FROM THE ETYMOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON RIVER NAMES OF THE UPPER VISTULA BASIN (1. Kineta, 2. Scieklec, 3. /)

• Authors: Babik Z.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

In the paper four names of three rivers of the Upper Vistula basin are discussed. 'Kineta' is the name of a right tributary of the Vistula. This name was unconvincingly connected with Polish surname 'Kinet' or even considered a substratum name of Baltic origin (!). It turns out to be identical to a Polish dialectal word previously unnoticed by onomasticians: 'kineta' (drainage ditch), borrowed from Austrian German 'Künette' < Italian 'cunetta'. The historical sources indicate that the river name 'Scieklec' was inflected nom.-acc. 'Scklec', oblique cases stem 'Scieklc'- in the 13th–15th centuries, which points to a preform *St6kl6c6, where 6 stands for a high reduced front vowel called 'jer'. This fact rules out the possibility of its being related to the participle *s7tekl7 'which has dripped (down)', where 7 stands for a high reduced bach vowel called 'jer'. It is proposed to view it as a derivative of Polish s(z)klo < sckło < *st6klo 'glass' with the etymological meaning 'shining like glass'. F. Kortlandt's theory of a Common Slavic pretonic *e > *6 reduction is critically assessed in this connection as well. In a 15th century text the forms <Sdwu/antha woda>, <Vsdzantha woda> and <Wskoczila (woda?)> were written down as parallel names of the same brook in the Kamienna basin. Since the latter form seems to reflect 'Wskoczyla', a hypothetical adjective with the meaning 'which has jumped up/over' > '(over)swollen'; it is reasonable to assign a similar meaning to the former variant as well. It appears possible that <Sdwantha>, <Vsdzantha> are merely distorted forms of *<W/Vz/sdantha> reflecting *wzdeta 'swollen' wzdac 'to swell', eventually in the etymological meaning 'overswollen (water)'.

Keywords

EN

*W(Z)SKOCZYLY; KINETA; POLISH RIVER NAMES; S(Z)KLO; WZDETY

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Instytut Języka Polskiego Polskiej Akademii Nauk
• Journal: Onomastica
• Year: 2005
• Volume: 50
• Pages: 181-198
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Babik Z.

• Z. Babik, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Instytut Filologii Slowianskiej, al. Mickiewicza 9, 31-120 Kraków, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

07PLAAAA02024305