Old European (
alteuropäisch) is the term used by
Hans KraheHans Krahe was a German philologist and linguist, specializing over many decades in the Illyrian languages....
(1964) for the language of the oldest reconstructed stratum of European
hydronymy (river names) in Central and Western
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
. The character of these river names is pre-Germanic and pre-Celtic and dated by Krahe to the
2nd millennium BCThe 2nd millennium BC marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age.Its first half is dominated by the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and Babylonia. The alphabet develops. Indo-Iranian migration onto the Iranian plateau and onto the Indian subcontinent propagates the use of the chariot...
.
Old European river names are found in the
BalticThe Baltic region is an ambiguous term that refers to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...
and southern
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
, in
Central EuropeCentral Europe is the region lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion after the end of the Cold War, which, along with the Iron Curtain, had divided Europe politically into East and West,...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, the
British IslesThe British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain, Ireland and numerous smaller islands. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Ireland...
, and the
IberianThe Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas...
and
ItalianThe Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...
peninsulas.
Old European (
alteuropäisch) is the term used by
Hans KraheHans Krahe was a German philologist and linguist, specializing over many decades in the Illyrian languages....
(1964) for the language of the oldest reconstructed stratum of European
hydronymy (river names) in Central and Western
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
. The character of these river names is pre-Germanic and pre-Celtic and dated by Krahe to the
2nd millennium BCThe 2nd millennium BC marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age.Its first half is dominated by the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and Babylonia. The alphabet develops. Indo-Iranian migration onto the Iranian plateau and onto the Indian subcontinent propagates the use of the chariot...
.
Old European river names are found in the
BalticThe Baltic region is an ambiguous term that refers to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...
and southern
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
, in
Central EuropeCentral Europe is the region lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion after the end of the Cold War, which, along with the Iron Curtain, had divided Europe politically into East and West,...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, the
British IslesThe British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain, Ireland and numerous smaller islands. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Ireland...
, and the
IberianThe Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas...
and
ItalianThe Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...
peninsulas. This area is associated with the spread of the later "Western" Indo-European dialects, the
CelticThe Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in...
,
ItalicThe Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family. It includes the Romance languages derived from Latin , and a number of extinct languages of the Italian Peninsula, including Umbrian, Oscan, Faliscan, and Latin itself.In the past various definitions of "Italic" have prevailed...
,
GermanicThe Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
,
BalticThe Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe...
and Illyrian branches. Notably exempt are the
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
and
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
, as well as the
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an parts associated with Slavic settlement.
Krahe locates the geographical nucleus of this area as stretching from the
BalticThe Baltic region is an ambiguous term that refers to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...
across Western Poland and
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
to the
Swiss plateauThe Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau constitutes one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland alongside the Jura mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of the Swiss surface...
and the upper
DanubeThe Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows...
north of the
AlpsThe Alps are one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west....
, while he considers the Old European river names of southern France, Italy and Spain to be later imports, replacing "Aegean-Pelasgian" and
IberianThe Iberian language was the language of a people identified by Greek and Roman sources who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Iberian peninsula. The ancient Iberians can be identified as a rather nebulous local culture between the 7th century BC and the 1st century BC...
substrates (p. 81), corresponding to Italic,
CelticCeltiberian may refer to:*the Celtiberians, a Celtic people of the Iberian Peninsula*the Celtiberian language, a Celtic language...
and
IllyrianThe Illyrians were a group of tribes who inhabited the Western Balkans during classical antiquity. The territory the tribes covered came to be known as Illyria to Greek and Roman authors, corresponding roughly to the area between Adriatic sea in west, Drava river in North, Morava river in east...
"invasions" from about 1300 BC.
German linguist
Theo VennemannTheo Vennemann is a German linguist known best for his work on historical linguistics, especially for his disputed theories of a Vasconic substratum and an Atlantic superstratum of European languages. He also suggests that the High German consonant shift was already completed in the early 1st...
has suggested that the language of the old European hydronyms was
agglutinativeAn agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
and
preindoeuropeanOld Europe is a term coined by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas to describe what she perceives as a relatively homogeneous and widespread pre-Indo-European Neolithic culture in Europe, particularly in Malta and the Balkans....
.
Dur
Dur, a preceltic linguistic root meaning 'water, stream'.
- the Adur
The Adur is a river in Sussex, England. The Adur district of West Sussex is named after it. The river used to be navigable for large vessels up to the town of Steyning, where a large port used to be situated...
(United Kingdom),
- the Dour, Kent
The River Dour is a river in the county of Kent, in England. It flows from the villages of Temple Ewell and River, through the village of Kearsney, to Dover....
, Latin Dubris (United Kingdom)
- the Dore (France),
- the Doron
Doron, or Dorio, as it is said to be written in some manuscripts, is a city mentioned only by Pliny and located in Cilicia Tracheia, Some scholars have equated the city to Darieium or Dorieium in Phrygia mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantium....
(France),
- the Dordogne
The Dordogne is a river in south-central and southwest France.-Name:Contrary to appearances, the name of the Dordogne is not a recent word resulting from the names of the Dore and the Dogne...
< Durānius (France),
- the Douro
The Douro or Duero is one of the major rivers of the Iberian Peninsula, flowing from its source near Duruelo de la Sierra in the province of Soria across northern-central Spain and Portugal to its outlet at Porto...
(Portugal and Spain (known as Douro in portuguese and Duero in spanish)),
- the Dronne
The Dronne is a 201 km long river in southwestern France, right tributary of the Isle River. Its source is in the north-western Massif Central, east of the town of Châlus at an elevation of 510 m...
(France),
- the Dropt
The Dropt is a river in Aquitaine, France. It is a right tributary to the Garonne.- Geography :The source of the Dropt is located near Capdrot in the Dordogne. The drainage basin covers the area between the valleys of the Lot River and the Dordogne River....
< Roman Drotius (France),
- the Drave and probably the Drac
Drac, from the Latin draco, is the word for dragon or devil in several languages, such as Catalan and Romanian. Drac or DRAC may also refer to:* Drac, abbreviation for the orchid genus Dracula...
(France),
- the Drava
Drava or Drave is a river in southern Central Europe, a tributary of the Danube. It begins in Toblach, Italy, and flows east through East Tirol and Carinthia in Austria, into Slovenia , and then southeast, passing through Croatia and forming most of the border between Croatia and Hungary, before...
(Italy, Austria (known as Drau), Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary)
- the Drawa
Drawa is a river in north-western Poland, a tributary of the Notec river , with a length of 186 kilometres and the basin area of 3,296 km2.Towns:*Drawsko Pomorskie*Drawno*Krzyz Wielkopolski...
(Poland),
- the Durance
The Durance is a major river in south-eastern France.Its source is in the south-western Alps, in Montgenèvre ski resort near Briançon and it flows south-west through the following départements and cities:* Hautes-Alpes: Briançon, Embrun.* Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: Sisteron, Manosque.* Vaucluse:...
(France),
- the Durenque, tributary of the Agout
The Agout is a 195 km long river in south-western France, left tributary of the Tarn River. Its source is in the southern Massif Central, in the Parc naturel régional du Haut-Languedoc...
(France)
- the Eder
The Eder is a 177 km long river in Germany, and a tributary of the Fulda River. It was first mentioned by the Roman historian Tacitus as the Adrana in the territory of the Chatti....
, tributary of the Fulda (Germany)
- the Oder
The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It begins in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...
(Germany and Poland)
See also
- Tyrrhenian languages
- Rigvedic rivers
Rivers play a prominent part in the hymns of the Rigveda, and consequently in early Vedic religion.-Mythology:The central history of the Rigveda is that of Indra slaying Vritra , liberating the rivers; in a variant of the myth, Indra smashes the stone Vala, liberating the cows that were imprisoned...
- Urnfield culture
The Urnfield culture was a late Bronze Age culture of central Europe. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields...
- Beaker culture
The Bell-Beaker culture , ca. 2400 – 1800 BC, is the term for a widely scattered cultural phenomenon of prehistoric western Europe starting in the late Neolithic or Chalcolithic running into the early Bronze Age...
- Germanic substrate hypothesis
The Germanic substrate hypothesis is an attempt to explain the distinctive nature of the Germanic languages within the context of the Indo-European language family...