Editing Sudetes (section)

== Etymology ==
The name ''Sudetes'' is derived from ''Sudeti montes'', a [[Latin]]ization of the name ''Soudeta ore'' used in the ''[[Geographia (Ptolemy)|Geographia]]'' by the Greco-Roman writer [[Ptolemy]] (Book 2, Chapter 10) {{circa|AD 150}} for a range of mountains in [[Germania]] in the general region of the modern Czech Republic.

There is no consensus about which mountains he meant, and he could for example have intended the [[Ore Mountains]], joining the modern Sudetes to their west, or even (according to Schütte) the [[Bohemian Forest]] (although this is normally considered to be equivalent to Ptolemy's Gabreta forest).<ref>{{citation |url=https://archive.org/stream/ptolemysmapsofno00schrich#page/141/mode/1up |page=141 |last=Schütte |title=Ptolemy's maps of northern Europe, a reconstruction of the prototype |publisher=Kjøbenhavn, H. Hagerup |year=1917}}</ref> The modern Sudetes are probably Ptolemy's Askiburgion mountains.<ref>{{citation |url=https://archive.org/stream/ptolemysmapsofno00schrich#page/56/mode/1up |page=56 |last=Schütte |title=Ptolemy's maps of northern Europe, a reconstruction of the prototype |publisher=Kjøbenhavn, H. Hagerup |year=1917}}</ref>

Ptolemy wrote "Σούδητα" in [[Ancient Greek|Greek]], which is a neuter plural. Latin ''mons'', however, is a masculine, hence Sudeti. The Latin version, and the modern geographical identification, is likely to be a scholastic innovation, as it is not attested in classical Latin literature. The meaning of the name is not known. In one hypothetical derivation, it means ''Mountains of [[Wild Boar]]s'', relying on [[Proto-Indo-European language|Indo-European]] *su-, "pig". A better etymology perhaps is from Latin ''sudis'', plural ''sudes'', "spines", which can be used of spiny fish or spiny terrain.