Donau/Don Iranian names?

**Shapur** · Saturday, May 15th, 2004

Donau/Don Iranian names?

Maybe someone of you know that Don mean lake in Iranian language.
Au mean also water. The lake Don by the black sea has an Iranian name what mean Don->Lake. But what is with Donau? Mean this Lake Water->Don Au?
Maybe someone have here information. Thx!

**Dr. Solar Wolff** · Friday, May 21st, 2004

"Donau" in German means "Danube" in English--like the river. It is interesting that the geography is so close. The Don, Dieper and Donau all empty into the Black Sea.

**Shapur** · Friday, May 21st, 2004

Originally Posted by Dr. Solar Wolff

"Donau" in German means "Danube" in English--like the river. It is interesting that the geography is so close. The Don, Dieper and Donau all empty into the Black Sea.

I meant could it be that like the Iranian name for river->Don->like the river Don which has his name from Scythians"Iranian tribe" the name Donau be also of Iranian origin. Then it would be Don->river and au->water.
river of water?

**Milesian** · Friday, May 21st, 2004

"Danube" was the name given by the ancient Celts. It probably relates to a deity (Celts often named rivers after their gods). It is possibily also the same root word as is present in Tuatha De Danaan (an Irish tribe), the goddess Dana or Danu and also Denmark.

It may possibly be connected to the Iranian tongue in the form of some proto-IndoEuropean root word

**Odin Of Ossetia** · Tuesday, May 25th, 2004

Originally Posted by Shapur

Donau/Don Iranian names?

Maybe someone of you know that Don mean lake in Iranian language.
Au mean also water. The lake Don by the black sea has an Iranian name what mean Don->Lake. But what is with Donau? Mean this Lake Water->Don Au?
Maybe someone have here information. Thx!

The name of the Don River is of Iranian origin; it is derived from dan, or the old Alan (Osset) word for "water".

The name of the tribe of Dan that found Denmark is of the same origin, since this tribe was descended from a portion of the ancient Ossets who settled in southern Scandinavia.

You can read more about it on this page:

http://michalw.narod.ru/SlavicSpain.html

**Theudanaz** · Monday, May 31st, 2004

According to D.H. Green, "...Jordanes lists in quick succession three rivers (Ister, the classical name for hte lower Danube, Danaster 'Dniestr' and Danaper 'Dniepr') all of which other classical sources and modern archaeological finds associate the Goths at this perios of their migration......These are followed by references...to the river _Tanais_ 'Don'..."

"...the Scythians (to whose linguistic influence such river-names as the Danube, the Dniestr, the Dniepr and the Don are attributed)..."

"...the indentification of [the Sîntana de Mures/Cernjahov culture] is based on geographical as well as chronological considerations, for its extend (from the lower Danube north-eastwards across the rivers Prut and Dniestr, beyond the DNiepr out into the steppes) coincides with what Ammianus Marcellinus says of their sway, spreading from the Danube even as far as the Tanais (Don), since the Alans who are their neighbours there are called Tanaites 'people of the Don'. (Heather [1991], 84.)"

P. 170
"...The holy graves of the Goths...are said to lie on the banks of the Dniepr (...a stödum Danpar) and the battle is located on the plain of the Don (...á Dúnheidi)......it has been suggested that Dún- may refer to the Danube instead of the Don..."

Dan-aster and Dan-aper are obviously considered parts of the "Dan" complex. I've forgotten the exact meanings of the latter elements in each of the names; I recall a sense of something like "head" and "foot" or "mouth". I think Avestan -apa means water, -apar means lower or inferior. I don't know which one is more appropriate, probably the latter. Also is possibly parsed as Dan(-)a-par- "before, from, forth, away". If Danaster < Dan-asta- then the second element here may mean 'body' (Avest. asta/asti) or be a corruption of arsht- "proper, true". Scythian scholars are welcome to help elucidate this. I know the meanings are found somewhere, and are probably geographical in nature.

-Thiudans

**Odin Of Ossetia** · Monday, May 31st, 2004

Originally Posted by Thiudans

... I know the meanings are found somewhere, and are probably geographical in nature.

-Thiudans

You sound quite confused and uncertain.

Yes, the Alan/Osset Dan or "water" is very much a geographical name in nature, or a hydronym.

http://michalw.narod.ru/SlavicSpain.html

**Theudanaz** · Monday, May 31st, 2004

Yeah I probably would be less uncertain if I knew Avestan or Old Iranian, or had a lexicon for either. As it is I offered educated guesses on the words which were not addressed by others. Also DH Green states that the classical name for the lower Danube was Ister, which sounds of course like the second element in Danaster.

-Thiudans