[gothic-l] Toponym

[Grsartor at AOL.COM]

About whether the Swedish place-name Aaland contains a relic of Gothic AHVA,
water. It would not be surprising if the two were related, but I think some
kind of learned argument would be needed to persuade the world that the "aa"
actually came from Gothic.

According to Wright, Go. AHVA is cognate with Old High German AHA and Old
English EA. I think it is also supposed to be related to Icelandic A (with an
accent) meaning "river". It therefore seems likely that several languages
will have words, or elements of place names, that are akin to AHVA, without
their people's necessarily having had contact with Goths. For example, some
place-names in England, such as Mersey, contain a relic of EA/AHVA. The
Scandinavian form survives in the name of the Scottish town of Thurso (bull
river).

Gerry T.

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