Orava (river)

The Orava (Hungarian: Árva) is a river in north-western Slovakia passing through a picturesque country, in the Orava county. Its source is nowadays the Orava water reservoir whose waters flooded the confluence of Biela (White) Orava and Čierna (Black) Orava in 1953. It flows into the river Váh near the village of Kraľovany. It is 62.0 km (38.5 mi) long and its basin size is 1,192 km2 (460 sq mi).[1]

Orava
Hungarian: Árva, German: Arwa, Polish: Orawa
Orava at Dolný Kubín, showing houses of Záskalie neighbourhood
Location
CountrySlovakia
Physical characteristics
SourceOrava reservoir, taking water from White Orava in Slovakia and from Black Orava in Poland
 • locationOrava, Slovakia
 • coordinates49°23′N 19°33′E
 • elevation601 m (1,972 ft)
MouthVáh river
 • location
Kraľovany
 • coordinates
49°09′N 19°09′E
 • elevation
430.7 m (1,413 ft)
Length62.0 km (38.5 mi)
Basin size1,991.8 km2 (769.0 sq mi)
Discharge 
 • locationmouth
 • average34.5 m3/s (1,220 cu ft/s)
 • minimum2.3 m3/s (81 cu ft/s)
 • maximum1,120 m3/s (40,000 cu ft/s)
Basin features
ProgressionVáh→ Danube→ Black Sea

Etymology

The name "Orava" may be of Pre-Slavic or Slavic origin. Pre-Slavic *er-/*or-: fast, swift (swift river).[2][3] Proto-Slavic *or-, *orati: to scream, to roar. Slovak rivers Revúca and Hučava have the same etymology (a roaring river). The similar names from other Slavic countries are e.g. the Croatian river Orljava (1234 Orauua), the Ukrainian river and the village Oriava or Orzawiec (in the river system of Dnieper).[4] The suffix -ava could be derived from Germanic -ahwa (water), but it is typical also for older Slovak hydronyms.[5] The Hungarian name Árva is a phonetic adaptation similar to Okol > Akol, Okoličná > Akalichna, Obuš > Abos , etc.[4]

The earliest records are fl. Arua (1287) and Oravia (1314).[2]

References
  1. Plán manažmentu povodňového rizikavčiastkovom povodí Váhu, p. 72
  2. Majtán, Milan; Rymut, Kazimierz (2006). Hydronymia povodia Oravy [Hydronyms of the Orava River Basin] (PDF) (in Slovak). Bratislava: VEDA, vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied. pp. 89–90. ISBN 80-224-0906-5.
  3. Krško, Jaromír (2009). "Praslovanské apelatíva ako motivanty hydroným povodia Váhu" [Old Slavonic Appellatives as Motivating Words for Hydronyms of the Váh River Basin] (PDF). Slavica Slovaca (in Slovak). Vydavateľstvo Matice Slovenskej (1): 18.
  4. Varsik, Branislav (1990). Slovanské (slovenské) názvy riek na Slovensku a ich prevzatie Maďarmi v 10.-12. storočí (in Slovak). Bratislava: Slovenská akadémia vied. p. 34. ISBN 80-224-0163-3.
  5. Závodný, Andrej (2008). "Distribúcia sufixu -ava v slovenskej hydronýmii" [Distribution of the suffix -ava in the Slovak hydronymy] (PDF). Logos Onomastiky (in Slovak). Donetsk National University (2).
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