>Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> wrote:
>>Quoting Jeff Rollin <jeff.rollin@...>:
>>An old word for Lithuanian (or is it Latvian?) in English
>>is "Lettish".
>Latvian. But I have always assumed "Latvian" and "Lettish" are from
>the same root; anybody know? Of course, "Lithuania" is also
>suspiciously similar ...
From Wikipedia:
Modern scholars tend to connect this name with the Latin "litus" (see
littoral), but no proof exists of any similar regional
hydronym. "Litve", a Latin variant of the toponym, appears in a 1009
chronicle describing an archbishop "struck over the head by pagans in
Lituae". A 16th-century scholar associated the word with the Latin
word "litus" (tubes) — a possible reference to wooden trumpets played
by Lithuanian tribesmen. The country name "Latvia" and its
region "Latgalia" may share the etymology of "Lithuania". A popular
belief is that the country's name in Lithuanian language (Lietuva) is
derived from a word "lietus" (rain), and means "a rainy place".
Charlie