54 QUEEN'S QUARTERLY. 



Brittany we find the Aff, two streams called Aven ; two Avons flow- 

 ing into the Loire, and two more in the Seine, while nearly every 

 other river contains a fragment of the word. 



Another word, diffused nearly as widely as afon, is the Welsh 

 rfK;r=water ; in Brezonec dour—m Irish dobhar (doar) ; Greek iiUp. 

 We have the root in the Dordogne, the Eure, the Adour, the Dur- 

 ance, the Durbion, the Dourdon, the Douron, etc. 



The Gaelic and Erse word for water is uisge,"" while in Welsh 

 there are several related words pronounced in nearly the same way, 

 meaning current. This root, subject to various phonetic mutations, 

 is found in France under some guise : the Isle, the Isac, the Oust, 

 the Esque, the Asse, the Isere, the Aese, the Oise, the Aisne. From 

 the closely related Welsh word gwy or wv=water, we may derive 

 in England the Garway=rough water; the Conway=chief water, 

 etc.,. and in France the Gy, the Guisave, the Guil, the Guiers, at the 

 foot of the Alps. 



The root Rhe or Rhin is connected with the Gaelic rea, rapid ; 

 with the Welsh r/je=swift, the Greek 'peo>, and the English run and 

 rain.f From this root we have: the Rhine, the Rhone, and scores 

 of rivers in every country of Europe. 



Finally the root don, dun, dob, rf)i=river or water, can be traced 

 in Danube, the Don, Dnieper, Durdon, Don in Brittany, the Madon, 

 the Loudon, the Doubs, etc. 



It thus appears that the names of almost all the large rivers of 

 Europe, as well as those of a very great number of the smaller 

 streams, contain one or other of the five chief Celtic words for 

 water or river. We may remark that rivers sometimes contain two 

 or three roots nearly synonymous, for instance, the Dan-as-ter. The 

 accretion may be due to the juxtapposition of roots from different 

 languages, as in the case of the Durbeck, the Durbach, the Durdan 

 in England, Germany and France, respectively. The same process 

 of formation may be traced in the names of mountains, valleys, 

 bridges, islands, bays, as well as rivers. Penhill, Val de Naiit, La 

 Puente de Alcantara, Sandwick Bay, Cape Griznez, etc., are so 

 many examples of redundance. 



We must briefly consider again the adjectival class of river- 



*Whisky is, we understand, a corruption of that word, meaning: yellow 

 water. 



tThe raindeer is the running deer. 



