Next to genetic and archaeological analysis, the old names of settlements and rivers can give insight into the early history of the Teutons.
As follows I´ll give an overview over the book Namenkundliche Studien zum Germanenproblem (J.Udolph, 1994) which sorts and structurates the water names of the Germanic core lands.
http://www.hoops.uni-goettingen.de/...zungsband_9.htm
One of the most interesting questions in this context is how the proto-Germanic language got differentiated out of a PIE dialect continuum:
Summary:
-Hydronymically the closest relatives are the the districts where the Baltic languages were spoken. Vice-versa there´s no indication of a Baltic-Slavic unity (no "old-European" Balto-Germanic water names south of the Prpjet).
-The relationship with the Celtic group (with the NL/middle and upper D as contact area) is only secondary (due to Latenization ~500 BC).
-no pre-Germanic (or even pre-Indo-European) substrate in southern Scandinavia/northern Germany
-Within the Germanic dialects a Goto-Nordic unity and the Scandinavian origin of the Eastern Teutons (as Jordanes scribed) are highly questionable.
-Udolph concludes that the Germanic Urheimat is located at what is now eastern Lower Saxony/Saxony-Anhalt (central northern Germany).
Argumentation:-Saxony-Anhalt is the centrum of the Jastorf culture which spread northward from there.
-The second (upper German) loud shift and Verner´s law are late reflex to the first (pan-Germanic) loud shift, so they are an indication of ancientness. Further Old High German is far more ancient then old Nordic, old Saxon or old English.
-This is the only region in Germania where you can find a high number of old-European/northwest-IE river names like Unstrut, Saale, Pleiße.
For me there is still much uncertainty over this because the reconctrusted urheimat lies north of the Benrath line (which divides lower from upper German and which formerly was even more south). Also the Jastorf culture and the Germanic settlements don´t coincide- especially to the north and east where the (likewise Germanic) Oksywie culture lay. As for the water names - east of the Elbe-Saale-border the slavization, which
began one century after the Elb-Germanic/East Germanic tribes left, makes the study invalid because of discintinuity of names. (e.g. in Poland where only two germanic names survived- Warthe and Netze)
Any other opinion (especially concerning the Urheimat hypothesis)?
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