Old High German rāt (from
Proto-Germanic *rēdaz) passed (possibly through
Polish) into the
Czech,
Slovak,
Ukrainian,
Belarusian and
Russian languages. Although some researches like K. P. Stanley et al. argued that contrary to the above stated hypothesis that the
Germanic languages borrowed the words for council and related terms from
Slavic languages. Alternately the source was the
Gothic language radan - 𐍂𐌰𐌳𐌰𐌽 - to council, to deliberate, that passed to
West Slavic in the
Iron Age during the
Wielbark and
Chernyakhov cultures presence along Vistula river and in Western Ukraine, as the term "rada" may be present in such first millennium CE names as Slavic
Radogoszcz,
Radgoszcz,
Radhošť,
Radegost,
Radagast,
Ardagast - Radogost, and Gothic
Radagaisus. The dispersal to
East Slavic Languages, could have happened later, possibly through
Polish.
Råd in
Norwegian,
Danish, and
Swedish,
Rat in
German,
neuvosto or
raati in
Finnish and
nõukogu or
raad in
Estonia/
Dutch mean "council" or "assembly", but also "advice", as it does in
East Slavic (except Russian) and
West Slavic, but not
South Slavic, languages. In Swedish the verb
råda (to
counsel or
recommend is one meaning, the other is to
rule) is based on the substantive
råd. This is similar to Danish
råd (noun) and
råde (verb). ==Examples==