On Beavers

We have previously discussed the “Gallic” or Western Veneti here.  Earlier, we remarked on the fact that certain of the town names in the area sounded vaguely “Slavic”.  Looking at the map of Europe we also noted that – what is thought to be – the Slavic place name ending -in or -yn seems to be concentrated in that area as well.

So, we decided to look at some of those names in more detail.  We picked a name that was not only Slavic “sounding” but one whose meaning seemed potentially clear – Bubry.  Now, the word for “beavers” is the following in the following languages:

• bobr – bobři (Czech);
• bobor – bobry (Slovak);
• бобер (bober) – бобри (bobri) (Ukrainian);
• бобр (bobr) – бобры (bobry) (Russian);
• бабёр (babior) – бабры (babry) – Belarussian;
• bóbr (pron. ‘bubr’) – bobry (Polish);
• bober – bobri (Slovenian);
• бобър (bobŭr) – бобри (bobri) (Bulgarian);

The only versions that are significantly different are the following:

• dabar – dabrovi (Croatian);
• дабар (dabar) – даброви (dabrovi) (Serbian);

What about other Indo-European languages?

The Baltic versions are:

• bebras – bebrai (Lithuanian);
• bebrs – bebri (Latvian);

The Germanic ones are also similar but they are different from the Slavic and Baltic versions (and are, naturally, more similar to one another):

• Biber – Biber (German);
• bever – bevers (Dutch);
• bæver – bævere (Danish);
• bäver (Swedish);
• bever (Norwegian);
• bifur (Icelandic);

Then there are the Latin versions which all somehow relate to the legend of Castor and Pollux:

• castor – castors (French and Catalan);
• castoro – castori (Italian);
• castor – castores (Spanish and Gallician);
• castor – castori (Romanian);
• κάστορας (kastoras) – κάστορες (kastores) (Greek);

Albanian and Basque are similar versions of Castor.

The other European (but not Indo-European) names are different:

• majava – majavat (Finnish);
• kobras – koprad (Estonian); (this one seems to be a borrowing from Latvian or Lithuanian)
• hód – hódok (Hungarian);

Bubry

Michèle Bourret’s  Le patrimoine des communes du Morbihan, Volume 1 gives the following etymology of the town name Bubry:

“Bubry, dit Beubri en 1282 et Buibry en 1454, dérive du breton bod-bri signifiant « bois sur une éminence » ou du gaulois beber signifiant « castor ». Une troisième hypothèse fait dériver Bubry du gallois buddoc et bri signifiant « victoire » et « célèbre ».”

“Bubry, called Beubri in 1282 and Buibry in 1454, derived from the Breton bod-bri meaning “wood on a hill” or the Gallic/Welsh beber meaning “beaver”.  A third hypothesis derives Bubry  from the Gallic/Welsh buddoc and bri meaning “victory” and “famous”.

So the Breton and the second Gallic/Welsh forms do not work for us but the Gallic/Welsh could work.*

* The actual Welsh/Welsh version is afanc.

Except that Bubry looks and sounds more like the Slavic versions of the same than like  beber (that form is similar to the Germanic versions of “beaver”).

There are at least three reasons for this:

• the “u” is found in the Polish singular ó;
• the “r” immediately follows the “b” just like in all the Slavic plurals of the word (this is also true for the Baltic versions);
• the final letter (sound?) “y” is matched in the Polish, Slovak, Russian and Belarussian versions indicating the plural form;

So what does this mean?  Maybe nothing.  We should ask what is the Indo-european etymology of this word?  We were lazy so we just looked at the Online Etymology Dictionary which can be found at http://www.etymonline.com.  It is a reasonable compendium of several sources.  So what does it say about beavers?

“Old English beofor, befer (earlier bebr), from Proto-Germanic *bebruz (cognates: Old Saxon bibar, Old Norse bjorr, Middle Dutch and Dutch bever, Low German bever, Old High German bibar, German Biber), from PIE *bhebhrus, reduplication of root *bher- (3) “brown, bright” (cognates: Lithuanian bebrus, Czech bobr, Welsh befer; see bear (n.) for the likely reason for this).”

(There are other gynecological explanations of this word but we assume that they carry no relevance for the present question).

So maybe some of this can be explained by common Indoeuropean source for the Slavic and the, dare we say, Western Venetic versions of “beaver”?

Maybe.  But…

it is – at the very least – interesting that the Slavic (followed by Baltic) should provide the closest match for – what may have been derived from – the “Western Venetic”.

Of course, more than likely these musings amount to nothing.  Perhaps Bubry, in fact, does mean something unrelated to beavers?  Perhaps that wooded hill or something like that?

Although there is that other word.  What was it? Podaile?

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