Why Do The Baltic & The Balkans Have Similar Names?

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[OkThisllbeMyName]

So basically these two words have no etymological connection

[MichaelOrtega]

Baltic is your favorite word, isn’t it?

[ker]

Please do 1 hour video of you saying "Baltic"

[eurovisioncyan]

Why does Serbia and Siberia have similar names?

[thesuomi]

You mentioned how Baltic Sea is "East Sea" in German and "West Sea" in Estonian but weirdly in Finnish it's also East Sea even though it's southwest from us

[lithuanian_mapper]

I got so excited when I heard someone saying a lithuanian word ^^

[sotik]

Never think that Baltic and Balkan have similar names ....

[Vitalis]

It's worth mentioning that Balkan is quite recent name. Up until Ottoman Conquest, as it were the Turks who called those mountains Balkan, the Balkan Mountains were known as Haemus Mountains and whole peninsula was just Haemus peninsula.

[SaudiHaramco]

People have weird definitions of what sounds similar. Balkans and Baltic... seriously? What's next "why do Canada and Panama have similar names?" Or Albania and Algeria? Cambodia and Cameroon? Mali and Malta? I mean... why would anyone assume there is a connection?

[psalux]

This is a little bit forced. The 2 names are not so similar and I wouldn't have expected a connection.

[ErnestJay]

Brace yourself, "Kosovo is Serbia" comment is coming!!!

[MCharlerySmith]

I live in the Balkans (Greece) and this comes across my mind every so often even up until about 2 days ago. I’m from Britain and have a geography background so I find these types of things really interesting. Enjoyed the Slovenia/Slovakia and Australia/Austria videos when I saw them ages ago too!

[rsabinioan]

Balta in Romanian means “small lake” or “small body of water” coming from the proto-slavic word Baltas (white). The relation between shallow body of waters/swamps and white is that back in the day near swamps there was a widespread presence of the marsh grass called cottongrass, whose the white fluffy seed heads are white
Source: Romanian Dictionnary for etymology and wiktionary

[MvLambda]

The video is nice, though I've noticed a small mistake on the map shown at 2:30 - southernmost part of Croatia, separated from the rest of the country by small Bosnian strip of land was added to the territory of Montenegro.

[alwinpriven]

so the balkan mountains mean "mountain mountains"?

[landravac]

Excuse me, but Croatia and Serbia are completely balkan

[dovkipaul]

the word baltas in Lithuanian literally translates to the colour white

[whowouldwin]

I would make another guess. Bal is a derivative fond form for the word "Beli" in Slavic languages. That word translates as "white". Baltic sea has snow white coast in winter time and Balkan mountains have snow white mountain peaks in winter time. Also I think -kan in Balkan stands for the derivative form of the word "cone"

[simonk.]

Wut? I never thought of them as having similar names

[raitiC]

In Latvian balts = White
In Lithuanian baltas = white
In Russian beliy = White ---> Belarus = White Russia

It obviously means WHITE!!!