🚀 go-pugleaf

sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) writes:

> In English we talk about the Baltic Sea and say "The Baltcis"
> for the countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In Swedish
> we call the sea "\stersj|n" (The East Sea), but we still
> talk about "Baltikum" to refer to the area.
...
> and sure enough "balt" is the Latvian word for "white".
> Is just "balt" = "white" a random coincidence, or is there
> really a connection with name of the area or the sea?
The answer is: nobody knows.
The name `mare Balticum' was already used by Adam van Bremen
around 1075. In Latvian the sea is called `Baltin,a ezers'.
The name of the area is derived from the name of the sea.
Many papers have been written about the origin of this `Balticum'
(and the probably cognate watername `Belt').
Roughly speaking it seems that there are three candidate explanations:
One is Adam van Bremen's own explanation connecting the watername
`Belt' with the `belt' (girdle) derived from Latin `balteus', which
is of unknown origin, maybe Etruscan.
A second connects it with English `pool', Dutch `peel' (swamp),
OSlav. `blato' (lake), Lith. `bal`a' (swamp).
A third derives it from IE *bhel from which the words meaning "white"
are derived. Some authors also derive the second group of words
from this same root.

>Speaking of coincidences, the Swedish word for "street" is "gata",
[related to English `gate']
>Latvia has "gate" (although "iela" is more widely used) and
>Lithuanian has "gatve". Here, however, it must either be a case
>of false cognates, or a loan in some direction.
They are loans.