Węgra - dawny hydronim jaćwięski

The article deals with a Baltic etymology of the river name and place name Węgra, earlier Wągra (Northern Mazovia). It is suggested that the hydronym in question derives from Yatvingian *Wungrā and Baltic *Wingrā f. ‛winding, tortuous, crooked [river]’. Yatvingian is the only Baltic language showing the depalatalization of palatalized syllabic resonants at an early period. Three examples of such an exclusive phonological process are carefully reviewed. Two glosses exemplifying the sound change are found in the so-called Polish-Yatvingian dictionary (PYD ), also known as Zinov’s dictionary: Yatv. wułkʃ ‛wolf’ (PYD 25) < Balt. *wilkas, cf. Lithuanian vilkas, Latvian vìlks, OPrus. wilkis ‛id.’; Yatv. wułd ‛to want’ (PYD 3) < Balt. *wiltēi, cf. Lith. vìltis ‛to hope’, Latv. vilt ‛to cheat, swindle, delude’. The third instance, Yatv. wurszajtis ‛an aged priest offering a goat’ (cf. Lith. viršáitis ‛village-mayor, village-chief, elder in a village’, Latv. virsaitis ‛village-mayor’), is mentioned in the 16th century AD in Jan and Hieronim Malecki’s testimony on the Sudovians (i.e. Y atvingians) inhabiting the Sambia Peninsula.271-