07-09-2004, 11:38 PM
Actually, the Weser and the Werra are the same river and probably were regarded as such in Roman sources.<br>
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Mediaeval chartes have Wesera/Wisera along the entire river. Now, in some German dialects something called rhotazism occured, that is a <s> or <z> between two light vowels changes into <r>. With the stress on the first syllable, the Werera soon was contracted into Werra, whereas the northern German Wesera only changed the strong final <a> into a weaker <e>. The fact that the Fulda flows into the Weser then marked this as the border for the name change, but linguistically, the poem on that stone is invalid.<br>
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The *uis- root for the word goes back to the Ancient European Hydronymy and is related to words like Whisky (uisge), meaning simply "water". <p> <img src="http://otherworldfantasies.com/gabriele2/eilean_small.jpeg"/> </p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p200.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=gabrielecampbell>gabriele campbell</A> at: 7/10/04 1:40 am<br></i>
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Mediaeval chartes have Wesera/Wisera along the entire river. Now, in some German dialects something called rhotazism occured, that is a <s> or <z> between two light vowels changes into <r>. With the stress on the first syllable, the Werera soon was contracted into Werra, whereas the northern German Wesera only changed the strong final <a> into a weaker <e>. The fact that the Fulda flows into the Weser then marked this as the border for the name change, but linguistically, the poem on that stone is invalid.<br>
<br>
The *uis- root for the word goes back to the Ancient European Hydronymy and is related to words like Whisky (uisge), meaning simply "water". <p> <img src="http://otherworldfantasies.com/gabriele2/eilean_small.jpeg"/> </p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p200.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=gabrielecampbell>gabriele campbell</A> at: 7/10/04 1:40 am<br></i>