Rhine
The Rhine[note 2] (/raɪn/ RYNE)[3] is one of the major European rivers. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, and Swiss-German borders. After that the Rhine defines much of the Franco-German border, after which it flows in a mostly northerly direction through the German Rhineland. Finally in Germany, the Rhine turns into a predominantly westerly direction and flows into the Netherlands where it eventually empties into the North Sea. It drains an area of 9,973 km2 and its name derives from the Celtic Rēnos. There are also two German states named after the river, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.
This article is about the river. For other uses, see Rhine (disambiguation) and Rhein (disambiguation).Rhine
Celtic Rēnos
- Rhein (German)
- Rhin (French)[1]
- Rijn (Dutch)
- ריין (Yiddish)
- Rien (Limburgish)
- Ragn (Sutsilvan)
- Rain (Romansh)
- Rhi(n) (Alemannic German)
- Rhing (Low Franconian languages)
- Switzerland
- Liechtenstein
- Vorarlberg, South and Western Germany
- Alsace, France
- Luxembourg
- Belgium
- Netherlands
- Val di Lei, Italy
Central and Western Europe
2,345 m (7,694 ft)
Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
Tamins, Graubünden, Switzerland
585 m (1,919 ft)
0 m (0 ft)
1,230 km (760 mi)[note 1]
185,000 km2 (71,000 sq mi)
2,900 m3/s (100,000 cu ft/s)
800 m3/s (28,000 cu ft/s)
13,000 m3/s (460,000 cu ft/s)
The International Commission for the Hydrology of the Rhine Basin (CHR) and EUWID contend that the river could experience a massive decrease in volume, or even dry up completely, within the next 30 to 80 years, as a result of the climate crisis.[4][5]
The Rhine is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe (after the Danube), at about 1,230 km (760 mi),[note 1] with an average discharge of about 2,900 m3/s (100,000 cu ft/s).
The Rhine and the Danube comprised much of the Roman Empire's northern inland boundary, and the Rhine has been a vital navigable waterway bringing trade and goods deep inland since those days. The various castles and defenses built along it attest to its prominence as a waterway in the Holy Roman Empire. Among the largest and most important cities on the Rhine are Cologne, Rotterdam, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Strasbourg, Arnhem, and Basel.
Name[edit]
The variants of the name of the Rhine (Latin Rhenus; French Rhin, Italian Reno, Romansh Rain or Rein? /i, Dutch Rijn, Alemannic Ry, Ripuarian Rhing)[8] in modern languages are all derived from the Gaulish name Rēnos, which was adapted in Roman-era geography (1st century BC) as Greek Ῥῆνος (Rhēnos), Latin Rhenus.[note 3]
The spelling with Rh- in English Rhine as well as in German Rhein and French Rhin is due to the influence of Greek orthography, while the vocalization -i- is due to the Proto-Germanic adoption of the Gaulish name as *Rīnaz, via Old Frankish giving Old English Rín,[9] Old High German Rīn, early Middle Dutch (c. 1200) Rijn (then also spelled Ryn or Rin).[10]
The modern German diphthong Rhein (also used in Romansh) Rein, Rain is a Central German development of the early modern period, with the Alemannic name R(n) keeping the older vocalism. In Alemannic, the deletion of the ending -n in pausa is a recent development; the form Rn is largely preserved in Lucernese dialects.[11] Rhing in Ripuarian is diphthongized, as is Rhei, Rhoi in Palatine. While Spanish has adopted the Germanic vocalism Rin-, Italian, Occitan, and Portuguese have retained the Latin Ren-.
The Gaulish name Rēnos (Proto-Celtic or pre-Celtic[note 4] *Reinos) belongs to a class of river names built from the PIE root *rei- "to move, flow, run", also found in other names such as the Reno in Italy.[note 5]
The grammatical gender of the Celtic name (as well as of its Greek and Latin adaptation) is masculine, and the name remains masculine in German, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian. The Old English river name was variously inflected as masculine or feminine; and its Old Icelandic adoption was inflected as feminine.[13]