Comments on the oldest layer of Pannonian river names. Part 2: Drau/Dráva and Raab/Rába

Abstract

Comments on the oldest layer of Pannonian river names Part 2: Drau/Dráva and Raab/Rába

The paper attempts to evaluate earlier solutions given for the etymologies of the river names Drau/Dráva and Raab/Rába. The analysis of these names produces a rather complicated picture: depending on whether the root vowel was originally short or long in Drau/Dráva, this name is either identical or only cognate with the river name Drawa/Drage in Poland. If they are identical, it must be supposed that they originally meant ‘area along the river XY’. The name of the area along the river was then transferred to the river itself. This process must be presupposed for the Polish river name. If the root vowel was short, it is most probable that it was lengthened when the river name was used by a Romance-speaking population before it was borrowed by Slavic people and later by Hungarians. In the case of the river name Raab/Rába, the problem is that at least two concurring etymologies exist, both, however, work only if certain additional suppositions are accepted. Researchers will probably have to grow accustomed to the fact that the one and only solution for the etymologies of river names from this oldest layer will only rarely be found.