Vistula

See also: Vístula

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin Vistula.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪst͡ʃʊlə/
• (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪst͡jʊla/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Proper noun

Vistula

2. The longest river in Poland, which flows into the Baltic Sea.

Translations

Polish river

• Armenian: Վիսլա (Visla)
• Belarusian: Ві́сла f (Vísla)
• Bulgarian: Ви́сла f (Vísla)
• Catalan: Vístula m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 維斯瓦河 / 维斯瓦河 (zh) (Wéisīwǎ Hé)

• Czech: Visla (cs) f
• Danish: Wisla, Wisła, Weichsel, Weichselfloden
• Dutch: Wijssel
• Finnish: Veiksel (fi)
• French: Vistule (fr) f
• Georgian: ვისლა (visla)
• German: Weichsel (de) f
• Hindi: विस्चुला f (visculā)
• Hungarian: Visztula (hu)
• Icelandic: Visla f
• Italian: Vistola f
• Kashubian: Wisła
• Kazakh: Висла (Visla)
• Latin: Vistula f
• Latvian: Visla f
• Lithuanian: Vysla f
• Macedonian: Висла f (Visla)
• Old Church Slavonic: Висла f (Visla)
• Old English: Wīsle f
• Polish: Wisła (pl) f
• Portuguese: Vístula m
• Romanian: Vistula f
• Russian: Ви́сла (ru) f (Vísla)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Висла f

  Latin: Visla (sh) f

• Silesian: Wisła
• Slovak: Visla f
• Spanish: Vístula m
• Turkish: Vüstül
• Ukrainian: Ві́сла f (Vísla)
• Vietnamese: Vi-xoa
• Yiddish: ווייסל (veysl)

Latin

Alternative forms

• Vistla, Visula, Visla, Viscla (all in antiquity already)

Etymology

In the form Visula and Visla at least sometimes directly acquired from Proto-Slavic *Visъla. The form Viscla resolves the /sl/ cluster like in Sclavus, uncommon in Latin, and in Germanic, via which it has sometimes been acquired.

Often explained as from the Proto-Indo-European root *weys- (“to flow”) as in Proto-Germanic *waisǭ (“mire”), although if of Slavic origin then *visěti (“to hang”) would afford a readier stem, suffixed +‎ *-lo +‎ *-a or +‎ *-sla, for which ever reason they would have called it the “hanging river” or “saggy stream”.

Considering how both the Germanic and Baltic cognates clearly shows a long vowel, it is not impossible it may have one in Latin as well, which however cannot be ascertained, as it is hidden quantity.

View of the river

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈwiːs.tʊ.ɫa], [ˈwɪs.tʊ.ɫa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈvis.tu.la]

Proper noun

Vī̆stula f sg (genitive Vī̆stulae); first declension

1. Vistula
   • 551, Jordanes, De origine actibusque Getarum‎^[1], section V:

     Sclavini a Civitate Novidunensi (Mss. : Civitate Nova et Sclavino Rumunensi), et lacu qui appellatur Mursianus (var. : Musianus, Murianus), usque ad Danastrum, et in Boream Viscla tenus commorantur: hi paludes silvasque pro civitatibus habent.

     The Slavs abide from Noviodunum ad Istrum now known as Isákča and the Mursa lake to the Dniester, and farther north up to the Vistula: here they have the swamps and forests for municipalities.

Declension

First-declension noun, singular only.

	singular
nominative	Vī̆stula
genitive	Vī̆stulae
dative	Vī̆stulae
accusative	Vī̆stulam
ablative	Vī̆stulā
vocative	Vī̆stula

References

• “Vistula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Vistula”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “Vistula”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly