The Slavic Expansion. Streams, Springs, and Wells

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Slavic Expansion during the 300s–700s poses interesting problems of interpretation (§1). This paper considers ways of procuring water, which is inomissible for any population – whether stable or expanding – and suggests that the Slavic Expansion comprised three modes of settlement, (i) along water courses, (ii) by natural springs, and (iii) dependent on hand-dug wells. The progression through these three modes entailed significant changes in the way of life of the Slavs (§2). They are evidenced by hundreds of placenames derived from words for ‘spring’ (§3) and by the later, widespread semantic change of words for ‘spring’ to ‘well’ and the creation of new words for ‘spring’ (§4). The remarkably diverse Slavic words for ‘spring’ reflect language contacts in the period before the Historical Expansion in the 500s and are of different age (§5). Their modern geographical distributions in ‘spring’ econyms reflect population movements at several stages of the Expansion, beginning centuries before the Historical Expansion (§6). They give indications about the relative locations of the Slavs and the contact languages prior to the Historical Expansion (§7).