connecting it with Uralic *joke “river” (UEW 99) ~ *jukă (Sammallahti 1988: 537), although usually the Turkic etymology has been assumed (cf. Menges 1944–1945: 260, who compared Turkish jaj-yк “expanded, open”, part. perf. pass. of jaj- “to expand”, Tuva čat-, Middle Turkic [MK] jad-, Old Uyghur jad-, but Altai d’ajɣ “flood”, Tuva čajɣ “deluge, downpour” are semantically closer to the river-naming and cannot be derived from Common Turkic *jad-, but only from *jāj-, continuing in Tuva čaj- “to swing, pump”. Altai d’aj- “to overflow, inundate, spread (on a river)” – see ESTJ 1989: 76–77). 3. УЛ 3.0. Mari: KB Jăl, В Jul, U Ju·l-lǝt Wolga (Wichmann 1953: 54, #264); East Jul (Paasonen 1948: 29). 3.1. Paasonen (1926: 38) connected the hydronym with Khanty of Konda i̯atpз “spring, source”, i̯atpо·ŋ “die Mündung eines aus einer Quelle fliessenden Baches”, Yugan i̯aLpa “kleiner reissender Bach, Giessbach”. The final syllable was explained by Toivonen (1933: 382–383). 3.2. Markwart (1929: 96) speculated about adaptation of this Mari hydronym from its Chuvash equivalent A̯Dăl via *A̯jol. But such a development has no analogy in Chuvash loans in Mari. 3.3. Most probable seems to be the solution of Sinor (1964: 1–8), seeking origin of Mari Jul ‘Volga’ in Turkic *jul “stream, brook, fountain” > Old Uyghur yuul “mountain brook, spring”, Karakhanid jul, jul “brook”, Oirat, Salar jul, 60 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXI Volga – the First River of Europe Koibal jul “brook, mountain stream”, Khakas čul “brook”, Chuvash š́wəl “spring” (Räsänen 1969: 209–210; Clauson 1972: 917–918; Sevortjan 4, 244; DTS 277). 3.4. Tatar, Bashkir jul “road, way” vs. Old Turkic jol id., etc. (Räsänen 1969: 205–206; Sevortjan 4: 217–219). Specifically the Volga River was a superhighway connecting the Russian North with Pontic–Caspian steppes since prehistoric times. Concerning relation of the meanings “road” and “river” there are suggestive semantic parallels in Cushitic and Chadic, concretely North Cushitic: Beja lagi f., pl. -a “path, pathway, beaten track” (Roper); East Cushitic: Somali laag “water-channel” (Luling), Bayso lága “river-bank” (Hy); Oromo Macha laga “river”, lage “valley” (LVS) > Highland East Cushitic *laga “river” (Hudson 1989: 124); Konso lak-a “plain, outside”, D’irayta lak “place, vacancy, room, space” (B1), cf. Sasse 1982: 131; South Cushitic: Qwadza lagalako “path, road” (Ehret); and Central Chadic: Wamdiu làgu, Margi lagù, West Margi lakù, Kilba làkù “road” (Kraft 1981: 73, 93, 112, 122). 4. Λύκος 4.0. Herodotus [4.123] mentioned four great rivers flowing from the country of the Thyssagetae through a wasteland and further into the land of the Maeetians, and issuing into the lake called the Maeetian; their names are Lycus, Oarus, Tanaïs, (S)yrgis. Tomaschek (1889: 32) speculated about identification of the Lycus with the Jajik (today the Ural River) or the upper stream of the Volga, while the Oarus should belong to its lower stream. 4.1. At least indirectly Tomaschek (1889: 32–33) connected the river-name Λύκος with the Udmurt hydronym Jug, besides L’ug, with its Russian counterpart Belaja, a tributary of the Kama. He explained it from Udmurt Malmyž ju·g-ak adv. “hell, klar, rein”, Malmyž-Uržum l’u·g-ak, d’ug-ak “auf einmal und hell”; Sarapul, Malmyž, Jelabuga jugit, Jelabuga, Malmyž-Uržum l’ugit, Ufa d’ugit adj. “hell, klar” etc. (Wichmann 1987: 82). Komi jugid “light (n., adj.), lightning”, jug “lightning”, jugör “ray, light”, jugδini “to grow light, illuminate” (KESK 334). This solution is undoubtedly satisfactory for the hydronym Jug/L’ug, but difficult for Λύκος. The reason consists in historical phonetics: the Udmurt initial l’- and d’- are secondary variants of jand the Permic medial -gcorresponds to Mari & Mordovian -ŋg- < FU *-ŋk- (cf. KESK 14). The Permic root *jugregularly corresponds to Mari jongəštas “to brighten up”, jongədo “spacious” (KESK 334; Paasonen 1948: 27). 4.2. Perhaps more promising is to speculate about a motivation implied from the fact that Λύκος flowed through a wasteland described by Herodotus. Cf. also Kazan Tatar Čölmən–Idal ‘Kama’, i.e. “the river of wasteland”, similarly Chuvash Straipsniai / Articles 61 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK čolma and Old Bulgarian Čolmän-Itil (Tomaschek 1889: 33) vs. Old Turkish čöl, Kazakh söl etc. “steppe, wasteland” (Räsänen 1969: 117). If this is the case, the Baltic term *laukas “terrain without trees” seems to be a good candidate, cf. Lithuanian laũkas “terrain without trees, free space, field”, Latvian laũrs “clearing, opening (in forest), free space, field”, Prussian (III) laucks, acc.sg. laukan “field” (ALEW I: 561–562), all from IE *leuk- “to light” (Pokorny 1959: 687–689). 4.3. Another solution might be based on the fact that the Volga turns its stream from an easterly direction to the south by the mouth of its biggest tributary, Kama. In the Mari language, now spoken near this bend, and in the past, around it, there is the word luk (P, B, M, U, CÜ), lŭk (CK, Č, J), lāk (K) “corner, nook” and also “bend of river or lake” < Proto-Mari *lukā (Bereczki 1992: 34, No. 165; 2013: 124–125). Just this meaning perfectly corresponds with the bend of the Volga from the east to the south. Other relatives confirm priority of this meaning: Finnish loukka, loukas “den, lair”, loukku “Spalte, Höhle”, loukko “Ecke, Winkel, Versteck, Höhle”, ?laukku “Öffnung, Loch”, ?liukku “Schneehöhle”; Hungarian lyuk (dial. gyuk, juk, lik, luk) “Loch, Leck; Höhle; Hinterbacken”; Nenets O loxəʔ “Winkel (z. B. in einem Zimmer, in einem langgestreckten See)” (UEW 252: *lowkə). Note: It is possible to identify an analogous semantic motivation in the Old Russian hydronym Erelb (today Oreľ), denoting the left tributary of the Dnieper, which was first mentioned in Hypatian redaction of The Russian Primary Chronicle to AD 1183: Ереҕ, егоже Русь зовуть Уголь. Vasmer (III, 151) etymologized it with help of Osman əjri “schief, krumm”, əjrilä “sich biegen” (Radloff I: 661–662), Turkish eğri “krumm; Kurve”, eğrilik “Krümmung”, Old Uyghur ägri “schief”, Karakhanid, Cumanish, Chaghatay ägri “krumm, gebogen”; Chuvash avăr “tiefe Stelle, Grube in einem Fluss oder See” etc. (Räsänen 1969: 37–38). 5. RAV & RAVO 5.0. Mordovian Erzya Rav, Ravo ‘Volga’, Moksha rava “river”, Rav ‘Volga’ (UEW 420). Ibn Ḥawqal, AD 977/8: naḥr al-Rōs ~ Mordovian determined form Rav-ś (Aalto 1976[79], 37). The predecessor of the Mordovian hydronym has been reconstructed as (i) *rava (Keresztes 1986: 127), but there are at least two other alternatives, (ii) *raya and (iii) *raja; cf. ad (ii) Mordovian Moksha pavaź ~ pavas “God” < *payas < Indo-Iranian *bhagas and ad (iii) Moksha ov(a) “Schwiegersohn” < Fenno-Volgaic *wäje (see Keresztes 1986: 106, 103). The comparison with Khanty DN rōu, DT rāu “Unreinigkeit, Abfall, Moder (im Wasser)”, Likr. rāɣɜ, Mj. rāuɣ3 “Moder, Schlamm (im Wasser)” (Korenchy 1972: 65), supporting the possibilities (i) & (ii), is weak in semantics. 62 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXI Volga – the First River of Europe 5.1. Schlözer (1771: 306) was probably the first to connect the Mordovian hydronym with the Greek designation ‘Pã of the Volga River16, recorded by Ptolemy [6.14.1,4]. He was followed e.g. by Klaproth (1826: 82), Šafarik (1837: 402) and Kiepert (1878: 346, fn. 3). De Lagarde (1866: 263) connected Ptolemy´s ‘Pã with the name of the mythical river in Avesta Ranhā-, but concerning the identification of these hydronyms with Volga he was reserved17. Later (1868, 62) he added Sanskrit Rasā and in both studies Phrygian ‘Péα, i.e. Réha?, and the Armenian hydronym Rah mentioned by Koriwn in his ‘Life of Mesrop Maš-tots’ [11.33]. Kuhn (1887: 214–215) added Avestan Ranhāand Vedic Rasā-, both the mythical rivers. He expressed doubts concerning their identification. He mentioned the attempt of Geiger who tried to identify Ranhāwith Iaxartes and commented it: die Ranha wiedererkennen will, führte jedenfalls bei seinen anwohnern einen anderen namen, aus dem das moderne Sīr hervorgegangen ist und der bei den Griechen als Silis, bei den Indern als Sidā erscheint (Kiepert 1878, § 58). Further he said that ... Sidā ist selbstverständlich als die iranische, nicht etwa als die indische form des namens zu betrachten. Let us mention that Rasā- (see Blažek 2016a: 13) was the name of a mythical stream flowing around the earth and the atmosphere [e.g. RV IX.41.6; 10.108., also Nirukta of Yaska], only in RV V.53.9. is it described as the western tributary of the Indus River. In Puranas and Mahabharata Rasā is connected with the underworld or hell (MW 870c). The form rasāis the feminine to the masculine rāsa- “the sap or juice of plants, juice of fruit, any liquid or fluid, moisture, humidity, essence, marrow” [RV] (MW 869b, 870c: rasā- = “moisture, humidity”, but Mayrhofer in EWA I: 441–442 expressed doubts about any appellative sense of rasā-). In Iranian the corresponding hydronym is identified in Young Avestan Ranhā- ‘a mythical river’ [Yašt 5.63, 5.81, 10.104, 14.29, 15.27; Vidēvdāt 1.19 etc.], transcribed in Zoroastrian Pahlavi as Arang (Bartholomae 1904: 1510–1511). Note 1: Marquart (1903: 378–379, fn. 4) interpreted the ethnonym Rogasta-dzans by Jordanes [Getica 23, § 116] as *Rauwa-stadjans “die Anwohner des Wolgastrandes”. The same hydronym he saw in the ethnonym ‘Ρόβοσκοι recorded by Ptolemy. 16 Die Wolga nennen sie noch jetzt Rhau, so wie sie beym Ptolemäus ‘Pã heißt. 17 Ich denke der name des bekannten flusses ‘Pã werde nichts anderes sein als Raniha: natürlich meine ich nicht dass der mythische Ranha der texte die Wolga sei. Das ארום {ʔarūm} der pehlewiübersetzung Vd 7, 9 wird, was Spiegel kommentar 46 als möglich hinstellte, das neupersische Harūm (die stadt der Amazonen) sein: Ptolemaeus lässt ε 9.19 die Amazonen μεταξὺ τοῦ ‘Pã ποταμοῦ καὶ τῶν Ἰππικῶν ὀρέων wohnen. Straipsniai / Articles 63 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK 5.2. Schrader (1890: 633f) and Schrader & Nehring (1917–1923: 329) saw in the hydronym an adaptation of IE *srou̯a “stream”, cf. Epic Sanskrit giri-srāvā- “mountain stream”, Lithuanian sravā “Fließen, Blutfluß, Menstruation” etc. (Pokorny 1959: 1003). 5.3. In his review of Schrader (1890), Bartholomae (1890: 1108) tried to explain the Mordovian hydronym and Ptolemy’s Ῥᾶ on the basis of Avestan rau̯an-/raon- “river, water-course” [Yt. 14.21, 18.6, V. 5.1f / Y. 10.17, V. 2.23] (Bartholomae 1904: c. 1512) < Iranian *hrauᵒ < *srauᵒ (cf. EWAI II: 784). 5.4. Paasonen (1897: 122–123) rejected Schrader’s idea and offered his own etymology based on Finnish rapa “Kot, Schlämм; etwas sprödes, brüchiges”, Estonian raba “Moor; Treber; morsch, brüchig”, Livonian raba mā “lockerer Boden”; Saami N rappe “coenum existens in loco, quem homines vei pecudes saepe calcant”. In reality the Saami term is of Finnish origin and the Balto-Fennic forms are of Scandinavian origin, cf. Old Norse draf “Bodensatz, Hefe” (de Vries 1962: 79–80; SKES 735–736). 6. *U̯ar(i̯)- > ᾽Oαρος 6.0. The hydronym ᾽Oαρος was first recorded by Herodotus [4.123–124] around 450 BCE. The same component *u̯armay be identified in the hydronym Οὐαρουδάνης, recorded by Ptolemy [5.9.5, 28], which probably designated the Kuban River (cf. Abaev 1949: 188: *u̯aru-dānu- “broad river”). 6.1. Marquart (1903: 378–379, fn. 4) thought that the hydronym ᾽Oαρος should be an alternative designation of the Volga river, interpreted as Iranian *u̯aru- “broad”18, cf. Avestan vouru-, e.g. in Old Avestan vouru-cāšani- “within 18 Rogastadzans ist die gotische Übersetzung von Ῥόβοσοι, eines von Ptol. 6.14 p. 426, 28 Wilberg an den östlichsten Rhaquellen verzeichneten Volkes, bei Orosius I, 2, 2 Rhobasci, das mit den unter den Rhipaeen sitzenden Βοροῦσκοι Ptol. 3, 5 p. 201, 15 identisch ist. Ῥόβοσοι, Rhobasci ist vom finnischen Namen der Wolga abgeleitet, der noch heute bei den Mordwinen Raw, Rau, in bestimmter Form Rawš lautet und wahrscheinlich dem Ῥᾶς des Agathemeros zu Grunde liegt. Derselbe ist wohl dem skythisch-iranischen *Raha, bei Ptol. Ῥᾶ (nur Gen. und Acc.), aw. Raihā, ved. Rasā entlehnt. Neben letzterem Namen kannten die iranischen Skythen für die Wolga noch die Bezeichnung ᾽Oαρος (Herodotos 4, 123. 124) d. i. *waru- „der breite“ (vgl. Βοροῦ-σθένης, hunnisch War), wovon der Volksname Βοροῦσκοι abgeleitet ist. Vgl. Zeuss 1837: 80; Müllenhoff 1906: 98; Tomaschek 1889: 20. Für die Gleichung Ῥᾶ = Raiha haben sich ausgesprochen P. de Lagarde 1866: 263; Id. 1868: 62. 64 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXI Volga – the First River of Europe blickend” ~ Vedic uru-cākṣas-; Ossetic urux “weit, geräumig” (EWAI I: 227). Similarly Herrmann (1937: cc. 1680–1681¹⁹). 6.2. Kretschmer (1928: 101) explained the hydronym with help of Sanskrit vār(i) “water”, mentioning the meaning ‘rain’ of the corresponding Avestan counterpart vār-. In reality, there are Vedic vār- ‘water’ [RV, AV, VS], besides Sanskrit vārī-, meaning both “water” and “rain” [Mn, MBh], which corresponds to Avestan vār- “rain”, but also Sanskrit vārī-, pl. varyas “river”, corresponding to Avestan vai̯ri- “sea, sea bay” [Y. 42.2, 65.4, 71.10; Yt. 5.37, 8.46.8, 10.14, 19.51, 19.56, 19.59; Aog. 28; Ny. 5.5; S. 2.9] > Zoroastrian Pahlavi var “lake” (Bartholomae 1904: 1364–1365; Eilers & Mayrhofer 1960: 110–111; Nyberg 1974: 203). Kretschmer also connected this hydronym with Tocharian A wār “water” and further with the Ligurian river-name Vārus, first recorded by Caesar [BG 1.86.8]. Later Krahe (1964: 38–40) included it in his ‘Old European’ hydronymy. 6.3. For Herodotus’ Ὄαρος Napolskix (p.c.) sought its origin directly in Tocharian A wār, B war “water”, B -wār “stream”, e.g. ñoru-wār “downstream” (Adams 2013: 627–628), assuming in this hydronym a trace of the eastward Proto-Tocharian migration. 6.4. Schramm (1973: 115) rejected Ὄαρος as the designation of the Volga at all and preferred its connection with the Dnieper, explicitly named as Var by Jordanes 52: ut vix pars aliqua hostium remaneret, quae in fuga versa eas partes Scythiae peteret, quas Danabri amnis fluente praetermeant, quam lingua sua Hunni Var appellant²⁰, and Βαζούχ by Constantine Porphyrogenitus (De administrando imperio 38.68). This hydronym was also etymologized in several ways: 6.4.1. Seeing here a trace of the ancient Avars, Klaproth (1826: 245) tried to explain Var with help of modern Avar from Daghestan, where the word ʒor “river” appeared. Nikolayev & Starostin (NCED 537) compared it with Tindal reha “water reservoir”, Bezhta rühi “artificial brook”, Lezghin, Tabasaran hül “sea” etc., reconstructing North Caucasian protoform *hʷilV/*l̥hʷV. ¹⁹ Oaros – nach Herodot [IV 123] neben dem Lykos, Tanais und Syrgis ein Zufluss der Maiotis, entspringend bei den Thyssagetai. Aus Herodot [IV, 124] ergibt sich, dass der O. ein grösserer Fluss war, an dem Dareios sein Heer lagern liess und acht Burgen baute, als er bis zur Einoede zwischen den Budinen und Thyssagetai vordrang. Danach (c. 1681) kann es sich nur um die Wolga handeln, die Herodotos irrtümlich in die Maiotis münden lässt statt in das Kaspische Meer. Kiessling u. Bd. IA s. 1f. vergleicht den Namen O. mit avest. Vouru “der breite (Fluss)”, was die Türkstämme durch Atl uebersetzten; ²⁰ “The remnant turned in flight and sought the parts of Scythia which border on the stream of the river Danaper, which the Huns call in their own tongue the Var.” See The Gothic history of Jordanes in English version with an introduction and a commentary by Charles Christopher Mierow. Princeton: University Press – London: Humphrey Milford – Oxford: University Press 1915: 128. Straipsniai / Articles 65 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK 6.4.2. Tomaschek (1889: 20) compared Βαqούη with Yakut üräx “river” (Böhtling 1851: 49). Related may be Chuvash vъrə, used in formulation šъ vъri “mouth of river”. The loss of the final velar can be compared with homonymous Chuvash vъrə “seed” vs. Old Turkish uruy id. (Egorov 1964: 49; Räsänen 1969: 516). 6.4.3. Vasmer (1923: 66), Abaev (1949: 187) and Schramm (1973: 99) explained Βαqούη on the basis of Ossetic: Iron wærax, Digor urux “broad” < *uaruka−/*uruka− (Abaev 1989: 90). 6.4.4. Pritsak (1954: 124–134; cf. also Schramm 1973: 99) offered the Old Bulgarian explanation of Var, applying Chuvash var “valley, flume, ravine, gorge; inside, center, middle, belly”; Anatolian Turkish poet. öz in the river-names Ėgri öz, Qïlïğ özü, further Kazan Tatar üzän “valley, lowland”, Baraba Tatar üzön “rivulet, brook”, Kazakh özän “river; inside”, besides the designation Yozu (= özü < *özi) of the Dnieper in a late copy of Pseudo-Mowsés Chorenacʿi’s “Geography”, perhaps from Anania Širakacʿi rewritten around AD 700, and Oghuz-Cumanic name Özi of the same river (-i is the possessive suffix of the 3rd person, serving for determination). Note: It is attractive to speculate that the Old Bulgar predecessor of Chuvash var “valley, flume, ravine, gorge; inside, center, middle, belly” in the name of the Dnieper could be calqued by the term -коúζου, Κουζού, recorded by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the compound Ἀτελλοúζου [§ 38.30], and in the syntagm Ἐτέλ {ποταμός} καὶ Κουζού [§ 40.24]. Zeuss (1837: 751) and Markwart (1903: 33) identified in -коúζου & Κουζού Hungarian köze (3 sg. possess. of köz “center, middle”), which was also used in Hungarian names of districts, e.g. Szamos-köz, Mura-köze, Rába-köze. Hungarian köz is derivable from Fenno-Ugric *kütз (UEW: 163; EWU II: 827) ~ *kütï “middle” (Sammallahti 1988: 544). In this case the forms -коúζου & Κουζού were an equivalent of Greek μεσοποταμία, and Old Bulgarian Var probably played the same role. 7. VOLGA 7.0. The hydronym Volga first appeared as Old Russian Volga in Russian Primary Chronicle written around 1100, in events dated to AD 964. 7.1. The Byzantine historian and archivarian, theologist and astronomer, Nicephorus Gregoras (1290/1–1360), formulated the hypothesis that the designation of Bulgarians Βούλγαροι is derived from the river-name Βούλγα “Volga” in his Byzantina Historia 1.26.19–21 (cf. also Moravcsik 1958: 105). Another Volga is a tributary of the Dnieper. In Poland, there are two tributaries of the Vistula, which are named Wilga, one with its mouth in Kraków (25 km long), the second 66 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXI Volga – the First River of Europe with its mouth in the south neighborhood of Warszawa (67 km long). These hydronyms are transparently derivable from Common Slavic *Volga “dampness, moistness” (Vasmer I: 336–337). It is necessary to add the direct Baltic cognates, which can also etymologize the hydronym Volga, namely Latvian vāļgs m., vaļga f. “feucht”, vīlgt, ōgstu, ōgu “feucht werden” (ME IV: 454, 587), Lithuanian vīlgti, vīlgstu, vīlgau “anfeuchten” etc. (Pokorny 1959: 1145–1146: *uelg-). There are also alternative etymological attempts: 7.2. Tomaschek (1889: 32) and Rozwadowski (1913: 49; 1948: 227–230) tried to explain the hydronym from Fenno-Volgaic *walkeda “white”²¹, but Vasmer (I: 336–337) rejected it as phonologically impossible. It is right concerning *walkeda “white” and its continuants, but there are also other forms, which are not derived by the suffix *–đa, especially Mari wolɣem “ich leuchte, glänze (Feuer, Wasser, Gold, Glas)”. Its 3rd person sg. wolɣa “it is light” looks like a good candidate with regard to the fact, that the biggest tributary of the Volga, Kama, is called “white”, namely Chaghatay Ätil, Ädil ‘Volga’, Ak-Ädil ‘Kama’, lit. ‘White Ädil’, Kazan Tatar Iẓal, Idal ‘Volga; big river’, Kara Idal ‘Volga’ = ‘Black Idal’ vs. Ak Idal ‘Kama’ = ‘White Idal’, Chuvash ADăl ‘Volga’, Šură–ADăl ‘Kama’, lit. ‘White ADăl’ (Gombocz 1917: 183; Radloff I: 842, 857, 1509; Räsänen 1969: 52). Tomaschek (1889: 32) still mentioned the Lake Volgo (61 km²), the lowest of four natural lakes which the Volga flows through. 7.3. According to oral witness of Roman Jakobson, his former countryman Nikolaj Sergeevič Trubeckoj proposed a Baltic etymology of the hydronym Volga during his lectures in Vienna in the 1930’s. According to him the etymology of Volga was as follows: in primitive eastern Slavic, unrounded front vowels changed into rounded back vowels before a tauto-syllabic l, so that jilga must have changed to julga; the initial j was lost before rounded vowels in eastern Slavic, and the initial u acquired an obligatory prothetic v. Thus the form vulga arose, and short u changed in the 12ᵗʰ–13ᵗʰ centuries into o. So through a long series of changes Jilga became Volga. Cited according to Gimbutas 1963a: 69; 1963b: 33, 205. See also Toporov 1980: 40. Among the Baltic hydronyms there are really such names which are formed from the Baltic adj. “long” continuing in Lithuanian ilgas, Latvian ilgs id., besides Prussian adv. ilga “for long time”, ²¹ Fenno-Volgaic *walkeda > Finnish valkea “weiß; leuchtend, hell; Feuer, leuchtende Flamme, Licht des Feuers, Blitz”, Ludic valged, Estonian valge “weiß, hell, blond; Weißes, Licht”, Livonian vālda (SKES: 1619–1621); Saami N viel’gâd “white; light, pale”, Kildin vielked, Nõt vielked id.; Mordovian Erzya valdo, Moksha valdă “hell, licht”; Mari (I) waylăd, (U B) wolyadă “klar, hell; Helle, Klarheit”. Further cf. Mari wolɣem “ich leuchte, glänze (Feuer, Wasser, Gold, Glas)”; Hungarian világ “Licht; Welt; Leute”, (arch.) “Menschheit, Leben”, indicating Fenno-Ugric *walkз “white, light; to shine” (UEW: 554–555; Bereczky 2013: 315–316). Sammalahti (1988: 551) reconstructed Fenno-Ugric *wilki– “light”, besides Fenno-Permic *vēlkita. Straipsniai / Articles 67 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK e.g. in Lithuania rivers Įlga, Įlė, Įlgės, Įlgupys etc., and lakes Įlgai, Įlgis, Įlgys, Įlgžeris, Įlgžeris etc. (Vanagas 1981: 129); Latvian rivers Įlga upe, Įlupe, and lakes Įldza-ęzers, Įldzes-ezers etc.; Prussian lakes Įlgayn, Įlgen See, Įlgowen etc. (Toporov 1980: 39). The longest ‘Long River’ is Chinese 長江 Cháng Jiāng, with length 6,379 km and basin 1,808,500 km², called ‘Long’ from the period of Six Dynasties (220–589 CE). The present name 揚子 Yángzǐ originally was used for the lower stream of the river²². 7.4. Still less probable is the attempt of Mikola (1929: 127–128) to identify a source in Proto-Mari *Jyl⁽²³⁾, really attested as West Mari Jāl, East Mari Jul ‘Volga’ (see below). For an explanation of difference in the anlaut Mikola (1929: 127) mentioned the Old Russian transcription Омov(ь)за, Омovуза of the Estonian river-name Emajõgi. The existence of Old Russian *Vьlga should be demonstrated by the Udmurt folklore loan Bulga ‘Volga’ (Mikola 1929: 128). Vasmer (I: 337) added that the hypothetic Proto-Mari *Jyl would have been borrowed from such Turkic languages as Baba Tatar, Bashkir jylya “river, brook”, Kazakh žylğa “rivulet, river” (Räsänen 1969: 200; borrowed from Mongol žylga “bed of river, brook, slope” – see Ramstedt 1935: 109). 7.5. A quite new solution may be offered on the basis of Hungarian völgy “valley, vale, dale” (121); (obsolete) “Mark, Kern eines Geschwürs”, cf. the Old Hungarian place-names: Furizelgi (121), Welg (120), Saswelgy (126), Welgzad (1338), Worrewwabelgy (1342) etc. (EW 1653). Related are Ob-Ugric *wāyəl > PKhanty *wāyəl > Khanty Trj. wāyəl “ein Zufluß des Ob”, Oxal, Kaz. wōxal “Zufluss; Wogul”, wōxal-jōxan “Boryka (rivulet); Mansi *wāl > Mansi (LM) vuol “Flußkrümmung”, (KU KM P LO) wōl, (So.) wōl “Flußstrecke” (Honti 1982: 193, #677); Komi (S) vol, vol-ju “ein kleiner Fluß”, (Vō) vel ‘ein rechter Nebenfluß der oben Vyčegda’; Nents (Nj.) wäej in jaew wäej “längere gerade Strecke des Flusses zwischen zwei Krümmungen; плёс” < Uralic *waδз “small river; river bend or portion of river between two bends” (UEW: 550–551). 7.6. For completeness Tocharian B walke (indeclinable) adj. “long (of time)”, adv. “for a long time” should be added as a hypothetical source too. The semantic motivation is the same as in Lithuanian ilga f. “long” (cf. § 7.3). The synchronic shape stands also very close to the form Volga. The traditional projection back to *uḷ₂Hgo-, perhaps derived from the verb *uel- “to turn” (Adams 2013: 631–632), is also applicable to Volga. But the etymological analysis *u̯i-dH̥gʰo- (see Blažek 2015: 62), if correct, probably would exclude this solution. 22 Available at:<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangtze> [accessed 01.11.2019]. 23 The loss of γ after the fall of the final vowel is regular, cf. Mari KB jal “foot” vs. Mordovian Moksha jalga “on foot”, Finnish jalka “foot” (Mikola 1929: 127; UEW: 88–89). 68 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe 8. SUMMARY Indo-Iranian Slavic Baltic Iranian Tocharian Mordovian Mari Hungarian Tatar (c. Tatar Kara Tatar Volga) * astai with big floods * ast(h)ol lower dampness * ul stream Tatar road asz (V) tele valley full of water the bend river * Rava * Rava * Runa * draša- dampness > Avestan Raŋha- * naraxs- all dark * hraxsa- dark mouth * daugas treeless terrain * Aogəs * As(a)f[?] * ul * Aresos Rau(e) Strainsai / Articles 69 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Indo-European *Ocos Slavic *bog dampness Baltic Latvian padag t. wet *lōg long t. Iranian Avestan tāri-sea, sea bay; Pahlavi bar lake *pāru- broad Tocharian B war water B-war-stream Mordvinian Mari nuolya is light Hungarian zóly valley Turkic Bashkir iylya river 70 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe 9. CONCLUSION 9.1. The preceding table (§ 8) summarizes all more or less probable solutions, although they are often mutually exclusive. Evaluating their semantic motivations, they can be divided into two sets. The first group consists of the fully ‘hydronimal’ names motivated by meanings connected with “water”, namely “water” itself, further “river”, “(river-)valley”, “stream”, “flood”, “dampness”, “lake”, “sea”. The second group includes the terms characterizing the river stream or shores, here namely “broad”, “long”, “bent”, “treeless”, “harmless”, “white/light”, “black/dark”. It is apparent that the first semantic group is directly connected with water and should be preferred. In the case of several etymological candidates the semantic motivation, which is repeated in different designations, seems more promising than isolated explanations. So, Old Russian Volga < Common Slavic *vəlgə “dampness” corresponds to Iranian, perhaps Scythian, *raha-, whose meaning “moisture, dampness, humidity” is reconstructed according to Vedic [RV] rasā-, which is the feminine to the masculine rāsa- “the sap or juice of plants, juice of fruit, any liquid or fluid, moisture, humidity, essence, marrow”. The third counterpart could be identified in the hypothetical Turkic compound *ast-(h)öl “lower dampness”. It would be possible to imagine that it described the Volga delta. It is tempting to conclude that the Slavic and maybe Turkic hydronyms represent calques on their Iranian predecessor. 9.2. Chronologically first seem to be the mythical river-names Rasā́, known already from the Ṛgveda composed probably between 1500–1100 BCE, and its Young Avestan counterpart Raŋhā, from the beginning of the 1st mil. BCE. Mordvian Rav or Rav can reflect both *ra and *raya. The first case preserves the specific Avestan-like development of the sequence *ə̄hā, the later case probably represents the form *Rahā, reconstructible for several Old and Early Middle Iranian dialects, namely Scythian, Sarmatian and Sakan with regard to their geographic distribution. Ptolemy’s Ῥᾶ and Pseudo-Agathemeros’ Ῥᾶ are still close to *Rahā in the 2nd and 3rd cent. CE respectively. In the mid of the 5th cent. BCE Herodotus recorded three various river-names, which may perhaps belong to the Volga: Ὄαρος, Ἀγάρης, Λύκος. The Ὄαρος is etymologizable on the basis of Young Avestan vāiri- “sea, sea bay” and Pahlavi var “lake”. This solution indicates a river emptying into a big water reservoir. In competition with the no less attractive Tocharian etymology (B war “water”, -wär “stream”), the Iranian origin should be preferred with regard to the Ptolemy’s hydronym Οὐαράνης, probably designating the Kuban River emptying into the Azov Sea/Maeotis, which is analyzable explicitly as *uar(V)-dānu- “river emptying in a sea/lake”, where the second component is Iranian *dānu- “river” > Young Avestan dānu “river, stream”, Ossetic don “river, water”, without any known Straișnai / Articles 71 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Tocharian counterpart. The river Ἀογῆς was described by Herodotus as a stream divided into 40 arms before its mouth into the Caspian Sea. This description is applicable only to a real big delta. If the delta of the Volga was meant, at least three Iranian interpretations are thinkable, namely *a-raxsā- “harmless” with respect to its quiet stream or *ha-raxsā- “all dark”, with variant *āh-raxsā- “dark mouth” with regard to the black mud in the delta (cf. also Kazan Tatar Ka-ra Idəl). The third Herodotus’ hydronym, probably belonging to the Volga, Λύκος, looks like a Greek transcription of Proto-Mari *lukə “bend”, which can designate the bend of the Volga from the east to the south by the mouth of the biggest tributary, the Kama River. This solution seems more convincing than the alternative Baltic designation *laukas “treeless terrain”, which would have designated the wasteland around the Kama River, described by Herodotus. Although such an interpretation is quite legitimate, it is not generally typical for semantic motivations of hydronyms. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE Ptolemy and Pseudo-Agathemeros recorded the Volga-names Ῥᾶ and Ῥᾶς respectively, which represent continuations of Iranian *Rahā, discussed above. From the 6th cent. CE the new name of the Volga is known, which is reconstructible as *As(a)tEl. There are at least three alternative etymologies. Old Bulgarian *as-tíl “with big floods” can be supported by the fact that e.g. the Astraxān and Volgograd regions are more or less regularly flooded once every 5 years. A weakness of this solution consists in the fact that there is no appellative continuant in Chuvash, only the hydronym Tilž (see § 2.3). The hypothetical compound *ast-(h)əl “lower dampness” should probably be ascribed directly to some mainstream Turkic dialect, since none of components continue in Chuvash. The third etymological attempt presents the hydronym as a predecessor of the hypothetical Hungarian compound asz(V)-tele “river valley full {of water”. It should not be any surprise to take into account the possibility of a Hungarian etymology as well. The trajectory of migration of ancestors of the Hungarians very probably followed the stream of the Kama and further the Volga from their confluence to the basin of the Don, which brought them to the Pontus and along its shores further to the Danube basin (cf. Blažek 2013: 181). The etymology implies the presence of ancestors of the Hungarians in the basin of the lower Volga before c. 570 CE, when Zemarchus crossed the river and recorded its name as Ἄττιλας. This interpretation may be reinforced by one of alternative etymologies for the hydronym Volga proper, namely Hungarian völgy “valley”. The Volga itself was first mentioned in the Russian Primary Chronicle dated AD 964. Its Slavic protoform *vьlga “dampness” seems safe; corresponding hydronyms are known from basins of the Dnieper and Vistula. But Volga may be an 24 Available at: <https://www.climatechgepost.com/russia/river-floods/> [accessed 01.11.2019]. 72 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe East Slavic adaptation of the Baltic name of the type Latvian valga f. “wet” too. The close semantic motivation is proposed for the Vedic mythical river Rasā, and its Avestan counterpart Raŋhā, which have been connected with the Iranian / Indo-Iranian homeland and identified with the Volga. The hypothetical Turkic compound *ast-(h)öł “lower dampness” would express the same characteristics. But there are several alternative etymologies based on languages spoken along the Volga earlier than the time the first Slavs reached the river (perhaps c. 600 CE with regard to the glottochronological dating the disintegration of Common Slavic to the 6th cent.), namely Baltic (Latvian valga f. “wet”; less probable is Lithuanian ilga f. “long” with respect to the difficult explanation of Slavic v–); Mari wolγa “is light”; Hungarian völgy “valley”; Tocharian wake “long”. Bashkir yïlya “river” can be directly excluded as a late Mongolic loan. Although the Mari, Hungarian and Tocharian interpretations are not compatible, they could have been applied to the same river in various times. It is possible to imagine that an older designation was replaced by a new one on the principle of quasi-homonymy, independently of semantic difference. An illustrative example may be found e.g. in the Old Russian hydronym Erel, translated in the Russian Primary Chronicle as Уголъ “angle”, in agreement with its Turkic etymology (Osman äjri “chief, krumm”, äjrilä “sich biegen”), but by today it has been modified to Orel, i.e. “eagle” (see § 4.3). From the last three alternatives the Tocharian one had separated as first. According to the glottochronological analyses separation of the Tocharian branch from the Indo-European mainstream (the Anatolian branch was already separated in the 5th mil. BCE) is dated to 3,810 BCE and 3,900 BCE by Sergej Starostin and Georgij Starostin respectively (see Blažek & Schwarz 2017: 203–204), while disintegration of the Fenno-Ugric protolanguage is dated only to 2,350 BCE by Blažek (2012: 34; 2016b: 89), to 2,180 BCE by S. Starostin (see Blažek 2012: 32), and to 2,160 BCE by G. Starostin (2015: 569); on average 2,230 BCE. The separation of the Mari and Permic branches is dated to 1,370 BCE by S. Starostin and to 1,200 BCE by Blažek (see Blažek 2012: 32, 34; 2016: 89) and the separation of Hungarian from Ob-Ugric is dated to 1,340 BCE by S. Starostin and to 1,480 BCE by Blažek (see Blažek 2012: 32, 34). This means that the Tocharian branch was separated c. 1,5 millennium before disintegration of the Fenno-Ugric unity and c. 2,5 millennia before separations of the Mari and Hungarian. The Tocharians were the easternmost Indo-European branch in the 1st mil. CE. They probably occupied the easternmost position in the Indo-European homeland too. If the North Pontic localization of the Indo-European homeland, at least after separation of the Anatolian branch, is accepted, the Volga could represent the eastern borderline of the Indo-European dialect continuum, first crossed just by the ancestors of the Tocharians, perhaps in the first half of the 4th mill. Strapšnia / Articles 73 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK BCE. In such a case, it would seem natural that the designation of such a mighty river, important for orientation, transfer and fishing, was kept for a long time, and when new populations inhabited its shores, they preferred to use quasi-homonymous names, although their meanings were reinterpreted. Besides the longest chain represented by Tocharian B wake “long”²⁵ → Hungarian volǵ “river valley” → Mari wolγa “is white” → Latvian vala “wet” → Old Russian Volga *“dampness”, there is also the series consisting of Tocharian B war “water”, -wār “stream” → Avestan vari- “sea, sea bay”, Pahlavi var “lake” → Chuvash var “valley, flume, ravine, gorge; inside, center, middle, belly”, or Young Avestan Raŋhā or ‘Scythian’ *Rahā → Mordovian Erzya Rav, Rav ‘Volga’, Moksha rava “river”, Rav ‘Volga’. This hypothesis implies a continuity of populations in spite of periods of massive migrations, probably in the form of relic settlements along important rivers mediating the original hydronyms. Thanks to this mechanism, names of many important rivers were preserved, although languages on their banks changed. Naturally, besides old names also new ones are introduced. In the case of the Volga the youngest example of this type is probably Mari Jul, adopted from some Turkic source of the type Old Uyghur yul “mountain brook, spring”. 10. APPENDIX: TEXT FRAGMENTS The Russian Primary Chronicle Laurentian redaction [642 (964)] Князь Стославъ възрастыю . и възмужавъ . нача воѣ сокупляти . многи и храбры и легко хода . акы пардусь . воинѣ многи творяше хода. воз по собѣ не возяше . ни котла ни мясъ варя . но потонку изрѣзавъ . коню ли . звѣрину ли . или говядину . на углехъ испекъ ядяше. ни шатра имаше . но подкладъ пославъ . и сѣдло в головахъ . также и прочи воѣ его вси бѣхѫ. [и] посылаше къ странамъ глѣ . хочю на вы ити . и иде на Оку рѣку и на Волгу . и налезе Вятичѣ . и речѣ Вятичемъ . кому дань даете . они же рѣша Козарамъ по щьлягу . и тѣ ра даемъ. Available at: <http://litopys.org.ua/lavrlet/lavr03.htm> [accessed 01.11.2019]. 25 If Tocharian B wake was really derived from *ui-dḷHgh⁰-, it should be abandoned from candidates for protoform of the Volga. In this case the oldest member of this chain copying the stream of the Volga would be Mari. The chain should look as follows: Hungarian volǵ ← Mari wolγa → Latvian vala → Old Russian Volga. 74 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe Hypatian redaction [6472 (964)] Князю Святославу възрастьшю . и възмужаю . нача воевати . многы и храбры . бѣ бо и сам храбръ и легокъ . хода акы пардусъ . воины многы творяше . въз бо по себѣ не возяше . ни котла ни масла варя . но по тонку изрѣзав . конину . или звѣрину . или говядину на угльех испекъ аше . ни шатра имаше . но подклада постилаше . а сѣдло въ головѣ . тако же и прочи вои єго бѣху . и посылаше къ странамъ . глаголя хочю на вы ити . и иде на Оку рѣку . и на Волгу . и налѣзе Вятичи . и рече имъ кому дань даете . они же рекоша Козаромъ . по щелягу ѡ рала даємъ Available at: <http://litopys.org.ua/ipat/ipat03.htm> [accessed 01.11.2019]. English translation of the Laurentian redaction 472 (964). “When Prince Svyatoslav had grown up and matured, he began to collect a numerous and valiant army. Stepping light as a leopard, he undertook many campaigns. Upon his expeditions he carried with him neither wagons nor kettles, and boiled no meat, but cut off small strips of horseflesh, game, or beef, and ate it after roasting it on the coals. Nor did he have a tent, but he spread out a horse-blanket under him, and set his saddle under his head; (65) and all his retinue did likewise. He sent messengers to the other lands announcing his intention to attack them. He went to the Oka and the Volga, and on coming in contact with the Vyatichians, he inquired of them to whom they paid tribute. They made answer that they paid a silver-piece per plowshare to the Khazars.” The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text, Translated and edited by Samuel Hazzard Cross & Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Medieval Academy of America, No. 60, 1953. Available at:<http://www.mgh-bibliothek.de/dokumente/a/a011458.pdf> [accessed 01.11.2019]. Witness of Greek authors Herodotus 1.201–202: 201. ὡς δὲ τῷ Κύρῳ καὶ τοῦτο τὸ ἔθνος κατέργαστο, ἐπεθύμησε Μασσαγέτας ὑπ’ ἑωυτῷ ποιήσασθαι. τὸ δὲ ἔθνος τοῦτο καὶ μέγα λέγεται εἶναι καὶ ἄλκιμον, οἰκημένον δὲ πρὸς ἠῶ τε καὶ ἡλίου ἀνατολάς, πέρην τοῦ Ἀράξεω ποταμοῦ, ἀντίον δὲ Ἰσσηδόνων ἀνδρῶν. εἰσὶ δὲ οἵτινες καὶ Σκυθικὸν λέγουσι τοῦτο τὸ ἔθνος εἶναι. Available at: <http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-grc1:1.201.1> “When Cyrus had conquered this nation, too, he wanted to subject the Massagetae. These are said to be a great and powerful people dwelling towards the Stripsnii / Articles 75 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK east and the sunrise, beyond the Araxes and opposite the Issedones; and some say that they are a Scythian people.” Available at: <http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.201.1> 202. ὁ δὲ Ἀράξης λέγεται καὶ μέζων καὶ ἐλάσσων εἶναι τοῦ Ἴστρου· νήσους δὲ ἐν αὐτῷ Λέσβῳ μεγέθεα παραπλησίας συχνὰς φασὶ εἶναι, ἐν δὲ αὐτῇ ἀνθρώπους οἳ σιτέονται μὲν ῥίζας τὸ θέρος ὀρύσσοντες παντοίας· καρποὺς δὲ ἀπὸ δενδρέων ἐξηυρημένους σφι ἐς τροφὴν κατατίθεσθαι ὡραίους, καὶ τούτους σιτέσθαι τὴν χειμερινήν. ὁ δὲ Ἀράξης λέγεται καὶ μέζων καὶ ἐλάσσων εἶναι τοῦ Ἴστρου· νήσους δὲ ἐν αὐτῷ Λέσβῳ μεγέθεα παραπλησίας συχνὰς φασὶ εἶναι, ἐν δὲ αὐτῇ ἀνθρώπους οἳ σιτέονται μὲν ῥίζας τὸ θέρος ὀρύσσοντες παντοίας· καρποὺς δὲ ἀπὸ δενδρέων ἐξηυρημένους σφι ἐς τροφὴν κατατίθεσθαι ὡραίους, καὶ τούτους σιτέσθαι τὴν χειμερινήν, ἄλλα δέ σφι ἐξηυρῆσθαι δένδρεα καρποὺς τοιούδε τινὰς φέροντα, τοὺς ἐπείτε ἂν ἐς τοῦτο συνέλθωσι κατὰ ἕλας καὶ πῦρ ἀνακαύσανται κύκλῳ περιζωμένοι ἐπιβάλλειν ἐπὶ τὸ πῦρ, ὀσφραινόμενους δὲ καταγιζομένου τοῦ καρποῦ τοῦ ἐπιβαλλομένου μεθύσκεσθαι τῇ ὀδμῇ κατὰ περ Ἕλληνας τῷ οἴνῳ πλέον δὲ ἐπιβαλλομένου τοῦ καρποῦ μᾶλλον μεθύσκεσθαι, ἐς ὃς ὀρχησίν τε ἀνίστασθαι καὶ ἐς ἀοιδὴν ἀπικνέεσθαι. τούτων μὲν αὕτη λέγεται δίαιτα εἶναι. ὁ δὲ Ἀράξης ποταμὸς ῥέει μὲν ἐκ Ματιηνῶν, ὅθεν περ ὁ Γύνδης τὸν ἐς τὰς διώρυχας τὰς ἐξήκοντά τε καὶ τριηκοσίας διέλαβε ὁ Κῦρος, στόμασι δὲ ἐξερεύγεται τεσσεράκοντα, τῶν τὰ πάντα πλὴν ἑνὸς ἐς ἕλεά τε καὶ τέναγε ἐκδιδοῖ· ἐν τοῖσι ἀνθρώπους κατοικῆσθαι λέγουσι ἰχθὺς ὠμοὺς σιτεομένους, ἐσθῆτι δὲ νομίζοντας χρᾶσθαι φωκέων δέρμασι. τὸ δὲ ἐν τῶν στομάτων τοῦ Ἀράξεω ῥέει διὰ καθαροῦ ἐς τὴν Κασπίν θάλασσαν. Available at: <http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-grc1:1.202> [accessed 01.11.2019]. The Araxes is said by some to be greater and by some to be less than the Ister. It is reported that there are many islands in it as big as Lesbos, and men on them who in summer live on roots of all kinds that they dig up, and in winter on fruit that they have got from trees when it was ripe and stored for food; and they know (it is said) of trees bearing a fruit whose effect is this: gathering in groups and kindling a fire, the people sit around it and throw the fruit into the flames; then the fumes of it as it burns make them drunk as the Greeks are with wine, and more and more drunk as more fruit is thrown on the fire, until at last they rise up to dance and even sing. Such is said to be their way of life. The Araxes flows from the country of the Matieni (as does the Gyndes, which Cyrus divided into the three hundred and sixty channels) and empties itself through forty 76 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe mouths, of which all except one issue into bogs and swamps, where men are said to live whose food is raw fish, and their customary dress sealskins. The one remaining stream of the Araxes flows in a clear channel into the Caspian sea.Araxes Available at: <http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.202.1> [accessed 01.1.2019]. Herodotus 1920: Histories, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Herodotus 4.123–124: 4.123.3 ὕπερ δὲ τῆς ἐρήμου θυσάμεται οἰκέουσι, ποταμοὶ δὲ ἐξ αὐτῶν τέσσερες μεγάλοι ῥέοντες διὰ Ματτην ἐκδίδουσι ἐς τὴν λίμνην τὴν καλεομένην Μαῖτιν, τοῖσι οὐνόματα κέεται τάδε, Λύκος Ὄαρος Τάναϊς Σύρις. Available at: <http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-grc1:4.123.3> [accessed 01.1.2019]. Beyond this desolation live the Thyssagetae; four great rivers flow from their country through the land of the Maeetians, and issue into the lake called the Maeetian; their names are Lycus, Oarus, Tanais, Syrgis. Available at: <http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-eng1:4.123.3> [accessed 01.1.2019]. 4.124.1. ἐπεὶ ὦν ὁ Δαρεῖος ἦλθε ἐς τὴν ἔρημον, παυσάμενος τοῦ δρόμου ἵδρυσε τὴν στρατιὴν ἐπὶ ποταμῷ Ὄαρω. τοῦτο δὲ ποιήσας ὀκτὼ τείχεα ἐτείχεε μεγάλα, ἴσον ἀπ’ ἀλλήλων ἀπέχοντα, σταδίους ὡς ἐξήκοντα μάλιστα κη· τῶν ἐπὶ ἐς ἐμὲ τὰ ἐρείπια σόα ἦν. Available at: <http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-grc1:4.124.1> [accessed 01.1.2019]. When Darius came into the desolate country, he halted in his pursuit and camped on the Oarus river, where he built eight great forts, the ruins of which were standing even in my lifetime, all at an equal distance of about seven miles from one another. Available at: <http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-eng1:4.124.1> [accessed 01.1.2019]. Herodotus 1920: The Histories, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Straipsniai / Articles 77 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Ptolemy, 6.14.1–4: Ἡ ἐντὸς Ἴμαου ὄρους Σκυθία περιορίζεται ἀπὸ μὲν δύσεως Σαρματία τῇ ἐν Ἀσίᾳ κατὰ τὴν ἐκτεθειμένην πλευράν, ἀπὸ δὲ ἄρκτων ἀγνώστῳ γῇ, ἀπὸ δὲ ἀνατολῶν τῷ πρὸς τὰς ἄρκτους ἀνιόντι Ἴμαῳ ὄρει κατὰ μεσημβρινήν πως γραμμὴν τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ εἰρημένου ὀρειτηρίου μέχρι τῆς ἀγνώστου γῆς __________________ εἰς ἐν ἀπὸ δὲ μεσημβρίας καὶ ἔτι ἀνατολῶν Σακαῖς μὲν καὶ Σογδιανοῖς καὶ Μαργιανῇ κατὰ τὰς ἐκτεθειμένας αὐτῶν γραμμὰς μέχρι τῶν τοῦ Ὤξου ποταμοῦ εἰς τὴν Ὑρκανίαν θάλασσαν ἐκβολῶν, ἔτι δὲ τῷ ἐντεῦθεν μέχρι τοῦ Ῥᾶ ποταμοῦ μέρει τῆς Ὑρκανίας θαλάσσης κατὰ περιγραφήν τοιαύτην. Ἡ δ’ ἐπιστροφή τοῦ Ῥᾶ ποταμοῦ, ἐν ᾗ τὸ ὅριον τῆς τε Σαρματίας καὶ τῆς Σκυθίας ___________· πε νδ μετὰ τὰς τοῦ Ῥᾶ ποταμοῦ ἐκβολάς, αἱ ἐπέχουσι μοίρας ________ ς μ η γ Πυμμαῖ ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαί ______. α μ η δ Δάϊκος ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαί ________ δ μ η δ Ἰαξάρτου ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαί ______ ς μ η Ἴασου ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαί _______. ε μ ζ Πολυμήτου ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαί __ ργ με _ Ἀσπαβότα πόλις ____________. β μ δ μεθ’ ἣν αἱ τοῦ Ὤξου ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαί. Scythia within the Imaus mountains is terminated on the west by the side of Asiatic Sarmatia, as we have said; on the north by Terra Incognita (unknown land); on the east alone by the Imaus mountains running toward the north along the meridian line which, as we have stated, extends to the Terra Incognita; on the south by eastern Sogdiana and Margiana and along their indicated boundary to the mouth of the Oxus river which flows into the Hyrcanian sea, and by a part of the Hyrcanian sea as far as the Rha river, a description of the coast of which is the following: Next to the mouth of the Rha river mouth of the Rymnus river 91 48 15 mouth of the Daix river 94 48 15 mouth of the Iaxartes river 97 48 mouth of the Istus river 100 47 20 mouth of the Polymetus river 103 45 30 Aspabota town 102 44 Next to this the mouth of the Oxus river 100 43 English translation by Edward Luther Stevenson (1932). 78 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe [Anonym] Geographiae expositio compendiaria (usually ascribed to Agatheres; 3rd cent. CE) § 29. Ἰάξατης μὲν καὶ Ὦξος καὶ Ῥύμμος καὶ Ῥᾶς καὶ Κῦρος καὶ Ἀράξης εἰς τὴν ἔντα θάλασσαν “Iaxates et Oxus et Rhymus et Rhas et Cyrus et Araxes Caspio mari miscentur.” Note: The editor made the conjecture `Ρᾶς for `Ρώς Geographi Graeci Minores, Vol. II, ed. by Karl Müller. Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1861, 502. Byzantine sources Zemarchus, c. 570 (mediated by Menander Protector, born around the middle of the 6th cent.) ὁ δὲ Ζήμαρχος κατὰ δὴ τὸ ψαμαθῶδες τῆς λίμνης παροδεύων ἐπὶ ἡμέρας δέκα καὶ δύο δυσβάτους τε τινας χώρους παραμειψάμενος ἐγένετο κατὰ τὰ ῥεῖθρα τοῦ Ἴχ, οὗ μὴ ἀλλὰ καὶ κατὰ τὸν Δαΐχ, καὶ διὰ λιμνῶν ἑτέρων αὖθις εἰς τὸν Ἄττιλαν “Zemarchus travelled along the sand shore for twelve days and when he had skirted some difficult terrain came to the river Ikh, then to the Daikh and, passing some other lakes, to the Atilas {river}.” Edited and translated by Blockley 1985: 124–125. Further see Moravcsik (1958: 78–79): Theophylactus Simocata (Θεοφύλακτος Σιμοκάτ(τ)ης: Historiae (written c. 630 about the end of the 6th cent.) 258.9: ὁ Τίλ ... ποταμός, ὃν Μέλανα Τοῦρκοι ἀποκαλεῖν <ἔθος> Theophanes Homologetes (†818), Chronicle (AD 284–813; about c. 680) 356.23: Ἄτελ ἐν τοῖς ἀρκτίοις περατικοῖς μέρεσι τοῦ Εὐξείνου πόντου, ἐν τῇ λεγομένῃ Μαϊώτιδι λίμνῃ, εἰς ἣν εἰσάγεται ποταμὸς μέγιστος ἀπὸ τοῦ ὠκεανοῦ καταφερόμενος διὰ τῆς τῶν Σαυμάτων γῆς, λεγόμενος Ἄτελ, εἰς ὃν εἰσάγεται ὁ λεγόμενος Τάναϊς ποταμὸς καὶ αὐτὸς ἀπὸ τῶν Ἰβηρίων πυλῶν ἐξερχόμενος τῶν ἐν τοῖς τοῖς Καυκασίοις ὄρεσιν, ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς μίξεως τοῦ Τάναϊ καὶ τοῦ Ἄτελ, (ἄνωθεν τῆς προλεχθείσης Μαϊώτιδος λίμνης σχιζομένου τοῦ Ἄτελ) ἔρχεται ὁ λεγόμενος Κοῦφις ποταμός, καὶ ἀποδίδει εἰς τὸ τέλος τῆς Ποντικῆς θαλάσσης πλησίον τῶν Νεκροπήλων εἰς τὸ ἄκρωμα τὸ λεγόμενον Κριοῦ Πρόσωπον. Stripsni / Articles 79 Václav Blažek “In northern parts of the Black Sea, by the lake called Maotis, in which empties a big river flowing from Ocean through the country of the Sarmatians, called Atel, in which empties the river named Tanais rising from the Iberian Gates in the Caucasian Mountains; from the confluence of the Tanais and Atel (above named lake Maotis, when the Atel is divided) a river called Kuphis flows and empties in the extremity of the Pontic Sea near Necropole by the cape, called Ram’s lip.” Byzantine geographic notices from the 8ᵗʰ cent. ὁ Ἀστήλ ἐν ᾧ λέγεται ὁ Ἀστήλ ὁ ποταμὸς τῆς Χαζαρίας, ἔστιν δὲ κάστρον “{Episcopate} Astil, it means Astil – the river in Khazaria, but there is also a fortress {of the same name}” (see Moravcsik 1958: 78). Seibt (2017: 301) mentions the variant record Ἀσταήλ of this episcopate according to one Parisian manuscript. Constantine Porphyrogenitus (Κωνσταντίνος Πορφυρογέννητος; AD 905–959): De Administrando Imperio (c. 50) 37.2–4: Ἰστέον, ὅτι οἱ Πατζινακῖται τὸ ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς εἰς τὸν ποταμὸν Ἀτήλ τὴν αὐτῶν εἶχον κατοίκησιν ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ εἰς τὸν ποταμὸν Γείχ, ἔχοντες τοὺς τε Χαζάρους συνοροῦντας καὶ τοὺς Οὔζους “Originally, the Pechenegs had their dwelling on the river Atil, and likewise on the river Geik, having common frontiers with the Chazars and so-called Uzes.” 38.30 εἰς τόπους ἐπονομαζομένους Ἀτελούζου, ἐν οἷς τόποις τὰ νῦν τὸ τῶν Πατζινακιτῶν ἔθνος κατοικεῖ “in places called Atelkouz, in which places the nation of Pechenegs now lives” 38.66–71 Ὅτι ὁ τῶν Πατζινακιτῶν τόπος, ἐν ᾧ τῷ τότε καιρῷ κατῴκησαν οἱ Τοῦρκοι, καλεῖται κατὰ τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν τῶν ἐκεῖσε ὄντων ποταμῶν. Οἱ δὲ ποταμοί εἰσιν οὗτοι· ποταμὸς πρῶτος ὁ καλούμενος Βαρούχ, ποταμὸς δεύτερος ὁ καλούμενος Κουβού, ποταμὸς τρίτος ὁ καλούμενος Τρούλλος, ποταμὸς τέταρτος ὁ καλούμενος Βρούτος, ποταμὸς πέμπτος ὁ καλούμενος Σέρετος. “The place of the Pechenegs, in which at that time the Turks lived, is called after the name of the local rivers. The rivers are these: the first river is that called Baroukh {Dniper}, the second river that called Kouou {Bug}, the third river that called Troullos {Dniester}, the fourth river that called Broutos {Prut}, the fifth river that called Seretos {Seret}.” 40.23–25 Ὁ δὲ τόπος, ἐν ᾧ πρότερον οἱ Τοῦρκοι ὑπῆρχον, ὀνομάζεται κατὰ τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν τοῦ ἐκεῖσε διερχομένου ποταμοῦ Ἔτελ καὶ Κουβού, ἐν ᾧ ἄρτιος οἱ Πατζινακῖται κατοικοῦσιν. 80 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe “The place in which the Turks (= Hungarians) used formerly to be is called after the name of the river that runs through it, Etel and Kouzou, and in it the Pechenegs live now.” Edited by Gy. Moravcsik; translated by R. J. H. Jenkins 1967: 166–179. Nicephorus Gregoras (1290/1–1360) 1.26.19-21 Ὠσός τις ἐστιν ἐς τὰ ἐπέκεινα τε καὶ βορειότερα τοῦ Ἴστρου κείμενος, καὶ ποταμὸς ῥέων δι’ αὐτοῦ οὐ μικρός· Βούλγαρ αὐτὸν ὀνομάζουσιν οἱ ἐγχώριοι· ἀφ’ οὗ δὴ καὶ αὐτοὶ τὸ τῶν Βουλγάρων μετείληφεσαν ὄνομα, Σκύθαι τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὄντες. “Trans Istrum versus Septentrionem locus est, quem fluvius non exiguus, ab incolis Bulga dictus, interfluit: unde et ipsi Bulgarorum nomen obtinuerunt, cum a prima origine Scythae essent.” Nicephori Gregorae Byzantina Historia, Graece et Latine, cum annotationes Hier. Wolfii, Car. Ducangii, Io. Boivini et Cl. Capperonnerii. Bon: Weber, 1829 (Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, editio emendatior et copiosior, consilio B.G. Niebuhr, Pars IX: Nicephorus Gregoras, Vol. I), 26. Available at: <https://ia800207.us.archive.org/31/items/byzantinahistor00bekgoog/byzantinahistor00bekgoog.pdf> [accessed 01.11.2019]. Young Avestan witness Avestan Raŋhā- ‘a mythical river’ (Bartholomae 1904: 1510–1511) ym bariti Karō masiō upā yō Raŋhaiiā dūrāeparāiia. jafraiia hazarō vīraia varəsō.stauuaŋhəm apō uruaesəm maraiiete “die der im Wasser lebende Fisch Kara besitzt, der einen haarbreiten Wasserwirbel der fernbegrenzten tiefen, tausend Männer(großen) tiefen Raŋhā bemerkt” [Yt. 14.29]. təm yazata yōišō yō friianąm paiti pəduuaēpā Raŋhaiiā. satəm aspanəm aršnəm hazarəm gauuəm baēuuarə anumiiąm “Ihr opferte Yōišta, der (aus der Familie) der Fryana’s, auf der umbrandeten Insel der Raŋhā hundert männliche Pferde, tausend Rinder, zehntausend Schafe” [Yt. 5.81]. xšuuāš.kasəm asahəmca šōiθranəmca | vahištəm frāβərəsəm azəm yō ahurō mazdā | upa aoδešu Raŋhaiiā | yō. asarō. aibiiaxšaienti: Stripsnai / Articles 81 Václav Blažek “Als den sechzehnten der Orte und Stätten schuf Ich, der Ahura Mazdāh, (das Land) upa aodāešu Rahaiiā (= an den Quellen der Rahā), wo die wohnen, (die) keinen Oberherrn haben” [Vd. 1.19]. yațcīt ahi rašnuō āšam upa aodāešu raha iiā yațcīt ahi rašnuō āšam upa sanke raha iiā “Auch wenn du dich, o seliger Rānu, an der Quelle der Rahā befindest, wir rufen an .. Auch wenn du dich, o seliger Rānu, an der Mündung der Rahā befindest, wir rufen an” [Yt. 12.18–19]. yațcīt sanke raha iiā yațcīt ūmaidīm aihā zəmō “auch wenn (Mithra) an der Mündung der Rahā auch wenn (er) im Mittelpunkt der Erde hier (wäre)” [Yt. 10.104]. təm yazata naire.māṇ kərəsāspō upa guδəm apəžarəm Ranhaiiā mazdātaiiā. “Ihm opferte der heldensinnige Kərəsāpa an der Guδa, dem Arm der mazähgeschenen Ranhā” [Yt. 15.27]. Aduiš ūre āhite | mōšu mē javca auuahe | nūram mē bara upastaṇ hazərəm tē azəm zaoθraṇ | haomauuaitiṇəm gaomauuaitiṇəm | yaoždātəm pairihaštāṇəm | bārani | oi āpəm yəm Rahəm | yezi jun frapaiēni | oi zəm ahuraδātəm | oi nūnan yim xᵛēpaθəm “O gewaltige makellose Arəδvī! Eil mir rasch zu Hilfe, bring mir jetzt Unterstützung! Ich, will dir tausend haomahaltige, milchhaltige, in gehörigen Stand gesetzte, durchseihte Zaδra’s bei dem Wasser Rahā (dar)bringen, wenn ich lebend zu der ahurageschaffenen Erde hingehe (und) zu meinem Haus” [Yt. 5.63]. Available at: <http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/iran/iran/avesta/avest.htm> German translation by Wolff 1910. Vedic witness I.12.12 yā́bʰiḥ rasā́m kṣódasā udnā́ pinvat́ uḥ anasvám yā́bʰiḥ rāt́ am āvatam iṣé yā́bʰiḥ triṣókaḥ usriyā́h údīyata tá́bʰiḥ u sū́ utíbʰiḥ áśvinā ā́ gatam 82 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe Ja: “Those with which you swelled the Rasā (River) with a gush of water, with which you helped the horseless chariot to victory, with which Triśoka drove up ruddy cows for himself – with those forms of help come here, O Aśvins.” Gr: “Wherewith ye made Rasā swell full with water-floods, and urged to victory the car without a horse; Wherewith Triśoka drove forth his recovered cows,—Come hither unto us, O Aśvins, with those aids.” Ge: “Durch die ihr die Rasā mit Wassers Flut angeschwellt habt, mit denen ihr den Wagen ohne Roß zum Sieg verhalf, durch die Triśoka die Kühe heraustrieb, mit diesen Hilfen kommt doch ja her, ihr Aśvin!” IV.43.6. sindhūḥ ha vām rasāyā sincad áśvān ghṛṇāḥ! vāya aruṣāsa pari gman tā ū sū vām ajiram ceti yānam yena pāti bṛhávātah sūryāḥ Ja: “The Sindhu River sprinkles your horses with the Rasā; your ruddy birds avoid the glowing heat. Your speedy vehicle has just appeared, with which you two become the masters [/husbands] of Sūryā.” Gr: “Let Sindhu with his wave bedew your horses: in fiery glow have the red birds come hither. Observed of all was that you rapid going, whereby ye were the Lords of Sūryā’s Daughter.” Ge: “Sindhu mit der Rasā benetzte eure Pferde; die rötlichen Vogelrosse entgingen den Gluten. Diese eure schnelle Fahrt machte fein Aufsehen, durch die ihr die Gatten der Sūryā werdet.” V.41.15 padé-pade me jaramāṇi dhāyai vārtrī vā śakrā yā pāyubhiḥ ca śak tu mātā mahī rasā naḥ smat surbhih juhāsta juvanih Ja: “Step after step old age has been secured for me, either (by her) who is the able Shielding Goddess or by the protectors. Let the mother, the great Rasā, accompany us along with our patrons, she with hands outstretched, with winnings outstretched.” Gr: “Duly to each one hath my laud been offered. Strong be Varātrī with her powers to succour. May the great Mother Rasā here befriend us, straight-handed, with the prizes, striving forward.” Ge: “Auf Schritt und Tritt sei mir das Alter sichergestellt, sei es durch die mächtige Vatrī und durch die Schutzgeister. Es sollen uns samt den Lohnherren die große Mutter Rasā zur Seite stehen, die eine redliche Hand hat, die reichen Gewinn bringt.” Straipsniai / Articles 83 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK V.53.9. mā vaḥ rasā anitabʰā kubʰā kr̥muḥ mā vaḥ sindʰuḥ ni rīramat mā vaḥ pāri stʰāt sarayuḥ puriṣiṇī asmē it sunnām astu vaḥ Ja: “Let not the Rasā {River}, the Anitabhā, the Kubhā, the Krumu, let not the Sindhu bring you to a halt. Let not the overflowing Sarayu hem you around. On us alone let your favour be.” Gr: “So let not Rasā, Krumu, or Anitabhā, Kubhā, or Sindhu hold you back. Let not the waters Sarati obstruct your way. With us be all the bliss ye give.” Ge: “Nicht soll euch die Rasā, Anitabhā, Kubhā, Krumu, nicht euch die Sindhu aufhalten, noch euch die quellenreiche Sarayu im Wege stehen. Bei uns soll eure Huld sein.” VII.72.13. ā suté siñcata śriyam rodasyoḥ abʰiśriyam rasā dadʰīta vr̥sabʰām Ja: “Into the pressed soma pour glory {= milk}, the full glory of the two world-halves. The Rasā (River {= water} should receive the bull.” Ge: “Gieße die Herrlichkeit in den ausgepreßten Saft, die beiden Welten übertrahlt! Den Bullen soll die Rasā annehmen!” IX.41.6. pári naḥ sarmayāntā dʰārā soma viśvataḥ | sāra rasā́ iva viṣṭapam Ja: “O Soma, flow for us in, protecting stream all around on all sides, like {the heavenly river} Rasā, along the upper surface {of the filter}.” Gr: “On every side, O Soma, flow round us with thy protecting stream, As Rasā flows around the world.” Ge: “Fließe für uns in schützendem Strome, o Soma, ringsum wie die Rasā um die Erderhöhung!” X.75.6 tr̥ṣṭāmayā pratʰamā yatave sajūḥ susartvā rasayā śvetāyā tvām sindʰo kubʰayā gomatiṃ kr̥mum mehanvā saratʰam yábʰiḥ iyase Ja: “To travel first joined with the Tr̥ṣṭā, {then} with the Susartū, the Rasā, and this Śvetā, you, o Sindhu, {come} with the Kubhā to the Gomati, with the Mehatn to the Krumu, on the same chariot {with all these}, with which you go speeding.” 84 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe Gr: “First with Tṛstāma thou art eager to flow forth, with Rasā, and Susartū, and with Śvetā here, With Kubhā; and with these, Sindhu and Mehatnū, thou seekest in thy course Krumu and Gomati.” Ge: “Zuerst mit der Trstama zum Laufe vereint, mit Susartū, Rasā, mit dieser Svetā kommst du, Sindhu, mit der Kubhā zur Gomati, mit der Mehatnū zur Krumu, mit denen du auf gleichem Wagen dahinziehst.” X. 108.1–2 kím ich ánti saramá prá idám ánat dúré hí ádh vā jagurih parācáḥ kā asméhitih kā pártakmyā ásit kathām asāyā atarah pāyamsi índrasya dútih iśā carāmi maháś ich ánti panáyah nidh vah atiśadabh iyāsā tát nah ávat tāthā asāyā ataram pāyamsi Ja: [Pani] “Seeking what has Saramā arrived here, for far is the road, swal- lowing up (the traveler) in the distance? What is your mission to us? What was the final turn (bringing you here)? How did you cross the waters of the Rasā?” [Saramā] “Sent as the messenger of Indra I travel, seeking your great hidden treasuries, Paṇis. With a fear of leaping across – that helped us! – in that way I crossed the waters of the Rasā.” Gr: “What wish of Saramā hath brought her hither? The path leads far away to distant places. What charge hast thou for us? Where turns thy journey? How hast thou made thy way o’er Rasā’s waters.” “I come appointed messenger of Indra, seeking your ample stores of wealth, O Paṇis. This hath preserved me from the fear of crossing: thus have I made my way o’er Rasā’s waters.” Ge: “Mit welchem Ansuchen ist Sarama hierher gekommen? Der Weg so weit in die Ferne ist ja aufreibend. Was bedeutet die Sendung zu uns? Welches war der entscheidende Wendepunkt? Wie kamst du über die Fluten der Rasa?” “Als Indras Botin komme ich absandte, eure großen Schätze suchend, ihr Panis. Aus Furcht vor dem Überspringen half sie uns dabei. So kam ich durch die Fluten der Rasa.” X. 121.4. yásya imé himávantaḥ mahitvā yásya samudráṃ rasáyā sahá āhuḥ yásya imāḥ pradíśaḥ yásya bāhū kásmai devāya haviṣā vidhema Ja: “Whose are these snow-covered mountains (= the Himalayas) in their greatness; whose is the sea together with the world-stream, they say; whose are these directions, whose (their) two arms (= the zenith and nadir?) – Who is the god to whom we should do homage with our oblation?” Stripsnai / Articles 85 Václav Blažek Gr: “His, through his might, are these snow-covered mountains, and men call sea and Rašā his possession: His arms are these, his are these heavenly regions. What God shall we adore with our oblation?” Ge: “Durch desen Macht jene Schneeberge sind, durch desen Macht, wie sie sagen, der Ozean samt der Ra ist, durch desen Macht diese Himmelsgegenden desen beide Arme sie sind. – Wer ist der Got, dem wir mit Opfer dienen sollen?” Available at: <http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/ind/ind/ved/rv/mt/rv.htm> Translations: Ja = Jamison & Brereton 2013; Gr = Grith 189[1987]; Ge = Geldner 1951. Note: The abbreviations without special explanations, namely the parts of Avesta or dialects of the Uralic languages, follow standardly the abbreviations used in the quoted sources. BIBLIOGRAPHY Aalto Pentti 1976[79]: Kara-kala, le poison. – Études Finno-Ougriennes 13, 29–38. Abaev Vasili I. 1949: Osetinskij jazyk i fol’klor I. Moskva–Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSR. Abaev Vasili I. 1958–1973–1978–1989–1995: Istoriko-ètimologičeskij slovar ossetinskogo jazyka I–V. (Moskva)–Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSR. Abel-Rémusat M. 1820: Recherches sur les langues tartares, ou Mémoires sur differens points de la grammaire et de la littérature des Mandchous, des Mongols, des Ouigours et des Tibétains. Paris: Imprimerie Royale. Adams Douglas Q. 2013: A Dictionary of Tocharian B (Revised and Greatly Enlarged) 1–2. Amsterdam–New York: Rodopi. Aufrecht Theodor 1955: Die Hymnen des Rigveda. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Axmetjanov R. G. (Әхмәтьянов Р. Г.) 2001: Татар теленең кыскача тарихи-этимологик сүзлеге. Казан: Тат. кит. Нәшр Bailey Harold W. 1979: Dictionary of Khotan Saka. Cambridge: University Press. Barthélemae Christian 1890: Review of Shader 1890. – Wochenschrift für klassische Philologie 7, 1105–1110. 86 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe Bartholomae Christian 1904: Altiranisches Wörterbuch. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Bereczki Gábor 1992: Grundzüge der Tscheremissischen Sprachgeschichte II. Szeged: Studia uralo-altaica, 34. Bereczki Gábor 2013: Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Tscheremissischen (Mari). Der einheimische Wortschatz, Nach dem Tode des Verfassers herausgeben von Klára Agyagási und Eberhard Winkler. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Blažek Václav 2012: Was the a Volgaic unity within Finno-Uric? – Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen 61, 29–91. Blažek Václav 2013: Northern Europe and Russia: Uralic migrations. – The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration I, ed. by Immanuel Ness & Peter Bellwood. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 178–183. Blažek Václav 2015: A Long Way to “far”: Tocharian A lo, B lau and A lok, B lauke adv. “(a)far (off; away” in perspective of the Indo-European etymon “long”. – Journal of Indo-European Studies 43(1–2), 57–80. Blažek Václav 2016a: Hydronymia Řgedica. – Linguistica Brunensia 64(2), 7–54. Blažek Václav 2016b: On the classification of the Samoyed languages. – Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen 63, 79–125. Blažek Václav & Schwarz Michal 2017: Early Indo-Europeans in Central Asia and China. Cultural relations as reflected in language. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Neue Folge, Band 13. Böhtling Otto 1851: Die Sprache der Jakuten, Theil 2: Jakutisch-deutsches Wörterbuch. St. Petersburg: Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften. Bongard-Levin G. M. & Grantovskij E. A. 1983: Ot Skifii do Indii. Moskva: Mysl’. Cabolov Ruslan L. 2001–2010: Ėtimologičeskij slovar’ kurdskogo jazyka I–II. Moskva: Vostočnaja literatura. Cincius Vera I. (ed.) 1975–1977: Sravnitel’nyj slovar’ tunguso-man’čžurskix jazykov I–II. Leningrad: Nauka. Clauson sir Gerard 1972: An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Collinder Björn 1960: Comparative Grammar of the Uralic Languages. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. Constantine Porphyrogenitus 1967: De administrando imperio, ed. by Gyula Moravcsik, translated by R. J. H. Jenkins. Dumbarton: Center for Byzantine Studies. Straipsniai / Articles 87 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Cf. Available at: <https://epf.pub/de-administrando-imperio.html> [accessed 01.11.2019]. Eilers Wilhem & Mayrhofer Manfred 1960: Namenkundliche Zeugnisse der indischen Wanderung? Eine Nachprüfung. – Sprache 6, 107–134. ERS – Ėrjansko-russkij slovarʹ, ed. by M. N. Koljadenkov & N. F. Cyganov. Moskva: Gosudarstvennoe izdatelʹstvo inostrannyx i nacionalʹnyx slovarej, 1949. ESIJ – Ėtimologičeskij slovarʹ iranskix jazykov I–IV, by V. S. Rastorgueva (I–III) & Dž. I. Ėdelʹman (I–IV). Moskva: Vostočnaja literatura, 2000–2011. ESTJ – Ėtimologičeskij slovarʹ tjurkskix jazykov 1 (glavnye), 2 (B), 3 (V, G, D) by Ė. V. Sevortjan. Moskva: Nauka, 1974, 1978, 1980; 4 (Ď, Ž, Z) by Ė. V. Sevortjan & L. S. Levitskaja. Moskva: Nauka, 1989; 5 (K, Q). Moskva: Jazyki russkoj kulʹtury, 1997 & 6 (K) by L. S. Levitskaja, A. V. Dybo, V. I. Rassadin. Moskva: Indrik, 2000; 7 (L, M, N, P, S) by L. S. Levitskaja, G. F. Blagova, A. V. Dybo, D. M. Nasilov. Moskva: Institut jazykoznanija RAN, 2003. EWAI – Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen I–II, by Manfred Mayrhofer. Heidelberg: Winter, 1986. EWU – Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Ungarischen I–II, ed. by Loránd Benkő. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1994. Gaster M. 1891: The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, or the Hebrew Bible Historie. London: Royal Asiatic Society. Geldner Karl Friedrich 1951: Der Rig-Veda aus dem Sanskrit ins Deutsche übersetzt (3 vols.). London and Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Available at: <http://www.sanskritweb.net/rigveda/rigveda.pdf> [accessed 01.11.2019]. Gimbutas Marija 1963a: Ancient Baltic Lands. – International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics 6, 65–102. Gimbutas Marija 1963b: The Balts. London: Hudson & Thames. Gombocz Zoltán 1917: A magyar őshaza és a nemzeti hagyomány. – Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 45, 129–194. Griffith Ralph T. H. 1884[2002]: Hymns of the Atharvaveda I–II. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal. Griffith Ralph T. H. 1889[1987]: Hymns of the Ṛgveda I–II. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal. Hausig J. 1953: Theophylakts Exkurs über die skythischen Völker. – Byzantion 23, 275–462. 88 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe Helimski Eugene 2000: On probate Tungus-Manchurian origin of the Byla inscription from Nagy-Szentmiklós. – Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia 5, 43–56. Helimski Eugene 2004: Die Sprache(n) der Awaren: Die manschu-tungusische Alternative. – Procedings of the First International Conference on Manchu-Tungus Studies (Bonn, VIII–IX, 2000), Vol. 2: Trends in Tungusic and Siberian Linguistics, ed. C. Näher. Wiesbaden (Tunguso-Sibirica 9), 59–72. Hermann Albert 1937: Oars. – Pauls Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, neue bearbeitung von Georg Wissowa und Wilhelm Kroll, 34. Halbband. Stuttgart: Druckenmüller, cc. 1680–1681. Hirth Friedrich 1895: Nachwort zur Inschrift des Tonjuk. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Ost-Türken im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert nach chinesischen Quellen. – Die Alttürkische Inschriften der Mongolei von Wilhelm Radloff. St. Petersburg: Académie imperiale des sciences, 1–140. Honko Lauri et al. 1993: The Great Bear. A Thematic Anthology of Oral Poetry in the Finno-Ugrian Languages. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. Honti László 1982: Geschichte des ugrischen Vokalismus der erste Silbe. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. Horn Paul 1893: Grundriss der neupersischen Etymologie. Strassburg: Trübner. Humbach Helmut, in collaboration with Josef Elfenbein & Prods O. Skjærvø 1991: The Gāthās of Zarathustra and the Other Old Avestan Texts. Heidelberg: Winter. Jacobsohn Hermann 1922: Arier und Ugrofinen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Jamison Stephanie & Brenton Joel P. 2014: The Rigveda. The Earliest Religious Poetry of India Vol. I–III. Oxford: University Press. Joki Aulis J. 1973: Uralier und Indogermanen. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura (Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 151). Keresztes László 1986: Geschichte des mordwinischen Konsonantismus. II: Etymologisches Belegmaterial. Szeged: Studia uralo-altaica, 26. KESK – Kratkj etimologičeskij slovar’ komi jazyka, by Vasilij I. Litkin & Evgenij I. Guljaev. Moskva: Nauka, 190. KEWA – Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch I–IV, by Mannfred Mayrhofer. Heidelberg: Winter, 1956f. Kiepert Heinrich 1878: Lehrbuch der alten Geographie. Berlin: Reimer. Straipsniai / Articles 89 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Klaproth Julius 1826: Tableaux historiques de l’Asie, depuis la monarchie de Cyrus jusqu’à nos jours; accompagnés de recherches historiques et ethnographiques sur cette partie du monde. Paris: Schubart. Klimov Georgij A. & Xailov Magiz Š. 2003: Slovar kavkazskix jazykov. Sopostalenie osnovnoj leksiki. Moskva: Vostočnaja literatura, RAN. Korenchy Éva 1972: Iranische Lehnwörter in den ugrischen Sprachen. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. Krahe Hans 1964: Unsere ältesten Flussnamen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Kretschmer Paul 1927: Weiteres zur Urgeschichte der Ind. – Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der Indogermanischen Sprachen 55, 75–103. Kuhn Ernst 1887: Miszellen. – Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 28, 214–216. de Lagarde Paul 1866: Gesammelte Abhandlungen. Leipzig: Brockhaus. de Lagarde Paul 1868: Beiträge zur batrischen Lexikographie. Leipzig: Teubner. Lehtiranta Juhani 1989: Yhteis-saamelainen sanasto. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen Seura (Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 200). Lewy Ernst 1937: Merja und Tscherewisen. – Ungarische Jahrbücher 16, 79–81. Available at: <http://real-j.mtak.hu/7008/1/MTA_UngarischeJahrbücher_16.pdf> [accessed 01.11.2019]. Lytkin Vasilij I. & Guljaev Evgenij S. 1970: Kratkij etimologičeskij slovar komi jazyka. Moskva: Nauka. Macdonell A. A. 191: Vedic Mythology. Delhi–Varanasi: Indological Book House. Markwart Josef 1929: Kultur- und sprachgeschichtliche Analekten. – Ungarische Jahrbücher 9, 68–103. Available at: <http://real-j.mtak.hu/7008/1/MTA_Ungarische-Jahrbücher_9.pdf> [accessed 01.11.2019]. Marquart Josef 1903: Studien zur Geschichte des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts (ca. 840–940). Leipzig: Dietrich. ME – Mühlenbach K. & Endzelin J. 1929–1932: Lettisch-deutsches Wörterbuch IV. Band. Riga: Herausgegeben vom lettischen Kulturfonds. Menander 1985: The history of Menander the Guardsman. Introductory essay, text, translation, and historiographical notes R.C. Blockley. Liverpool: Cairns. Menges Karl H. 1944–1945: Etymological notes on some Päčäg names. – Byzantion 17, 256–280. 90 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe Mikkola J, J. 1929: Der name Wolga. – Finnisch-ugrische Forschungen 20, 125–128. Available at: <http://fennougrica.kansalliskirjasto.fi/handle/10024/9295> [accessed 01.11.2019]. Montgomery James E. 2000: Ibn Faḍlān and the Rūsiyah. – Journal of Arabic & Islamic Studies 3, 1–25. Available at:<http://www.unm.edu/~doug/montgomery.ibn-fadlan.2000.pdf> [accessed 01.11.2019]. Moravcsik Gyula 1958: Byzantinoturcica II: Sprachreste der Türkvölker in den byzantinischen Quellen. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. Morgenstierne Georg 1974: Etymological Vocabulary of the Shughni Group. Wiesbaden: Reichert. Müllenhoff Karl 1906: Die Nord- und Ostnachbarn der Germanen. – Deutsche Altertumskunde II, 1–416. Munkácsi Bernát 1910: Review of Arische U rzeit von Hermann Brunnhofer (Bern: Francke 1910). – Keleti Szemle 11, 150–158. Munkácsi Bernát & Kálmán Béla, ed., 1986: Wogulisches Wörterbuch. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. MW – Monier-Williams Sir Monier 1899 (reprint 1993): A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas. NED – A Northern Caucasian Etymological Dictionary, Sergei L. Nikolayev & Sergei A. Starostin. Moscow: Asterisk Publishers, 1994. Nobe C. F. A. 1966: Claudi Ptolemaei Geographia. Hildesheim: Olms. Nyberg Henrik S. 1974: A Manual of Pahlavi Vol. II. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Olsen Birgit A. 1999: The Noun in Biblical Armenian Origin and Word-Formation – with special emphasis on the Indo-European heritage. Berlin–New York: de Gruyter Mouton (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 119). Paasonen Heikki (Henrik) 1897: Indogermän eredetű-e a Volga folyónak régebbi ismeretes mordvin neve? – Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 27, 121–123. Paasonen Heikki 1926: Ostjakisches Wörterbuch (nach den Dialekten an der Konda und am Jugan), ed. Kai Donner. Helsingfors: Société Finno-Ougrienne (Lexica Societatis Fenno-Ugricae II). Paasonen Heikki 1948: Ost-Tscheremissisches Wörterbuch, ed. P. Siro. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura (Lexica Societatis Fenno-Ugricae XI). Pellioi Paul 1923: Les Mongols et la papauté. – Revue de l’Orient chrétien 23, 3–30. Straipsniai / Articles 91 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Pokorny Julius 1959: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Bern–München: Francke. Pritsak Omeljan 1954: Ein hunnisches Wort. – Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 104(1), 124–135. Pritsak Omeljan 1956: Der Titel Atila. – Festschrift für Max Vasmer, ed. by Margarete Woltner & Herbert Bräuer. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 404–419. Pritsak Omeljan 1982: The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan. – Harvard Ukrainian Studies VI(4), 428–476. Ptolemäus 1990: Cosmographia. Das Weltbild der Antike. Stuttgart: Parkland. Ptolemaeus Claudius 1998: Geography, book 6: Middle East, Central and North Asia, China, eds. Humbach Helmut & Ziegler Susanne. Wiesbaden: Reichert. Ptolemy Claudius 1932 (repr. 1991): The Geography by Claudius Ptolemy, translated and edited by Edward Luther Stevenson. New York: The New York Public Library. Available at: <http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/reference/ptolemy/index.htm> [accessed 01.11.2019]; <http://bedrosian.com/Classic/Ptol/ptoltoc.html> [accessed 01.11.2019]. Radloff Wilhelm (Radlov Vasilij V.) 1893: Versuch eines Wörterbuches der Türk-Dialecte 1. Band. St. Petersburg: Commissionaires de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences. Ramstedt Gustav J. 1935: kalmückisches Wörterbuch. Helsinki: Lexica Societatis Fenno-Ugricae, 111. Räsänen Martti 1969: Versuch eines etymologischen Wörterbuchs der Türksprachen. Helsinki: Lexica Societatis Fenno-Ugricae, XVII.1. Rédei Károly 1986: Zu den indogermanisch-uralischen Sprachkontakten. Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Sitzungsberichte, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Bd. 468). Rozwadowski Jan 1913: Kilka uwag do przedhistorycznych stosunków wschodniej Europy i praojczyzny indoeuropejskiej na podstawie nazw wód. – Rocznik slawistyczny 6, 39–73. Rozwadowski Jan 1948: Studia nad nazwami wód słowiańskich. Kraków: Polska Akademia umiejętności (Prace onomastyczne Nr. 1). Sammallahti Pekka 2001: The Indo-European Loanwords in Sami. – Early Contacts between Uralic and Indo-European: linguistic and Archaeological Considerations, eds. 92 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe Christian Carpelan, Asko Parpola & Petteri Koskikallio. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen seura (Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 242), 397–415. Schlözer August Ludwig von 1771: Allgemeine nordische Geschichte aus den besten nord. Schriftstellern und eigenen Untersuchungen beschrieben & als eine geogr. & histor. Einleitung zur richtigen Kenntniß aller Skandinavien... Völker in alten & mittleren Zeiten. Halle. Schrader Otto 1890: Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte 2. Jena: Costenoble. Schramm Gottfried 1973: Nordpontische Ströme. Namenphilologische Zugänge zur Frühzeit des europäischen Ostens. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Seit W. [Zaj[t] V.] 2017: Iako, mitropolit Gotii, i ego pečat’ (XIV v.). Materialy po arxeologii, istorii i etnografii Tavrii, vypusk 22, 299–305. Sertjan Ervand V. 1974–1980: Ėtimologičeskij slovar’ tjurkskix jazykov I–III. Moskva: Nauka. Sinor Denis 1964: Yul. – Studia Orientalia (Helsinki) 28(7), 1–8. SKES – Suomen kielen etymologinen sanakirja, ed. Y. H. Toivonen et al. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen seura, 1955f. Starostin Georgij S. 2015: K istokam jazykov raznoobrazi͡a. Desyat’ bes o sravni-tel’no-istoričeskom jazykoznanii. Moskva: Izdatel’kij dom Delo. Steblin-Kamenskij Ivan M. 1999: Ėtimologičeskij slovar’ vaxskogo jazyka. Sankt-Peterburg: Sankt-Peterburgskij Gosudarstvennyj universitet. Strabonis Geographica recognit A. Meineke. Lipsiae: Teubner, 1907. Šafarik Pavel Josef 1837: Slowanské starožitnosti. Oddíl dějepný. Praha: Spurný. Tereškin Nikolaj I. 1981: Slovar’ vostočno-xantyjskix dialektov. Leningrad: Nauka. Toivonen Y. H. 1933: Kleiner Beitrag zur Geschichte der finnisch-ugrischen Sib-anten. – Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 67, 377–384. Tomaschek Wilhelm 1888: Ueber das Arimaspische Gedicht des Aristeas. – Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 116, 715–780. Tomaschek Wilhelm 1889: Kritik der ältesten Nachrichten über den skythischen Norden II: Die Nachrichten Herodots über den skythischen Karawanenweg nach Innerasien. Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 117, Abh. Nr. I, 1–70. Stripsnai / Articles 93 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Tomaschek Wilhelm 1895: Araxes. – Pauly Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft 2.1. Stuttgart: Metzler, cc. 403–404. Toporov Vladimir N. 1980: Prusskij jazyk. Slovar (I–K). Moskva: Nauka. Toporov Vladimir N. 1981: Ob iranskom vlijanii v mifologii narodov Sibiri i Central'noj Azii (1–2). – Kavkaz i Srednjaja Azija v drevnosti i srednevekoje (istorija i kultura). Moskva: Nauka, 146–162. Turner Ralph L. 1966: A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages. London: Oxford University Press. UEW – Uralisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, ed. Károly Rédei et al. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1986–1988. Vanagas Aleksandras 1981: Lietuvių hidronimų etimologinis žodynas. Vilnius: Mokslas. Vasmer Max 1923: Untersuchungen über die ältesten Wohnsitze der Slaven I: Die Iranien in Südrussland. Leipzig: Markert & Peters. Vasmer Max 1986–1987: Etimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka I–IV, translated in Russian by Oleg N. Trubačev. Moskva: Progress. Wichmann Yrjö 1953: Tscheremissische Texte mit Wörterverzeichnis und grammatischem Abriss. Turku: Turun suomalai ja kirjapaino osakeyhtiö. Wichmann Yrjö 1987: Wotjakischer Wortschatz, bearbeitet von T. E. Uotila & Mikko Korhonen. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura / Lexica Societatis Fenno-Ugricae XI. Wolff Fritz 1910: Avesta. Die heiligen Bücher der Parsen. Strassburg: Trübner. Xelimskiĭ Evgeniĭ 2000: Jzyk(i) avarov: tunguso-man'čžurskiĭ aspekt. – Folia Orientalia 36, 135–148. Xelimskiĭ Evgeniĭ 2003: Tunguso-man'čžurskiĭ jazykovyj komponent v Avarskom kaganate i slavjanskaja etimologija. – Zbornik povzetkov 13. Mednarodni slavistični kongres (Ljubljana, VII, 2003), I. del: Jezikoslovje, ed. F. Novak. Ljubljana, 140–141. Zeuss Kaspar 1837: Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme. München: Lentner. Acknowledgement The article was prepared under the auspice of the research Fund of Masaryk University, Nr. 287. I am grateful to John Bengtson for his correction of English. 94 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI Volga – the First River of Europe Volga – pirmoji Europos upė SANTRAUKA Šiame tyrime apibendrinami visi Volgos upės pavadinimai, kurie, kai įmanoma, yra aprašomi platesniame pirminių tekstų, pateiktų prie, kontekste. Taip pat straipsnyje tiriamos ir aptariamos esamos etimologijos bei nurodomos naujos etimologijos, kai senosios atrodo nepakankamai įtikinamos. Volga yra ilgiausia Europos upė (ilgis – 3534 km (prieš užtvankų sistemą ji buvo 3693 km) su didžiausiu baseinu (1 380 000 km²), vakariausia ir didžiausia Eurazijos upė bei didžiausia endorinė upė pasaulyje. Tokiems ilgiems upėms būdinga, kad jos įvairiomis kalbomis vadinamos keliais pavadinimais: septyni hidronimai (Ἀράξης, *As(a)tEl, Jul, Λύγος, Rav(o), Ὄαρος, Volga), išdėstyti abėcėlės tvarka, yra išsamiai išanalizuojami tiek etimologiniu, tiek semantinės motyvacijos požiūriais. Nors šių hidronimų etimologijos yra dažnai nesuderinamos, įvertinus jų semantinę motyvaciją, jos gali būti suskirstytos į dvi grupes. Pirmą grupę sudaro visiškai hidroniminiai vardai, pagrįsti reikšmėmis, susijusiomis su „vandeniu“, t. y. „vanduo“, toliau „upė“, „(upės) slėnis“, „srovė (tėkmė)“, „potvynis“, „drėgmė“, „ežeras“, „jūra“. Antroji grupė apima terminus, apibūdinančius upę ar krantus, būtent: „platus“, „ilgas“, „išlenktas“, „be medžių“, „nekenksmingas“, „baltas / šviesus“, „juodas / tamsus“. Akivaizdu, kad pirmoji semantinė grupė yra tiesiogiai susijusi su vandeniu ir turėtų būti svarbesnė. Keliems etnonimams skirtinguose varduose pasikartojanti semantinė motyvacija atrodo yra perspektyvesnė nei pavieniai paaiškinimai. Tai senovės rusų Volga < bendrinės slavų *vьlga „drėgmė“ sutampa su iranėčių, greičiausiai skitų, *rahā-, kurio reikšmė „drėgnė“ gali būti rekonstruojama pagal vedų [RV] rasā- (vyriškos giminės rasā- „augalų sultys ar sula, vaisių sultys, bet koks skystis ar skystis, drėgmė, esme, čiulpai“ moteriškos giminės forma). Trečiąjį atitikmenį būtų galima identifikuoti hipotetiniame tiurkų junginyje *ast-(h)ōl „apatinis drenumas“. Tikėtina, kad tai apibūdino Volgos deltą. Kyla pagrįsta išvada, kad slavų ir galbūt tiurkų hidronimai kilo iš iranėčių kalbos. Remiantis senoviniais tekstais, prieinama prie išvados, kad Volga galėjo žymėti rytinę indoeuropiečių tarmės kontinuumo ribą, kuri pirmiausia kito tik toliau protėviai, galbūt pirmoje 4-ojo tūkstantmečio prieš Kristų pusėje. Tokiu atveju atrodytų natūralu, kad tokios galingos upės vardas, kuri yra svarbi orientavimuisi, laivybai, krovinų gabenimui ir žvejybai, buvo išlaikytas ilgą laiką. Kai šios upės krantuose apsigyveno naujų tautų, teisių pirmenybę, kvaizonominiškiems vardams, pradėtos naujai interpretuoti šių vardų reikšmės. Šalia ilgiausios vardų grandinės – tocharų B waike „ilgas“ → vengrų völgy „upės slėnis“ → marų (finougrų) wola „yra baltas, balta“ → latvių valga „šlapias“ → senovės rusų Volga „drėgnumas, drėgė“ – egzistuoja dar viena: tocharų B war „vanduo“, -wär „srovė, tėkmė, upė“ → avestų vairi- „jūra, jūros įlanka“, pelevų var „ežeras“ → čuvašų var „slėnis, pylimas, vaga, tarpeklis; vidurė, centre, viduryje, pilvas“, arba nauji avestų Raŋhā arba ‘skitų’ *Rahā → mordvių erzių Rav, Ravo ‘Volga’, mokšų rava „upė“, Rav ‘Volga’. Ši hipotezė, nepaisant minių migracijų laikotarpių, rodo populiacijų tęstinumą, greičiausiai atsispindi Straipsniai / Articles 95 VÁCLAV BLAŽEK reikinių gyveniečių prie svarbių upių varduose, kurie yra kilę iš pirminių hidronimų. Šis mechanizmas padėjo išsaugoti daugelio svarbių upių vardus, nors jų krantose keitėsi kalbos. Natūralu, kad šalia senų vardų atsiranda naujų. Volgos atveju jauniausias tokio tipo pavyzdys yra greičiausiai marų (fino-ugrų) Jul, paimtas iš senovės turkų šaltinio senovės uigūrų yul „kalnų upelis, šaltinis, versmė“. Įteikta 2019 m. lapkričio 4 d. VÁCLAV BLAŽEK Ústav jazykovědy a baltistiky Filozofická fakulta Masarykovy University A. Nováka 1, CZ-60200 Brno [email protected] 96 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica XXI