BODIES OF WATER
and their Significance for Indo-European
from
"Concerning the Parallels between Baltic and Ancient Balkan Languages"
by A. Breidaks
Latvian Academy of Science
(Authorized translation by Andis Kaulins. This is a small excerpt from the article.)

This article was originally published as "Par Baltu un Seno Balkanu Valodu Paralelem" in Latvijas PSR Zinatnu Akademijas Vestis No. 3 (356), 88-98, 1977. The full Authorized Translation by Andis Kaulins is online, click Breidaks. This page only has a small excerpt from the original article.

A number of Baltic terms for bodies of water (especially rivers) stem from the most ancient stratum of Indo-European hydronymy.

These terms occupy an important position for resolution of questions regarding the pre-history of Indo-European peoples, including their mutual relations, their place of origin, their ancient migrations, etc.

In the last several decades, it has been frequently noted in linguistic writing that Baltic toponymy in many respects embraces the hydronymic ambit of Central Europe, which, according to H. Krahe, developed in the second millennium BC north of the Alps on the basis of Celtic, Italic, Germanic, Venedic, Illyric and Baltic idioms - languages which at that distant time were very similar yet to one another.¹

The attention of linguists has particularly been devoted to the Eastern regions of this area, namely to the relation between Baltic and Illyrian (as well as to the Eastern neighbors of the latter, the Thracians and Dacians). I. Duridanov, V. Georgiev, K. Kasparson, H. Krahe and V. Toporov, among others, have pointed out many of the similarities among these languages in terms of phonetics, word formation, appellative lexics and onomastics.

Although these similarities might be subject to explanation by the common origin and developmental tendencies of these languages or by contacts between Baltic and ancient Balkan peoples, the archaeologist T. Sulimirski and the linguists I. Duridanov and W. Porzig are of the opinion that the Baltic, Thracian and Dacian peoples were long neighbors to each other in the pre-Christian era.²

"Illyrian" toponyms extend in a narrow belt from the Southwest to the Northeast, from the Adriatic Sea to the territory of the (Baltic) Old Prussians bordering on the Baltic Sea. . . . . . It must be said that about one-third of all of the river names in Lettgallia (Latvia) which have been retained from the Indo-European pantheon have definite corresponding terms in ancient Balkan (and partly also in Central European and Asia Minor) hydronymy and generally in onomastics. Indeed - many of the names of Lettgallian rivers and lakes become understandable only by utilizing Indo-European etymology and by explaining their relations to the names of bodies of water in the Balkans and in Central Europe.

References for the above Excerpt

1. H. Krahe, Baltico-Illyrica. - "Festschrift für M. Vasmer..." Wiesbaden, 1956, p. 245; AAM III 104-105.
2. T. Sulimirski, "Ancient Southern Neighbours of the Baltic Tribes", Acta Baltico-Slavica, V. Bialystok, 1967, pp. 6-17; LB XII (2) 100.