Talk:Danube

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[edit] It is the only major European river to flow from west to east

"It is the only major European river to flow from west to east," says this article. Similarly, the Red River of the North is reputed to be the only major North American river to flow from south to north. But is that reputation really true? If I inserted an assertion in the article that all other rivers in Europe that flow from west to east are merely exceptions to the rule that the Danube is the only one, how soon would that be deleted, as was the similar statement I made about the Red River of the North? Michael Hardy 02:45 Mar 14, 2003 (UTC)

I guess the Ebro, the Po and the Dniester aren't major enough. Let's remove this remark.Markussep 21:44, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Changed 'Budapesta' to 'Budapest' in figure caption. --Isk s 22:43, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Hi! this page needs the significance of the Danube to Europe commerce. What did the Danube do? How did it effect European culture? (from the page)

[edit] Etymology

I don't think it is correct to say that the word "Donau" is ultimately derived from Iranian *danu. That Iranian (or better: Avestic) word is nothing more than an ancient witness to the Indo-European root *danu (with long a). It is more correct to say that the word "Donau" is cognate with Avestic *danu (as it is with Sanskrit da-nu), both derived from that Indo-European root. Blancefloer 14:04, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree. But the /-au/ suffix of the name (in various languages, such as in German "Donau") has striking similarities to Iranian /au/ (also /av/ or /ab/) meaning "water". The Avestan cognate was apa, of course related to the modern Persian au (pronounced ow) and āb, as well as Kurdish aw (av). Various rivers and cities in Europe, especially in the area where German dialects are spoken, have the same ending, for example the small rivers Pinnau, Gronau, Düpenau and Mühlenau in northern Germany, or the towns and islands Löbau, Lindau, Mainau, Ellerau, and many others. All of these towns are located at either a river or a lake. Anyway, similarities between Celtic and Iranian vocabulary is not uncommon. My favourite example is that of the Celtic word clach, meaning "stone", which is almost identical to the Persian word kolokh, having the same meaning (the Persian word is used for soft stones, while /sang/ is the general term for "stone"). --82.83.152.198 20:50, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

It is odd that all the primary rivers emptying into the Black Sea have accepted Iranic names (Don, Donets, Deniepr, Deniestr...), but for Danube, a distant Celtic term is brandished to be the root! The Danube basin, from its delta to the Panonian Plain (Hungary) was home for long centuries to the Iranic Scythians/Sarmatians/Alans who also named the other afformentioned rivers. How exactly therefore a Celtic term presumed to be the source in preference to an obvious Iranic, sounds more nationalistic than linguistic. This impression fortified by consistently removing even a hint of the possible Iranic source for the name from the article by the zealot contributor, not allowing the readers to have the benefit of the alternative explanation! What a shame.

And by the way, it is not "Iranian", but "Iranic"--a family of languages is suffixed with -ic not -ian, unless there is only one surviving offspring, like Armenian. Thus, Germanic, Celtic, Indic, Iranic...etc. Likewise, it is Avestan, not Avestic. And *Danu is a Scythian derivative not Avestan, although both are Northeastern Iranic tongues) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.243.194.141 (talk) 05:13, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Esperanto

Why do we have the name of Danube in Esperanto ? Bogdan | Talk 21:05, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Why not / De ce nu? Gangleri | Th | T 20:38, 2005 Mar 4 (UTC)
Why not? Because the beginning of the article is overloaded with multi-lingual information. I have reduced the names to those used in the countries through or past which the Danube flows. Other names, if wanted, can be found by consulting the various other-language wikipedias listed in the side bar. -- Picapica 12:24, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I removed Yiddish and Turkish. bogdan 20:07, 14 April 2006 (UTC)
local Yiddish:‫דונער ‬ (duner) and (tyne); Turkish: Tuna
Removed again sme names: Slovenian: Donava, Turkish: Tuna, Croatian: Dunav, Albanian: Danubi bogdan 13:03, 26 April 2006 (UTC)
Danube and eo:Danubo starts with Danu. SeeGangleri|action=history}} Th] | T 20:47, 2005 Mar 4 (UTC).

[edit] Etymology

[edit] A way to improve this article

This isn't nearly good enough for the Danube folks! Any editors fluent in some of the Danube's languages could make translations of the richer material in other Wikipedias. Don't fret about English idiom: give us the meat and the best of the External links, and we'll tweak the wording!

I'll translate some points from the german article. --91.113.90.142 (talk) 09:57, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Brat is Lava

That's funny!

[edit] Large cities

The Danube flows through the following large cities: Krems

Krems is a town of 23,000 people. It's not a "large city" in fact it's pretty small or not... bogdan 17:46, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] List of basin countries - Albania?

Albania seems to be listed as one of the countries through which Danube flows, which is clearly not true. Could someone please correct this error? Uros

It's not an error. There is a river which rises from NE Albania and flows into Drina, which flows into Sava which flows into the Danube. bogdan 14:28, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Get your facts strait people. Ha ha strait not straight. (Wikipedia-geography) get it?

Not in reference to Albania, but Moldova is mentioned in both lists (flowing through and being part of the basin). Are these both true? If so, the wording of the paragraph may need to be changed, since the connector sentence slightly incorrect. Ariasne 20:04, 19 September 2006 (UTC)


How the heck did somebody count the Danube drainage basin area in the Czech Republic? ~2% of the country? Almost the entire Moravia is drained by the Danube, which has to be at least a fifth of the country.

Danube's catchment basin in the Czech Republic covers 31.59% of the country's territory. I thought at first the figures in the article were percentages of the total catchment basin area (not particularly useful information), but this would be incorrect as well as for the Czech Republic, it should be 3.1% rather than 2.6%. --Tomáš Pecina 06:54, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ister?

Ister redirects to Danube, but the article doesn't mention Ister at all, apart from an external link. Speaking of Ister, there should be a picture from Belgrade, showing Sava, Danube and "Ister". Zocky | picture popups 01:29, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Question:

Navigable rivers are rated by "class." What class of river is the Danube?

[edit] Danube in other languages

In the info box, why are the names Why are the names Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Dunav and Dunărea linked? All the links redirect back to the article! Why are they even listed in the box? They are near the top of the article. --Theodore Kloba 15:04, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thalweg

The article stub at Thalweg mentions this article, but this article says nothing about the principle behind it or its use in Europe. I am disappointed, as I sought this article out to explain and exemplify the previous one. Can someone who knows what Thalweg IS add something to this article? Thank you. —ScouterSig 14:33, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Problem with first sentence

The first sentence says:

"The Danube (ancient Danuvius, ancient Greek Ἴστρος Istros) is the second longest river in the European Union and Europe's longest river [1] (the Volga) wih 3,700km (2,300mi)."

Clearly some problems at the end, and that reference link goes nowhere. Can anyone fix? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Zamphuor (talk • contribs) 15:54, 13 April 2007 (UTC).

Sorry, forgot to sign. --Zamphuor 15:56, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Serbia

The percentage for Serbia has been missing in this article since January 2007. Surely there's a number somewhere. --Tocino 00:44, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Introduction

Is there any reason that the introduction gives the name of the river in German and Hungarian but not in Bulgarian, Croatian, Romanian, Slovakian and Serbian. Seems a bit strange to pick just two languages for the intro. JdeJ (talk) 20:47, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Breg is the headstream, not the Brigach

Please refer to de:Breg... Ranma9617 (talk) 05:44, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Serbo-Croatian?

Serbo-Croatian does not exist, there is Croatian and Serbian. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nino2110 (talk • contribs) 10:03, 13 June 2008 (UTC)