''Aach'' (variants ''Ach'', ''Ache''; ''Aa'') is a widespread

Upper German Upper German (german: Oberdeutsch ) is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in the southern German-speaking area (). History In the Old High German time, only Alemannic and Bairisch are grouped as Upper German. In the Middle High G ...

hydronym A hydronym (from el, ὕδρω, , "water" and , , "name") is a type of toponym that designates a proper name of a body of water. Hydronyms include the proper names of rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, swamps and marshes, seas and oceans. As a ...

, from an

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

''aha'' (Proto-Germanic '' *ahwō'') "running water" (ultimately from

PIE A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...

'' *hakʷā-'' "(moving) water"). The word has also been reduced to a frequent suffix ''-ach'' in

Alemannic Alemannic (''Alamannic'') or Alamanni may refer to: * Alemannic German, a dialect family in the Upper German branch of the German languages and its speakers * Alemanni, a confederation of Suebian Germanic tribes in the Roman period * Alamanni (surna ...

and

Austro-Bavarian Bavarian (german: Bairisch , Bavarian: ''Boarisch'') or alternately Austro-Bavarian, is a West Germanic language, part of the Upper German family, together with Alemannic and East Franconian. Bavarian is spoken by approximately 12 million peop ...

toponymy. The word is cognate with

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

'' ǣ'' (reflected in English placenames as ''-ea'', also

Yeo Yeo is a Chinese, English, and Korean surname. Origins As an English surname, Yeo is a toponymic surname meaning "river", either for people who lived near one of the Rivers Yeo, or any river in general. The word comes from Old English , via sou ...

, Eau),

Old Frisian Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries along the North Sea coast, roughly between the mouths of the Rhine and Weser rivers. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Friesl ...

''ē'',

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). It i ...

''aha'',

Low Franconian Low Franconian, Low Frankish, NetherlandicSarah Grey Thomason, Terrence Kaufman: ''Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics'', University of California Press, 1991, p. 321. (Calling it "Low Frankish (or Netherlandish)".)Scott Shay ...

'' Aa'',

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

''á'',

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

''aƕa'', all meaning "river; running water". The Old High German contraction from ''-aha'' to ''-aa'', ''-â'' in compound hydronyms present from an early time (early 9th century). The simplex noun ''aha'' remained uncontracted, however, and Old High German ''-aha'' (Modern German ''-ach'') could be restituted in compounds at any time.''super fluuiolo Geazaha'' a. 782; ''inter Uuiseraa et Fuldaa'' a. 813; ''in pago Uuestracha'' a. 839. H. Menke, "Komposita auf ''-aha, -apa''" in: ''Das Namengut der frühen karolingischen Königsurkunden'' (1980), p. 346. Discussion of the early contraction of ''aha'' > ''â'': D. Schmidt, ''Die Namen der rechtsrheinischen Zuflüsse'', 1970, 123–154. Related is the German ''Aue'' (variant ''Au'') with a meaning "

river island River Island is a London-based, multi-channel fashion brand, founded in 1948 by Bernard Lewis. The retailer has a presence in over 125 of worldwide markets, in stores and online. Best known for its trend focused womenswear offering, River Isla ...

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

riparian woodland A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, sink or reservoir. Etymology The term riparian comes from the Latin word ' ...

", i.e. a cultivated landscape in a

riparian zone A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks ar ...

. It is derived from the same root, but with a ''-yo-'' suffix (Proto-Germanic ''*awjō''). This word was also reduced to a suffix, as ''-au'' (as in '' Reichenau''). It is frequent as a river name, as in

Große Aue The Große Aue (in its upper reaches known as the ''Aue'' and then also the ''Neuer Mühlenbach'' or ''Mühlbach'') is an , southwestern, left tributary of the River Weser in northern North Rhine-Westphalia and central Lower Saxony in Germany. ...

Aue (Elbe) The Aue is a river in northern Germany in the district of Stade in Lower Saxony. It has a length of about . Course The Aue rises in the vicinity of near Ahlerstedt and flows through the towns and villages of: * Ahrensmoor-West, * Ahrenswohl ...

Aue (Weser) The Aue, also known as the Bückeburger Aue, is an approximately long, eastern tributary of the river Weser in the Schaumburg District of Lower Saxony, and in the Minden-Lübbecke District of North Rhine-Westphalia. It flows into the Weser nea ...

, etc., as well as the name of a settlement, as in

Aue, Saxony Aue () is a small town in Germany at the outlet of the river Schwarzwasser into the river Zwickauer Mulde in the Ore Mountains, and has roughly 16,000 inhabitants. It was merged into the new town Aue-Bad Schlema in January 2019. Aue was the ad ...

;

Au, St. Gallen Au is a municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. History Au is first mentioned in 1316 as ''Diken Auwe''. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Azure a Crescen ...

;

Au, Vorarlberg Au is a town in the Bregenz Forest in Vorarlberg (Austria). Geography The town belongs to the Bregenz Forest, is part of the district of Bregenz, and lies in the '' Upper Bregenz Forst.'' 40 percent of its 45 km² area is covered wit ...

;

Au am Rhein Au am Rhein is a municipality in the district of Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after ...

;

Au am Leithaberge Au am Leithaberge is a town in the district of Bruck an der Leitha in Lower Austria in Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern A ...

; etc. The river-name ''Aach'' in Upper Germany is reserved for broad, but non-navigable, running streams with noticeable gradient sufficient to power

water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production o ...

s; it contrasts with ''Fluss'' used for navigable rivers on one hand, and with ''Bach'' for minor brooks or rivulets. An instructive example is

Salzach The Salzach (Austrian: �saltsax ) is a river in Austria and Germany. It is in length and is a right tributary of the Inn, which eventually joins the Danube. Its drainage basin of comprises large parts of the Northern Limestone and Central E ...

, now classed as a ''Fluss'' ("river") but formerly as ''Ache'' as it was only navigable by

raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrel ...

, not by regular riverboats. Hydronymy in ''-ach'' generally indicates a Germanic settlement in the early medieval or

migration period The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...

, while names in ''-bach'' indicate names of the high medieval period.Ute Maurnböck-Mosser, ''Die Haus- und Hofnamen im Gerichtsbezirk Mauerkirchen'', 200, chapters "Die Bildung der Haus- und Hofnamen", "Grundwortverzeichnis"
ute.at
/ref> In French, the

Old Frankish Frankish ( reconstructed endonym: *), also known as Old Franconian or Old Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century. After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul, its speakers in Picardy an ...

form evolved into ''aix'', as in

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...

Aix-les-Bains Aix-les-Bains (, ; frp, Èx-los-Bens; la, Aquae Gratianae), locally simply Aix, is a commune in the southeastern French department of Savoie.

; the Italian reflex is ''-acco''. Hydronyms in '' aar'', ''

ahr Ahr () is a river in Germany, a left tributary of the Rhine. Its source is at an elevation of approximately above sea level in Blankenheim in the Eifel, in the cellar of a timber-frame house near the castle of Blankenheim. After it crosses fro ...

'', ''

acher The Acher is a 53.6-kilometre-long river and right-hand tributary of the Rhine in the county of Ortenau, in the south German state of Baden-Württemberg. It flows in an northwesterly direction from the Black Forest to the Rhine, between the two ...

'' reflect a cognate

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

word.

References

* Dieter Berger: ''Duden, Geographische Namen in Deutschland. Herkunft und Bedeutung der Namen von Ländern, Städten, Bergen und Gewässern'', 2nd ed., Mannheim 1999, * Werner König: ''dtv-Atlas zur deutschen Sprache. Tafeln und Texte''. 10th ed.. dtv-Atlas Nr. 3025, München 1994,

References

See also