Aa River

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Aa is the name of a large number of small European rivers. The word is derived from the continental common Germanic word aha, cognate to the Latin aqua, meaning water. The following are the more important streams of this name: Two rivers in Latvia, both falling into the Gulf of Riga, near Riga, which is situated between them; a river in the north of France, falling into the sea below Gravelines, and navigable as far as St Omer; and a river of Switzerland, in the cantons of Lucerne and Aargau, which carries the waters of Lakes Baldegger and Hallwiler into the Aar. In Germany there are the Westphalian Aa, rising in the Teutoburger Wald, and joining the Werre at Herford, the Münster Aa, a tributary of the Ems, and others.

In Danish, Aa was the generic word for 'river'. It consisted of the digraph letter aa which, since the mid-20th century, has been written as å. The Anglo-Saxon form of the word was ea, which is nowadays written as eau but persists only in river names. That persistence occurs principally in areas of England which were influenced by Danish culture. In Swedish, closely related to Danish, the form å (never Aa) has always been a generic word for a small river, such as the Fyrisån, while the word älv has been used for larger rivers, such as Dalälven.

Aa River may refer to:

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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  • This page was last modified on 23 July 2008, at 22:51.

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