~ an assortment of river names (in english) and the language groups they came from ~
[format: River - language family, meaning]
Amur - mongolian, rest
Angara - possibly turkic, wide
Argun - proto-mongolic, wide
Desna - old east slavic, right hand
Don - proto-indo-european, river
Dvina - possibly indo-european, river
Helmand - avestan, dammed/having a dam
Jordan - possibly semitic, flow down, or ancient egyptian, big river.
Kelani - possibly sinhala, river
Kolyma - tundra yukaghir, river
Lena - possibly even-evenk, the large river
Neva - finnic, poor fen or waterway, or indo-european, new
Nile - possibly semitic, river
Oka - unknown
Pearl (Zhūjiāng) - from the pearly shells on the riverbed
Pechora - nenets, forest dweller
Rhône - proto-indo-european, to run/to roll
Seine - proto-indo-european, to flow
Selenga/Selenge - mongolian, to swim, or evenki, iron
Silys (scythian name for the Don, as recorded by Pliny the Elder)
Tiber - uncertain, but likely italic/pre-latin; formerly known as Albula (pre-indo-european, white with sediment or from the mountains
Tigris - sumerian, running water
Volga - proto-slavic, wetness
Yana - possibly ancient thracian, river
Yenisei/Yenisey - old kyrgyz, mother river, or evenki, big water
I LOVE how truly ancient river names are. It makes sense, considering they're the birthplace of civilization and the conduit for so much trade and interaction between cultures.
If anyone has more insight on the etymology of Kelani, Oka, Silys, or Yana, please let me know!!
