Zur Etymologie von lit. alėti, almuo, almė, elmės etc. und deren Zusammenhang mit dem deutschen Ortsnamen Ulm und dessen Verwandten

Acta Linguistica Lithuanica 2025, vol. 92, pp. 1–19 Contents link / Turin... link ISSN 2669-218X (online / electronic) ON THE ETYMOLOGY OF LITH. ALĖTÍ, ALMUÕ, ÁLMĖ, ẼLMĖS ETC. AND THEIR CONNECTION WITH THE GERMAN PLACE NAME ULM AND ITS RELATIVES On the etymology of Lith. aléti, almuõ, álmė, ẽlmės and others, and their relationship with the German place name Ulm and its cognates HARALD BICHLMEIER Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg E-mail: [email protected] ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0001-1677 Fields of research: Onomastics (toponymy), historical phonology of the Germanic languages, Indo-European linguistics, Aljamiado-texts. https://doi.org/10.35321/all92-01 ANNOTATION Lith. aléti ‘flow, trickle, run, hurry’, nualéti ‘overflow, flood (fields)’, almuõ (3) m. ‘pus’, álmė (1), almẽ (4) f. ‘matter issuing from the body’, ẽlmės (4) f. pl. ‘same’ have traditionally been etymologized on the basis of a root supposed to mean ‘flow’. Here it is argued that at least two different roots are likely to underlie these words: on the one hand, PIE *h₁elh₂- ‘drive somewhere’ or PIE *h₂elh₂- ‘go aimlessly’, and on the other hand, the root PIE *h₁el(H)- ‘be mouldy, rotten’. On the basis of the root PIE *h₁el(H)- ‘be mouldy, rotten’, the place name NHG Ulm and names related to it can also be explained. It emerges that this name family is best assigned to Common Germanic *ulma- ‘mould, decay’. Of the other three derivations for this name family that appear workable at first sight, one was recognized early on as incorrect; two others are semantically plausible, but only one is also phonologically possible. The proposal to connect the name with Common Germanic *ual(l)-, *u̯ul- ‘boil, surge’ does not withstand scrutiny in terms of historical phonology. Derivation from an ‘Old European’ hydronym remains possible in principle, but the etymology proposed since Hans Krahe must be modified. Since a Germanic etymology is viable, it is preferable to the ‘Old European’ solution. Copyright © 2025 Harald Bichlmeier. Published by the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. // Išleido Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Šis straipsnis yra atviros prieigos, platinamas pagal „Creative Commons“ priskyrimo licencijos sąlygas, leidžiančias neribotai naudoti, platinti ir atkurti turinį bet kokioje laikmenoje, nurodant autorių ir šaltinį. Received: / Received: 2025-02-03. Accepted: / Accepted: 2025-05-15. 1 KEYWORDS: Old European hydronymy, Lithuanian etymology, German toponyms, historical phonology of the Germanic languages. ABSTRACT Lith. aléti ‘to flow, to drizzle, to hurry’, nualéti ‘to inundate (fields), to flow over’, almuõ (3) m. ‘pus’, almē (1), almẽ (4) f. ‘matter flowing out of a body’, elmēs (4) f. Pl. ‘id.’ have been traditionally etymologized as deriving from a root meaning ‘to flow’. This article argues instead that these words originate from at least two distinct Proto-Indo-European (PIE) roots. On the one hand, they may be linked to PIE *h₁elh₂ ‘to drive somewhere’ or PIE *h₂elh₂ ‘to go around aimlessly, to wander around’. On the other hand, some of them appear to derive from PIE *h₁el(H)- ‘to be foul, rotten’. The root PIE *h₁el(H)- ‘to be foul, rotten’ also underlies the place-name NHG Ulm and related toponyms in Germany. These names can be connected to PGerm. *ulma- ‘foul(ness), putrid(ity)’. Among the three prevailing explanations for these names, one can be ruled out entirely, while the remaining two others are semantically plausible — but only one of them also fits phonologically. The proposal to connect the names to the root PGerm. *ual(ʔ)-, *uul- ‘to boil, to seethe’ is impossible. The alternative hypothesis — interpreting them as ‘Old European’ hydronyms, at first proposed by Hans Krahe — remains possible but requires revision. However, since a Germanic explanation free of semantic and phonological contradictions can be provided, it is methodologically preferable to the ‘Old European’ hypothesis. KEYWORDS: Old-European hydronymy, Lithuanian etymology, German toponyms, historical phonology of the Germanic languages. 1. LITHUANICA¹ The family or families surrounding Lith. aléti ‘flow, trickle, run, hurry’,² nualéti ‘overflow, flood (fields)’, almuõ (3) m. ‘pus’,³ almē (1), almẽ (4) f. ‘matter issuing from the body’,⁴ elmēs (4) f. pl. ‘same’⁵ was/were discussed by Sergio Neri (in Neri, Ziegler 2012: 56f. and in Neri et al. 2016: 234f.) in connection with NHG dialectal Eller ‘land used for agriculture ¹ The contribution is based on the paper “On the Etymology of the Placename Ulm and its Relatives in Germany – and its Potential Connections with Some Baltic Words”, delivered at the conference “5-oji tarptautinė mokslinė Aleksandro Vanago konferencija „Kalbos ir kultūros dialogas XXI amžiaus onomastikoje““ / “5ᵗʰ International Scientific Aleksandras Vanagas’ Conference “Language and Culture Dialogue in 21ˢᵗ Century Onomastics””, Vilnius, 7–8 November 2024. – I thank the two anonymous reviewers of the contribution for their comments; they have largely been incorporated into the article. I alone am responsible for any errors and inconsistencies that may still remain. ² Not in LitEW (there LitEW I 7 lists only aléti ‘be weak’ and aléti ‘call alala’); LithED I 17 assigns aléti ‘trickle, drip, ooze, wander’ to a PIE root *h₂el, without assigning it a meaning (likewise SEJL 2024 s.v. aléti), and refers to the lemma almuõ ‘pus, purulent effusion from a wound, purulent sputum’ (LithED I 20f.; similarly SEJL 2024 s.v. almuõ), where the author, however, does not mention this Proto-Indo-European root, but again refers back to aléti. For the problems with such an approach, see also further below in the article. ³ Cf. LitEW I 8; LithEW I 20f.; SEJL 2024 s.v. almuõ (and the preceding footnote). ⁴ Cf. LitEW I 8. LithEW I 20f. (s.v. almuõ) and SEJL 2024 s.v. almuõ explain almē as a neologism based on the new root Ur(East)Baltic/Lith. *alm-/*elm- abstracted from almuõ. This derivation cannot explain the acute in almē. ⁵ Cf. LitEW I 8; LithEW I 20f. (s.v. almuõ) and SEJL 2024 s.v. almuõ explain elmēs as a neologism based on the new root Ur(East)Baltic/Lith. *alm-/*elm- abstracted from almuõ. 2 used land, wasteland’ or discussed in connection with NHG dialectal Ölme ‘notorious area, wet spot in a field’, ülmiġ ‘wet in places’. Overall, three Proto-Indo-European roots are brought into play to derive one or another of the forms mentioned: - PIE *h₁elh₂- ‘drive somewhere’ (IEW I 306f.; LIV 2001 [1998]: 235)⁶, - PIE *h₂elh₂- ‘go aimlessly’ (IEW I 27f.; LIV 2001 [1998]: 264)⁷, - PIE *h₁el(H)- (or *[s]h₁el(H)-?) ‘be mouldy’ (IEW I 305). The following considerations or derivations are presented: Neri 2012: 57 tentatively connects almuõ, álmē, ēlmēs with Lith. ãlksna f. ‘puddle, pool’⁸ and Latvian al(u)ksna f. ‘marshy place into which something flows’, with the latter forms explained from pre-Baltic *h₁ol(H)-s-nah₂- ‘the marshy one’ (with secondary insertion of *-k before *-s- in inner Baltic). The other three forms are not explicitly etymologized, but one may presumably imply the following preforms: - Lith. almuõ < Proto-Baltic *almōn, gen. *almenes < pre-Baltic *h₁ol(H)-mōn, gen. *-menes, - Lith. álmē < Proto-Baltic *almiā- < pre-Baltic *h₁olH-mi̯ah₂-, - Lith. ēlmēs < Proto-Baltic *elmiā- < pre-Baltic *h₁el(H)-mi̯ah₂-. The connection with NHG dialectal Eller, or the preceding MHG elle* ‘infertile field’, is established through the same root underlying the latter as well: MHG elle* < OHG *elana < Common Germanic *elanō ‘mire, swamp’ < pre-Germanic *h₁el(H)-onah₂- ‘decay’, which is a substantivization of Common Germanic *ulana- < pre-Germanic *h₁l(H)-ono- ‘rotten’. Lith. aléti is not mentioned in this context. In Neri et al. 2016, the matter is presented somewhat more differentially: the 2012 explanation continues to be regarded as possible in principle. In addition, with reference to Harald Bichlmeier 2013a: 406ff. and Bichlmeier 2011⁹: 184, consideration is given to connecting the Lithuanian words meaning ‘pus, matter flowing from a dead body’ with the Lith. verb aléti ‘flow, trickle, run, hurry’. ⁶ The root has secure appellative continuants only in Greek and Armenian and is posited in LIV 2001 [1998] with ‘?’; the author nevertheless considers the proposal convincing. ⁷ The root has secure appellative continuants in Greek and Latin, and perhaps in Latvian. ⁸ Cf. LitEW I 8; cf. also ALEW 34, where, however, no etymology in the proper sense is offered; LithED I 19 (s.v. a̋lksnis) traces Lith. ãlksna ‘place covered with alder trees, alder grove’ and Latvian ãlksna ‘forest marsh’ back to the older *aliksna < *alis-nā, with the acute said to have arisen through compensatory lengthening after the loss of the medial *, and does not even consider a connection with Lith. aléti, álmē etc. In SEJL 2024 s.v. a̋lksnis, the author now at least mentions a Proto-Indo-European preform *h₂elis-no-, but here too makes no connection with the root *h₂el mentioned in n. 2. ⁹ In Neri et al. 2016: 244, the bibliography erroneously lists Bichlmeier 2013b instead of Bichlmeier 2011 under “Bichlmeier Überlegungen”. For Lithuanian el̃mės, this implicitly entails reconstructing Old Baltic *elmiā- < Pre-Old Baltic *h₁elh₂-miāh₂, whereas for the Old Germanic *ulman discussed in the same place (Neri in Neri et al. 2016: 234f., with reference to New High German dialectal Ülme, ülmig), either an amphikinetic n-stem *h₁elh₂-mon- / *h₁l̥h₂-mn- ‘that which is provided with liquid’ > ‘pus, decay’ is to be assumed (in which case it would have to be assumed that Lithuanian almuõ had introduced a secondary o-grade), or an erstwhile inner-Germanic substantivization of the adjective *ulma- ‘mouldy’ < *h₁l̥h₂-m(n)-ó- ‘purulent, fluid’ is to be assumed. One could likewise assume “*h₂elh₂-mon- / *h₂l̥h₂-mn- ‘that which is provided with liquid’ > ‘pus, decay’, which underlies the Germanic and Lithuanian forms without additional assumptions”. The question naturally remains whether one can accept without further ado the semantic development assumed here, “‘that which is provided with liquid’ > ‘pus, decay’”, especially since the aforementioned root PIE *(s)hₑl(H)- ‘be mouldy’ (IEW I 305) does in fact exist, even if the question of whether it is a root with s mobile10 depends chiefly on whether Greek and Indo-Iranian words meaning ‘water basin, lake, swamp’ and the like (AI sáras n. ‘water basin, pond, [end] lake’, Av. *harah n. in the choronym Av. HaraXᵛaitī f., OP /harauvatī-/ f. ‘Arachosia’, Greek ἕλος n. ‘wet meadow, marshy lowland, swamp, marshland’) are now to be derived from a root PIE *sh₁el(H)- ‘be mouldy’, or whether an independent root PIE *sel- ‘swamp, marshy’ (cf. IEW I 901) underlies them11. For the Baltic word forms, one must posit a pre-Baltic root without initial *s- but with a final laryngeal (that is, PIE *h₁eH-), since otherwise the acute-bearing word forms of the family cannot be explained, whereas the Indo-Iranian and Greek words require initial *s but provide not the slightest indication of either *-h₁ or final *-H (that is, PIE *sel-). One can unite both families under a PIE reconstruction *(s)hₑl(H)-, or one can refrain from doing so; that is probably a matter of taste. The considerations in H. Bichlmeier 2011 and 2013a were advanced without incorporating a root PIE *(s)hₑl(H)- ‘be mouldy’ into the investigation. Since this root unquestionably exists, especially in view of the attested continuants in Germanic languages, the question arises whether all the Lithuanian words mentioned were formed on the basis of the same Proto-Indo-European root, or whether at least two roots underlie them: Lith. aléti ‘flow, trickle, run, hurry’, nualéti ‘overflow, flood (fields)’ can most simply be traced back to pre-Baltic *h₂elh₂-eh₁-/*h₂elh₂-e/o- ¹⁰ The assumption of a root with s mobile alongside a root otherwise beginning with a laryngeal is not the usual case, but can certainly be made plausible elsewhere as well; cf. Mark R. V. Southern 1999 passim. ¹¹ For discussion of this problem, see Neri 2016: 234f.; reproducing it here would go beyond the scope of this contribution. 4 traced back; pre-Baltic *h₁olh₂-eh₁-/*h₁olh₂-e/o appears less likely because of the o-grade that would then have to be assumed. Lith. almuõ (3) m. ‘pus’ is most simply connected via pre-Baltic *h₁olH-mon with PIE *h₁elH- ‘be mouldy’: the transition ‘mould’ > ‘decay’ > ‘pus’ appears unproblematic. Connecting it with the ‘motion-verb roots’ PIE *h₁elh₂- ‘drive somewhere’ (IEW I 306f.; LIV 2001 [1998]: 235) or PIE *h₂elh₂- ‘go aimlessly’ (IEW I 27f.; LIV 2001 [1998]: 264) would make it necessary to assume that the naming motivation for the word meaning ‘pus’ was its flowing. Probably also connected with this are Lith. ãlksna f. ‘puddle, pool’ and Latvian al(u)ksna f. ‘marshy place into which something flows’ < pre-Baltic *h₁olH-s-nah₂- ‘the marshy one’. Lith. álmē (1), almē (4) f. ‘matter issuing from the body’, elmēs (4) f. pl. ‘same’ are less certain to classify: if the ‘issuing’ of the matter, that is, its movement, was the naming motivation, one of the two ‘motion-verb roots’ may underlie them (Proto-Baltic *álmijā- < pre-Baltic *h₂elh₂-miēh₂ or *h₁olh₂-miēh₂ on the one hand, as opposed to Proto-Baltic *élmiā- < pre-Baltic *h₁elh₂-miēh₂ on the other). But if the naming motivation was that the issuing matter was in fact rotten, Proto-Baltic *álmijā- < pre-Baltic *h₁olH-miēh₂ on the one hand, as opposed to Proto-Baltic *élmiā- < pre-Baltic *h₁elhH-miēh₂ on the other, may have to be assumed here. No arguments can probably be found that all three roots mentioned at the outset are continued in Lithuanian, but a contrast between a ‘motion-verb root’ and ‘mould, decay’ nevertheless appears likely. Whether the ‘motion-verb root’ was PIE *h₁elh₂- ‘drive somewhere’ (IEW I 306f.; LIV 2001 [1998]: 235) or PIE *h₂elh₂- ‘go aimlessly’ (IEW I 27f.; LIV 2001 [1998]: 264), or whether both merged in (pre-)Proto-Baltic into an Early Proto-Baltic root *ełH-/*ałH, can no longer be decided; it depends, or rather, on what argumentative weight one theoretically grants to possible (pre-)Proto-Baltic morphological formation mechanisms. Alongside the explanation of the differing initial vowels (a-: e-) of the Lithuanian words on the basis of different Proto-Indo-European roots and/or different ablaut grades just presented, it should also be noted that this may represent (dialectal) variation within Lithuanian or Baltic, in which, according to the ‘Lex Rozwadowski’, ¹² Lith. e alternates precisely with Lith. dialectal a, as, for example, in Lith. ẽžeras m. ‘lake’ vs. Lith. dialectal ažaras, ažeras m. ‘same’, Old Prussian assaran ‘same’. This can scarcely be decided. The possibility of different underlying roots may be indicated by the intonational difference of the Lithuanian word forms: forms with an acute (álksna, álmē) can hardly be explained otherwise than on the basis of a Proto-Indo-European root with a final laryngeal; forms with a circumflex root accent can contribute little to a decision here, since even with an originally acute-accented root the suffix *-ijā could have caused the circumflex ¹² Cf. Jan Rozwadowski 1914–1915. 5 to arise. Assessing the value of the intonations for the explanation is further complicated by the fact that alongside an o-grade root the laryngeal should actually have disappeared early according to de Saussure’s rule, and no acute should be present. In this connection, it should also be noted that an element Proto-Baltic *alma occurs comparatively frequently in Lithuanian, or Baltic hydronymy generally; cf., for example, the river names Lith. Almė, Almajā, Almuonė or the lake names Lith. Āl̄majas, Āl̄menas etc. These are traditionally connected with the verb alméti or even regarded as derived from it¹³. None of these names seems to have an acute-accented root. Moreover, these names are often connected with two East Indo-European words, AI árma m. ‘well’ and Tocharian B ālme n. ‘spring’. Both forms point to a preform without a final laryngeal or permit no conclusion. Both words are generally assigned to PIE *h₂el-mo, from the root PIE *h₂el- ‘nourish, grow’ (IEW I 26f.; LIV 2001 [1998]: 262)¹⁴, and etymologically identified with Latin almus ‘nourishing, nutritive’¹⁵. On this assumption, it seems likely that the Lithuanian hydronyms mentioned were formed on this basis and that Lith. alméti too is a denominal verb based on it, though a considerable semantic shift must of course be accepted: ‘nourish’ (PIE *h₂el-) > ‘produce’ > ‘spring, well’ (AI árma-, Tocharian B ālme) > ‘something related to water/flowing’ (Lithuanian hydronyms) > ‘flood’ (Lith. alméti). Lith. alméti could in any case never have been regarded as a primary verb, i.e. this verb and the hydronyms mentioned are most likely parallel formations from the same base. At the level of ‘something related to water/flowing’ (Lithuanian hydronyms), the forms discussed above that begin with Lith. a and show circumflex intonation could probably also be inserted here, that is, perhaps almuõ (3) m. ‘pus’ and certainly almẽ (4) f. ‘matter issuing from the body’ – acute forms and those beginning with e cannot be reconciled with the supposedly underlying root PIE *h₂el. Returning to Germanic: the root meaning ‘be mouldy, rotten’ is well continued in Germanic. The lexemes represented there mean only this throughout and represent continuants of a root *h₁el(H)-. Positing this root would become unnecessary (and thus fall victim to Occam’s razor) if all Germanic words traditionally derived from it could demonstrably be traced back to the two aforementioned ‘motion-verb roots’, PIE *h₂elh₂- ‘drive somewhere’ (IEW I 306f.; LIV 2001 [1998]: 235) or PIE *h₂elh₂- ‘go aimlessly’ (IEW I 27f.; LIV 2001 [1998]: 264). Unlike Lith. almuõ, almẽ, el̃mės, however, which mean ‘pus, fluid issuing from a dead body’, the Germanic words cannot even remotely be assigned a meaning that could still somehow be connected with a movement (of a liquid). ¹³ Cf. Vanagas 1981: 39f. ¹⁴ Cf. DTB 2013 [1999]: 29, 60; EWAIa I 120. ¹⁵ Cf. EDLIL 35 (s.v. alō). 6 one will therefore do better to retain the traditional view. In German, the following belong to this root: OHG olmo m. ‘rotten, decayed wood’, MHG ulmic, -iges adj. ‘eaten away by decay’ (MH 2: 1721); in German dialects, it can still be attested as ulmig ‘rotten, decayed’ in Alsatian, Palatine, and Westphalian¹⁶; in Thuringian, Ülme ‘notorious area, wet spot in a field’, ülmig ‘wet in places’ belong here as well. All these forms go back to Common Germanic *ulma- ‘decay, rottenness’. In addition, there is also the simplex NHG Ulm ‘rotten wood, mould’ (DW XXIII 754 [Ulm²]). For further etymological connections within and outside Germanic, see EWAhd VI 1168–1171. It remains unclear why OHG olmo m. ‘rotten/decayed wood’ is traced there back to PIE *h₂elh₂- ‘drive somewhere’ (LIV 2001 [1998]: 235) or PIE *h₂elh₂- ‘go aimlessly’ (LIV 2001 [1998]: 264), although the root PIE *h₁elH- exists (traditionally “3. el-: ol- ‘be mouldy, decay’” [IEW I 305]). A West Germanic/Common Germanic derivation *ulm-an- ← West Germanic/Common Germanic *ulma- < pre-Germanic *h₁l(H)-m(n)ó is entirely unproblematic. A family of German place and hydronyms can readily be connected with this etymon, as will be shown below. 2. TEUTONIC ONOMASTICS The place name Ulm and names related to it have so far received three different plausible explanations—and a fourth, which was recognized long ago as untenable. Several other place and hydronyms (Nieder-Olm, Ober-Olm, Ulmbach, another Ulm etc.) have the same etymology as the simplex, and all have medieval preforms of the shape Ulma (in the case of Ulm on the Danube) or Ulmena, Ulmene, Olmena. The following contribution will examine these three explanations for their validity and viability. The name family has often been assigned to the verb Common Germanic *ualle/a-/*uule/a- ‘boil, surge’, secondly to an etymon Common Germanic *ulma- ‘mould, decay’, and finally an Old European hydronym, with the “water-root *el-/*ol-” taken as its starting point. The four approaches just mentioned, and further proposals that need no longer be discussed here, were treated most extensively by Lutz Reichardt (1986: 302–310, especially 307–310). All subsequent works offer neither progress on the matter nor always mention all the proposals. ¹⁶ Cf. Martin, Lienhart 1899: 33; Christmann 1994: 874; Niebaum et al. 2021: 1075; DW XXIII 758. 7 2.1. The names and their traditional explanations Current literature offers the following explanations for the material collected: In DONB (= Niemeyer 2012: 632), Jörn Riecke lists all four solutions proposed to date and explains the place name Ulm as follows: 813 Ulmam... villam (first third of the 12th c.), 854 Hulmam [Or], 856 Ulma [Or]; Ulm (1334) [<...> The place name is based on a multiply attested hydronym, which either—with an inner-Germanic etymology—belongs to the strong verb Germ. *walla- ‘boil, surge’, or—in view of similarly sounding Eastern European hydronyms—is to be interpreted as a pre-Germanic water word (related to *el-/*ol-). A connection with MHG ulmic ‘eaten away by decay’ is linguistically possible, because a semantic development to ‘marshy’ is conceivable. This connection, however, does not explain the origin of the other Ulm hydronyms. The connection with Ulme is excluded because in the Middle Ages the tree was called elm(boum). J. Riecke follows L. Reichardt 1986 here, who names the same three viable possibilities. Neither here nor there is Adolf Bach (1953: 157, 235) cited; he presents the derivation from MHG ulmic ‘eaten away by decay’ alongside the one from *ual(l)- and in turn refers to somewhat older literature. As for excluding the tree name NHG Ulme and its preforms in explaining the place name, one can only agree with J. Riecke (and before him Reichardt 1986: 307f. and Bach 1953: 235): this word is attested only late—at the latest in Old High German or Middle High German—in Gl. 3,40,59 (12th c., Bavarian), and may be a loanword from Latin, although an explanation as a Germanic inherited word cannot be excluded (cf. EWAhd IX s.v. ulm)¹⁷. What Riecke does not mention is that in the place name Ulm, lowering *u > o did not take place, although there is a back vowel in the following syllable (West Germanic *Ulmō-). L. Reichardt (1986: 309f.) explains this by noting that the early attestations are consistently found in Latin documents, where the form of the name was early influenced by Latin ulmus ‘elm’. The name Ulmen (in the Eifel), which Albrecht Greule discusses in DONB 632, also belongs here: ¹⁷ EWAhd IX: Etymological Dictionary of Old High German 9: t–u-, ed. by R. Lühr, prepared by D. S. Wodtko (head of the editorial office), H. Bichlmeier, M. Kozianka, R. Schuhmann, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. The volume is expected to appear in 2026. 8 1074 Ulmena, around 1120–62 ulmene, 1253 Ulmen, 1434 Ulmen. III. The name belongs in a series with the place names Nieder-/Ober-Olm (near Mainz), Ulm (Wetzlar District), Ulm (Rastatt District) and Ulm (Ortenau District), all of which lie on waterways and have Ulmena/Olmena as their basic form. Ulmen (Eifel) lies on the Ulmen Maar. Ulmena, older *Ulmana, is derived by means of an n-suffix from Germanic adj. *(w)ulma- (from *wula- ‘to surge’). A. Greule writes something similar in DGNB 554 about the water name Ulmbach: ²Ulmbach, right tributary of the Lahn (to the Rhine), rises in the Westerwald south of Mademühlen (municipality of Driedorf, Lahn-Dill District, Hesse, Germany), is dammed by the Ulmbach Reservoir to form a lake, and flows into the Lahn at Biskirchen (town of Leun, Lahn-Dill District). – 1000 (12th-century copy) flumen Ovmena (read Olmena), 1313 mitten in de Ulmen, 1325 uff der Ulmene, 1341 zuschin... der Olmene, 1486 (18th-century copy) uff der Vlme; place name Ulm (municipality of Greifenstein, Lahn-Dill District), 1286 de Olmene (and further attestations), 1308, 1328 de Ulmene, 1314 de Olmena (and further attestations), 1321 de Ulmina, 1495 Olmen. – Basic form FIN. Old High German *Ulmana > Middle High German Ulmene/Olmene, derived with an n-suffix from (North) Germanic adj. *wulma- ‘raging’ (Old Norse olmr ‘furious’) from Germanic verb *wul-a- ‘to surge’; FIN. Germanic *wulmanō with loss of initial /w-/ before /u/ > *Ulmana. A series of place names that today are pronounced Olm/Ulm is identical with the river and place name. Other place names, such as Nieder-Olm/Ober-Olm (see Greule 1983: 280–282 as early as), also belong to this name family; overall, Greule 1983: 281 already brings together four place names in Germany whose oldest medieval attestations are Ulmena, Ulmene, Olmene, all going back to Old High German *Ulmana < West Germanic *Ulmanō: Ulm (Wetzlar District), Ulmen (Cochem-Zell District), Ulm (town of Lichtenau, Rastatt District), Ulm (Ortenau District), and he further refers to Olmen in Belgium. In Germany, names containing Ulm(-) are thus found in Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Baden-Württemberg. Neu-Ulm, as the name of a city in Bavaria (Swabian administrative district), is not counted here as a kind of subsequent naming after Ulm. While A. Greule mentions only the Germanic solution connected with Proto-Germanic u̯alle/a-/*u̯ule/a in DONB and DGNB, in his earlier contribution (Greule 1983: 281) he also mentions the possibility of deriving the names belonging to this family from the “water-name root *el-/*ol-,” thus taking up an analysis by H. Krahe (1957: 7f.). With regard to this root, the central statement in Bichlmeier 2024: 18f. (and similarly already in Bichlmeier 2013c: 21) should be recalled once more: For example, neither the Lexicon of the Indo-European Verbs nor the IEW, published as early as 1959, contains a root of the structure *eL-/*ol- that means ‘to flow’ in any appellative formation. Rather, the following are found: “1. el-, ol-, əl-, ‘color root’ meaning ‘red, brown’” (IEW 302–304) [modern: *h₁el-]; “2. el- ‘to rest??’” (IEW 304f.); “3. el-: ol- ‘to be musty, to rot’” (IEW 305) [modern: *h₁el(H)-]¹⁸; “4. el-, ol- sound root” (IEW 306); “5. el-, ol- ‘to destroy, ruin??’” (IEW 306, 777) [modern: *h₃el h₁- (LIV² 298)]; “6. el-, elo-: lā-; el-eu-(dʰ-) ‘to drive, set in motion, move, go’” (IEW 306f.) [modern: *h₁elh₂- (LIV² 235)]; “7. el-, elo-, with -k-extension elk-, elok- ‘hungry, bad’ (?)” (IEW 307); “8. el-, eléi-, lēi- ‘to bend’” (IEW 307–309) [modern: *h₁lei-?]. Taking into account that PIE *o changes to Proto-Germanic and Proto-Baltic *a, the roots just mentioned can consequently yield reconstructed forms with a Proto-Germanic or Proto-Baltic shape *al: PIE *h₁ol(H)-, *h₂el(H)-, *h₂ol(H)-, *h₃el(H)-, *h₃ol(H)- (possibly PIE *a-, *ol-). The following roots must also be added, which could theoretically occur in a water name (as well as others whose occurrence in a water name is unlikely, such as *al- ‘to burn’ [IEW 24–29 passim]): *al- ‘white’ (IEW 29) [modern: *h₂al-]; *al- ‘to nourish, grow’ (IEW 26f.) [modern: *h₂al- (LIV² 262)]; *āl- ‘to wander aimlessly, stray’ (IEW 26f.) [modern: *h₂elh₂- (LIV² 264)]; *alu- ‘bitter’ (IEW 33f.) [modern: *h₂al-?]. The references to “*el-/*ol- ‘to flow’” probably refer to the root listed above under no. 6, which could most plausibly function as a “water-name root.” ¹⁸ In the present context, it should be mentioned that Reichardt 1986: 308 and 309 likewise adopts this error or misinterpretation of the IEW and contributes to its dissemination when he speaks of the “root *el–/*ol– ‘to flow, stream, be moist, be musty’” and on p. 308 even explicitly refers to IEW I 305, where Pokorny does not assign this root the meaning ‘to flow, stream’ at all. 10 In this respect, the omission of this solution in A. Greule’s more recent commentaries on the names discussed here is a step forward. The view preferred in A. Greule’s works cited above is also adopted by Wolf-Armin Frhr. von Reitzenstein (2013: 266f. s.v. Neu-Ulm), with reference to Greule (2007: 105 = 2004: 97); it is also found in Greule (2007: 42 = 1998: 6), and, with reference to the latter, also in Jürgen Udolph (2004: 151). Dieter Berger (1999: 279f.) still treats this explanation as equally valid alongside the derivation from the Old European name mentioned above. It is clear, when one considers the above-mentioned semantic range of the roots, that the Middle High German ulmic, -iges probably belongs to root “3. el-: ol- ‘to be musty, to rot’ (IEW I 305) [modern: *hel(H)-].” It presumably continues Old High German *ulmīg < West Germanic *ulmīga- < Proto-Germanic *ulmīga- < pre-Proto-Germanic *h₁l̥(H)-m. See below for more. 2.2. Analysis of the Previous Explanations of the German Place and Water Names A problem for the Germanic etymology that seeks to establish a connection with Germanic *u̯alle/a- ‘to surge’ or with the zero-grade form of the same root as in the adjective *u̯ulma- (from *wule/a- ‘to surge’, cf. Gothic wulan ‘same’) is the initial Germanic *u of the verb root. The place and water names cited never show it. According to Gothic, however, it was certainly present in the zero-grade root form as well. In any case, this is probably also required by sound laws here, since the root is actually PIE *u̯elH- ‘to roll, surge’ (LIV 2001 [1998]: 677), not, as is usually read in the (older or outdated) literature, PIE *u̯el-. This means that regardless of whether a vowel or consonant followed the zero-grade root in the course of word formation, the vocalization in the resulting phoneme sequence always generated an l̥sonans: pre-Proto-Germanic *u̯l̥H-V/K- > Proto-Germanic *u̯ul-V/K-; compare, for example, PIE *u̯rǵ- ‘to work’ > Proto-Germanic *u̯urk- (and not Proto-Germanic †urk-) in Gothic waúrkjan ‘to work’ and Old High German werken/wurchen¹⁹. If a pre-vocalic Proto-Germanic *u- > West Germanic *u arose in such a form—by whatever process—the latter no longer disappeared in West Germanic (and consequently in Old High German), not even before -u- (cf. Braune, Heidermanns 2023: § 106). Thus, the “loss of initial /w-/ before /u/” occasionally assumed in the studies cited above on place and water names of the form Ulm(-) (DGNB 554; more cautiously already in Greule 1983: 281!) cannot be posited for the name group, since it does not occur in West Germanic. This loss does occur regularly by sound law (before rounded vowels, before r + rounded vowels, and in some other ¹⁹ Cf. Lehmann 1986: W-41; Schützeichel 2012: 402. 11 positions) only in North Germanic20, as shown by the adjective Old Icelandic olmr ‘furious’ (< Old Norse *[u]olma- < Old Germanic *uulma-)21, which is also regularly cited in the literature mentioned above. As a parallel, reference may be made to the Old Icelandic yrkja, preterite orta, corresponding to the Gothic waúrkjan cited above (in contrast also to Old English wyrcan, preterite worhta, and Old High German werken/ wurchen, preterite wor[a]hta). In any event, the Norwegian water name Olma mentioned in the cited literature (Greule 1983; Reichardt 1986) is probably related to Old Icelandic olmr, although the two other etymologies recognized as possible could also be considered here. Consequently, in light of the above, the Norwegian river name Olma can be connected with the Ulm family only if it etymologically does not belong to Old Icelandic olmr, but is either of “Old European” origin or based on Proto-Germanic *ulma- ‘decay, rottenness’ (see below). Unless one assumes that names follow laws different from those of appellatives, one must accept that this traditional etymology, which explains the German names on the basis of *ual(l)-/*uul-, must be rejected. This leaves two possibilities: a further Inner-Germanic one and the Old European one. If one follows the principle that, in etymologizing names, one should resort to an explanation at the next older language stage only when no solution can be found at a younger stage, preference must be given to the Germanic explanation. The Middle High German adj. ulmic, -iges ‘eaten away by decay’ mentioned above, belonging to West Germanic or Proto-Germanic *ulma- ‘decay, rottenness’ or similar, appears unproblematic; one may further add the Old High German olmo m. ‘rotten/decayed wood’, etc., which—as already explained above—also permits these lexemes and the German place and water names to be connected with Baltic linguistic material. Ultimately, J. Riecke (DONB 632 [see above]) already recognized that, in principle, either a Germanic explanation connecting the place name Ulm with Middle High German ulmic or a pre-Germanic explanation is conceivable. However, the statement made in the same place remains incomprehensible: “The connection does not, however, explain the origin of the remaining Ulm water names.” For if an Old High German *ulm is accepted as a basis (only Old High German olmo is attested [see above] < West Germanic/Proto-Germanic *ulm-an- < West Germanic *ulma- < Proto-Germanic *ulma- < pre-Proto-Germanic *h₁l(H)-m(n)ó-), which appears entirely unproblematic, then such a form *ulme could serve as the basis both for the place name Ulma > Ulm and for the above-mentioned water and place names of the type West Germanic *Ulmanō- > Ulmena > Ulm, Ulmen. The naming motive would presumably in each case have been a body of water characterized by decay/rottenness. If one is unwilling to accept this Inner-West-Germanic explanation, one must reckon with an Old European water name. From the above-mentioned palette of a dozen roots recorded by Julius Pokorny in the IEW, the following are most plausible for a water name on semantic grounds: 20 Cf. Noreen 1970: 169–171. 21 Cf. de Vries 1962: 418. 12 – 1. el-, ol-, əl- ‘color root’ meaning ‘red, brown’ (IEW I 302–304) [modern: *h₁el-]; – 3. el-: ol- ‘to be musty, to rot’ (IEW I 305) [modern: *h₁el(H)-]; – 4. el-, ol- sound root (IEW I 306) [modern: *Hel(H)-]; – 6. el-, elo-: lā-; el-eu- (dʰ-) ‘to drive, set in motion, move, go’ (IEW I 306f.) [modern: *h₁elh₂- (LIV 2001 [1998]: 235)]; – *al- ‘white’ (IEW I 29) [modern: *h₂al-/*h₂el-]; – *āl- ‘to wander aimlessly, stray’ (IEW I 26f.) [modern: *h₂elh₂- (LIV 2001 [1998]: 264)]; These roots yield the following possible reconstructions: – 1’: PIE *h₁l̥-m(n)ó- ‘reddish, brownish’, – 3’: PIE *h₁l̥(H)-m(n)ó- ‘musty, rotten’, – 4’: PIE *(H)l̥(H)-m(n)ó- ‘rustling, roaring’, – 6’: PIE *h₁l̥h₂-m(n)ó- ‘moving’ [secondarily (!) → ‘flowing’?], – PIE *h₂l̥h₂-m(n)ó- ‘moving aimlessly’ → ‘meandering’?], – *h₂l̥-m(n)ó- ‘white’. After the loss of the laryngeals, all these forms yield pre-Proto-Germanic *lmo-, which, if borrowed into Germanic early, automatically became *ulma-. 4. SUMMARY 1. The appellatives Lithuanian aléti ‘to flow, drip, run, hurry’, nualéti ‘to overflow, (flood fields)’, almūo (3) m. ‘pus’, álmė (1), almẽ (4) f. ‘matter issuing from the body’, ẽlmės (4) f. pl. ‘same’ were traditionally explained from a single root, but are probably continuants of at least two different Proto-Indo-European roots: on the one hand, one of the ‘verbs of motion’, PIE *h₁elh₂- ‘to drive toward’ or PIE *h₂elh₂- ‘to go aimlessly’ (or a [pre-]Proto-Baltic root *alH-/*elH- resulting from the fusion of the two), and on the other hand, the root PIE *h₁el(H)- ‘to be musty, rotten’. Lithuanian/Baltic water names based on an element *almand the verb Lithuanian almėti, which probably rests on the same basis, are probably to be separated from these etymologically; they probably belong to Sanskrit árma-, Tocharian B ālme, Latin almus, which ultimately rest on the root PIE *h₂el- ‘to nourish, grow’. 2. The first-mentioned roots are further joined by German place and water names (Ulm, etc.) based on a root/derivational basis pre-Old High German/West Germanic/Proto-Germanic *ulma-. This appears in the appellative vocabulary of German, for example in Old High German olmo ‘musty/decayed wood’, Middle High German ulmic, -iges ‘eaten away by decay’. The names are probably original water names designating musty, rotten 13 bodies of water. The basis is Proto-Germanic *ulma- < pre-Proto-Germanic *h₁l(H)-m(n)ó to the root PIE *h₁el(H)- ‘to be musty, rotten’. 3. Deriving the German names from the PIE root *u̯elH- ‘to roll, surge’ is impossible; the name family would have to begin in West Germanic/German with *u̯- > W, and Proto-Germanic/West Germanic *uulm- > Old High German *wulm would have to be expected. 4. It remains theoretically possible that the names continue “Old European,” that is, pre-Germanic water names. In this case, at least the following six roots are possible: – *el-/*ol-/*əl- ‘color root’ meaning ‘red, brown’ (IEW I 302–304) [modern: *h₁el-], – *el-/*ol- ‘to be musty, to rot’ (IEW I 305) [modern: *h₁el(H)-], – *el-/*ol- sound root (IEW I 306) [modern: *Hel(H)-], – *el-/*elə-: *lā- ‘to drive, set in motion, move, go’ (IEW I 306f.) [modern: *h₁elh₂- (LIV 2001 [1998]: 235)], – *al- ‘white’ (IEW I 29) [modern: *h₂al-/*h₂el-], – *āl- ‘to wander aimlessly, stray’ (IEW I 26f.) [modern: *h₂elh₂- (LIV 2001 [1998]: 264)]. A decision in favor of one of these roots is impossible. 5. Since the methodological principle holds that an explanation at a younger language stage should be preferred over one at an older language stage when both are possible without contradiction, the more probable explanation is that the German name family is based on Proto-Germanic/West Germanic *ulma, which can be connected, on the one hand, with Old High German olmo ‘musty, decayed wood’, Middle High German ulmic, -iges ‘eaten away by decay’, etc., and, on the other hand, with Lithuanian words from the semantic field ‘pus’. BIBLIOGRAPHY ALEW 2015: Old Lithuanian Etymological Dictionary [Old Lithuanian Etymological Dictionary] 1–3, under the direction of W. Hock, with the collaboration of E. J. Bukeviciūtė, Ch. Schiller, edited by R. Fecht, A. H. Feulner, E. Hill, D. S. Wodtko, Hamburg: Baar Verlag. Bach Adolf 1953: German Onomastics II: German Place Names 1. Introduction. On the Phonetics and Morphology, Sentence Structure, Word Formation, and Meaning of German Place Names [German Onomastics II: German Place Names 1. Introduction. On the Phonetics and Morphology, Sentence Structure, Word Formation, and Meaning of German Place Names], Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag. Berger Dieter 1999: Duden. Geographical Names in Germany. Origin and Meaning of the Names of Countries, Cities, Mountains, and Bodies of Water [Duden. Geographical Names 14 in Germany. Origin and Meaning of the Names of Countries, Cities, Mountains, and Bodies of Water] 2nd revised ed., Mannheim, Leipzig, Vienna, Zurich: Duden-Verlag. Bichlmeier Harald 2011: Some Fundamental Considerations on the Relationship Between Indo-European Studies and Pre-individual or Old European Onomastics with Some Case Studies (Modern Indo-European Studies vs. Traditional Onomastics, Part 1) [Some Fundamental Considerations on the Relationship Between Indo-European Studies and Pre-individual or Old European Onomastics with Some Case Studies (Modern Indo-European Studies vs. Traditional Onomastics, Part 1)]. – Onomastic Information 95/96, 173–208. Bichlmeier Harald 2013a: Analyse und Bewertung der sprachwissenschaftlichen Standards aktueller Forschungen traditioneller Art zur alteuropäischen Hydronymie aus der Perspektive der heutigen Indogermanistik [Analysis and Evaluation of the Linguistic Standards of Current Traditional Research on ‘Old European Hydronymy’ from the Perspective of Contemporary Indo-European Studies]. – Namenkundliche Informationen 101/102, 397–437. Bichlmeier Harald 2013b: Some Indo-European Remarks on the Presumed Derivation Basis of the Place Name Leipzig: the river name Proto-Germanic *Lībō or the area name Proto-Germanic *Lībía- (with an excursus on the name of the Rhön and an appendix with further considerations on the name of the Elbe) [Some Indo-European Remarks on the Presumed Derivation Basis of the Place Name Leipzig: The River Name *Lībō or the Area Name *Lībía- (with an Excursus on the Name of the Rhön and an Appendix with Further Considerations on the Name of the Elbe)]. – Onomastic Information 101/102, 49–75. Bichlmeier Harald 2013c: On the Linguistic Level of Research into ‘Old European Hydronymy’ – A Reply to a Polemic [On the Linguistic Level of Research into ‘Old European Hydronymy’ – A Reply to a Polemic]. – Acta Linguistica Lithuanica 68, 9–50. Bichlmeier Harald 2024: On ‘Old European Hydronymy’ – or Rather What Remains of It [On ‘Old European Hydronymy’ – or Rather What Remains of It]. – Onomastic Information 115, 17–37. Braune Wilhelm, Heidermanns Frank 2023: Old High German Grammar 1: Phonetics and Morphology [Old High German Grammar 1: Phonetics and Morphology], 17th ed., newly revised by F. Heidermanns, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. Christmann Ernst 1994: Palatinate Dictionary [Palatinate Dictionary] 6, edited by J. Krämer, Wiesbaden: Steiner. de Vries Jan 1962: Old Norse Etymological Dictionary [Old Norse Etymological Dictionary], 2nd revised ed., Leiden: Brill. 15 DGNB: German Water Name Book. Etymology of Water Names and the Associated Area, Settlement, and Field Names [German Water Name Book. Etymology of Water Names and the Associated Area, Settlement, and Field Names], A. Greule, with the collaboration of S. Hackl-Rößler, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2014. DONB: German Place Names Book [German Place Names Book], edited by M. Niemeyer, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2012. DTB 2013 [1999]: A Dictionary of Tocharian B. Revised and Greatly Enlarged, 2 Bde.e., von D. Q. Adams, Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi. DW XXIII: German Dictionary [German Dictionary] 23, by J. Grimm, W. Grimm, Munich: dtv Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 1999. EDLIL: Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, von M. de Vaan, Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2008. EWAhd VI: Etymological Dictionary of Old High German 6: māda – pūzza, edited by R. Lühr, prepared by H. Bichlmeier, M. Kozianka, R. Schuhmann, L. Sturm, Göttingen, Bristol: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017. EWAia I: Etymological Dictionary of Old Indo-Aryan 1, by M. Mayrhofer, Heidelberg: Winter, 1992. Greule Albrecht 1983: The Place Names of the Nieder-Olm Municipality [The Place Names of the Nieder-Olm Municipality]. – Nieder-Olm. The Area of the Municipality, edited by K. H. Spiess, Alzey: Verlag der Rheinhessischen Druckwerkstätte, 280–287. Greule Albrecht 1998: Water-Name Layers in the Lahn River Basin [Water Name Layers in the Lahn River Basin]. – The World of Names. Six Onomastic Contributions, edited by N. Nail, Marburg: Universitätsbibliothek Marburg, 1–17. Greule Albrecht 2007: Etymological Studies on Geographical Names in Europe: Selected Contributions 1998–2006 [Etymological Studies on Geographical Names in Europe: Selected Contributions 1998–2006], edited by W. Janka, M. Prinz, Regensburg: Edition Vulpes. Greule Albrecht 2004: Germanic Water Names Suffixed with -m- [Germanic Water Names Suffixed with -m-]. – Worlds of Names. Place and Personal Names from a Historical Perspective, edited by A. van Nahl, L. Elmevik, S. Brink, Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 93–102. IEW I: Indo-European Etymological Dictionary 1, by J. Pokorny, Munich, Bern: Francke, 1959. Krahe Hans 1957: River (and Place) Names Ending in -mana/-mina [River (and place) Names Ending in -mana/-mina]. – Contributions to Name Studies 8, 1–27. 16 Lehmann Winfred P. 1986: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary: Based on the Third Edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, with Bibliography Prepared Under the Direction of H.-J. J. Hewitt, Leiden: Brill. LitEW I: Lithuanian Etymological Dictionary 1, by E. Fraenkel, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1962. LithED I: Lithuanian Etymological Dictionary 1, by W. Smoczyński, ed by A. Holvoet, S. Young with the assist. of W. Browne, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien: Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2018. LIV 2001 [1998]: Lexicon of the Indo-European Verbs: The Roots and Their Primary Stem Formations [Lexicon of the Indo-European Verbs: Roots and their Primary Stem Formations], under the direction of H. Rix, prepared by M. Kümmel, T. Zehnder, R. Lipp, B. Schirmer, 2nd revised ed., Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag. Martin Ernst, Lienhart Hans 1899: Dictionary of the Alsatian Dialects [Dictionary of the Alsatian Dialects] 1, Strasbourg: Verlag von Karl J. Trübner. MH II: Middle High German Concise Dictionary. Also a Supplement and Alphabetical Index to the Middle High German Dictionary by Benecke-Müller-Zarncke [Middle High German Concise Dictionary. Also a supplement and alphabetical index to the Middle High German Dictionary by Benecke-Müller-Zarncke] 2, by M. Lexer, Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1876. Neri Sergio, Ziegler Sabine 2012: “Horde Nöss”: Etymological Studies on the Thuringian Dialects [“Horde Nöss”: Etymological Studies on the Thuringian Dialects], Hamburg: Hempen Verlag. Neri Sergio, Sturm Laura, Ziegler Sabine 2016: Of Rams, Corpses, and Toads: Etymological Studies on the Thuringian Dialects [Of Rams, Corpses, and Toads: Etymological Studies on the Thuringian Dialects] 2, Hamburg: Hempen Verlag. Damme Robert, ed., 2021: Westphalian Dictionary [Westphalian Dictionary] 5: SI–Z, edited by the Commission for Dialect and Name Studies of the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Neumünster, Kiel, Hamburg: Wachholtz. Noreen Adolf 1970: Old Norse Grammar 1: Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian Grammar (Phonetics and Inflexion Theory) with consideration of Proto-Norse [Old Norse Grammar 1: Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian Grammar (Phonetics and Inflexion Theory) with Consideration of Proto-Norse], 5th unchanged ed., Tübingen: Max Niemeyer. Reichardt Lutz 1986: Place Name Book of the Alb-Donau District and the Urban District of Ulm [Place Name Book of the Alb-Donau District and the Urban District of Ulm]. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer. 17 Reitzenstein Wolf-Armin F. von 2013: Dictionary of Swabian Place Names: Origin and Meaning. Bavarian Swabia [Dictionary of Swabian Place Names: Origin and Meaning. Bavarian Swabia], Munich: C. H. Beck. Rozwadowski Jan 1914–1915: Contributions to the Historical Phonetics of Slavic Languages [Contributions to the Historical Phonetics of Slavic Languages]. – Rocznik slawistyczny 7, 9–23. Schützeichel Rudolf 2012: Old High German Dictionary [Old High German Dictionary], 7th revised and improved ed., Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. SEJL 2024: Etymological Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language, by W. Smoczyński, version dated 30.1.2024; LII, 2308 pp. Access: www.rromanes.org/pub/alii/Smoczyński W. Słownik etymologiczny języka litewskiego.pdf. Southern Mark R. V. 1999: Sub-Grammatical Survival: Indo-European s-mobile and its Regeneration in Germanic, Washington: Institute for the Study of Man. Udolph Jürgen 2004: Suffix Formations in Old Place Names of Northern and Central Germany [Suffix Formations in Old Place Names of Northern and Central Germany]. – Suffix Formations in Old Place Names. Proceedings of an International Symposium in Uppsala, 14–16 May 2004, ed. by T. Andersson, E. Nyman, Uppsala: Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svensk folklkultur, 137–175. Vanagas Aleksandras 1981: Etymological Dictionary of Lithuanian Hydronyms, Vilnius: Mokslas. On the etymology of Lithuanian alėti, almuo, almė, elmės and other words and their relationship to the German place name Ulm and its cognates ABSTRACT 1. The Lithuanian appellatives alėti ‘to flow, drip, run, hurry’, nualėti ‘to spread (of fields), to flood’, almuo (3) m. ‘abscess’, almė (1), almė (4) f. ‘matter discharged from the body’, are traditionally explained as related to one root, although they are derivatives of two different Indo-European roots, namely the root of a verb denoting movement, the Old Indo-European *h₁elh₂- ‘to push, carry’ or the Old Indo-European *h₂elh₂- ‘to wander’ (a derivative of the two old merged Baltic roots *alH-/*elH) and the Old Indo-European *h₁el(H)- ‘to rot’. From an etymological perspective, Lithuanian and Baltic hydronyms with the base *alm and the Lithuanian verb al̀mėti, probably based on the same root, should be distinguished, since they may be related 18 to Old Indic ārma-, Tocharian B ālme, Latin almus and derived from the Old Indo-European root *h₂el- ‘to nourish, grow, cultivate’. 2. German place names and hydronyms (Ulm and others) are also related to the first roots mentioned, formed on the basis of the early Old High German, West Germanic, Old Germanic root *ulm. It is found in German common nouns, for example Old High German olmo ‘rotting, decaying wood’, Middle High German ulmic, -iges ‘rotten, decayed’. Most likely, because of the qualities of the water, hydronyms were named this way first. Their naming basis should be considered Old Germanic *ulma- < early Old Germanic *h₁l̥(H)-m(n)õ, based on the Old Germanic root *h₁el(H)- ‘rotten, decayed’. 3. Derivatives of the Old Germanic root *uelH- ‘to turn, revolve’ are impossible in German names. Such names in West Germanic (German) should begin with *ų- > W-. Then Old Germanic, West Germanic *ųulm should have developed into Old High German *wulm-. 4. From a theoretical perspective, it can be argued that such names are descendants of Old European, i.e. pre-Germanic hydronyms. This may reflect the following six roots: - *eI-/*oI-/*ōI root denoting color ‘red, brown’ (IEW I 302–304) [modern: *h₁el-], - *eI-/*oI- ‘rotten, decayed’ (IEW I 305) [modern: *h₁el(H)-], - *eI-/*oI- root denoting sound, tone (IEW I 306) [modern: *Hel(H)-], - *eI-/*elə-: *l̥a- ‘to push, move, move oneself, go’ (IEW I 306f.) [modern: *h₁elh₂- (LIV 2001 [1998]: 235)], - *al- ‘white’ (IEW I 29) [modern: *h₂al-/*h₂el-], - *āl- ‘to wander, run about’ (IEW I 26f.) [modern: *h₂elh₂- (LIV 2001 [1998]: 264)]. In this case, none of these roots can be relied upon. 5. Considering the methodological principle that, when explaining a later variety of a language, preference is given to the earlier variety, even when the data of both coincide, in this case it would be more convincing to argue that the explanation of this group of German names is connected with the Old Germanic, West Germanic root *ulma-. Attention should then also be paid to Old High German olmo ‘rotten, decayed wood’, Middle High German ulmic, -iges ‘rotten, decayed’ and others, as well as to the Lithuanian words for ‘abscess’. 19