Baltic “*jūrā-/-(i)i̯ā-” ‘sea’ & “*jaurā-̆ /-(i)i̯ā-̆” ‘wet soil, bog, deep water’

Abstract

    This article analyses the Common Baltic term *jūr- ‘sea’ with its vr̥ddhi-formation *jaur- ‘wet soil, bog, deep water’, their toponymic traces in the macro-Baltic area, probable borrowings identifiable in Fenno-Permic *jürɜ ‘deep place in water’ and Fenno-Volgaic *järwä ‘lake’, probable external cognates in Armenian ǰowr ‘water’, and in the hydronyms Iuras & Zyras from Eastern Thrace and the Gaulish oronym Jura with regard to the semantic connection of the meanings ‘deep’ and ‘high’. These partial steps lead to the final conclusion that the primary meaning of the Baltic root *jūr- was ‘deep water’.