Observations sur les hydronymes caspiens

The paper presents a study of several hydronyms and place-names (derived from rivernames) in the southwestern zone of the Caspian Sea, in Gilan and adjoining areas in the province of Ardabil in Iran. The analysis reveals lexical units of highly archaic nature in the geographic nomenclature of the mentioned region, especially among river-names. This concerns not only the forms of Iranian origin, but also those bearing obvious traits of a pre-Iranian linguistic substrate. Particularly, the author postulates such origin for a widespread hydro-toponymic lexeme meaning, as she thinks, “reed” (or “cane”), a characteristic attribute of the local landscape.