The hydronyms of the Labau, Lämäδ and similar isoglosses in the Ural-Altaic and other languages

The article is a study of the origin of Bashkir hydronyms with anlaut L-, (Labau, Lämäz, and a number of others). Against the background of extensive comparisons of similar hydronyms and appellatives from the Turkic, Altaic, and other Eurasian languages. The author considers several versions of the said hydronyms viz possible origin from the Turkic, Altaic, Uralic or Euroasiatic languages at large. The stem and/or root of Bashkir hydronyms of the Lämäz type may be cognate with such hydronims as Laba in Poland > the Elbe in East Germany, -lej ‘a small river’ in the Volga Finnie languages and with a fair number of similar names of water objects in Europe, Asia and beyond. So, convergence with many of the same-root names of water bodies from several dozen languages and/or dialects is proposed. A large amount of material from the dialects and subdialects of the Bashkir language is involved. A conclusion is proposed about the very great antiquity of the hydronyms containing the anlaut L- in the bases of the LVC phonomorphological type. The answer to the question posed in the article’s title can hardly be definitive, as much further research is needed to clarify many points.