Slavonic and Greek Traces in the Toponymy of the Region of Vlora, Southern Albania (original) (raw)

Solaki, An., Vamvakidou, I., Papoutzis, L., Kourdis, Ev. (2013). Toponyms in Western Macedonia: borders and their historic ideological project. Menon: Journal of Educational Research Florina, Greece, pp. 178-187.

This presentation refers to toponyms in the broader area of Florina in order to reveal their historic, ideological project. We selected and gathered the total corpus of toponyms which consists of 106 place names. The research question refers to the transformation of toponyms in the specific time and place (western Macedonian borders during 1926(western Macedonian borders during -1929. We focus on the former names that signify a Slavic, linguistic origin, while some of them refer to Turkish, Vlachic and Arvanitic origins. We are interested in the process of renaming these toponyms and particularly in their oral usage. We analyze 10 examples of toponyms in order to find out the historic and ideological variables may signify in. In the process of the interlingual translation we are applying the historic, hermeneutic analysis. A simple definition of hermeneutics is textual interpretation, or, in other words, finding meaning in the written word. Two embedded assumptions of hermeneutics are that humans experience the world through language and this language provides both understanding and knowledge. This method of textual analysis emphasizes the socio-cultural and historic influences on qualitative interpretation. It also exposes connotations.

Slavic elements in the Greek idioms of South Albania

2012

On the basis of previous studies on the Slavic elements of Greek and Albanian (Meyer 1891, 1894, Vasmer 1941, Селищев 1931, etc.), as well as of more recent research on this field (Ylli 1997, 2000, Οικονόμου 2010, etc.), this author examines the Slavic “traces” that occur in the Greek idioms of South Albania (GISA). This study relies on primary sources (field-research), and it focuses on words/ suffixes/ place-names of Slavic origin. Constantly in contact with the Albanian language and considered as a manifestation of continuity/discontinuity of the Greek idioms of Epirus, GISA present, as far as their Slavic elements are concerned, several particularities and asymmetries in relation to the Albanian and the Greek dialects of the broader geographic region.

Albanian place names in Greece ending in -esi, -isi, their relation to ancient toponyms ending in -issos, -ssos, and their ethnological significance

Albanian place names in Greece ending in -esi, -isi, their relation to ancient toponyms ending in -issos, -ssos, and their ethnological significance. Eleftherios P. Alexakis, PhD Chapter in the author’s book: Από τους Αλβανούς στους Αρβανίτες. Η μεταμόρφωση μιας εθνοτικής ομάδας (From Albanians to Arvanites. The transformation of an ethnic group), in press.

Frequent Toponyms of the Croatian Adriatic Islands

The research has focused on the etymological analysis of the toponyms on the islands of the East Adriatic coast which tend to repeat themselves frequently. Besides the Slavic ones (i.e. Kamenišnjak < Cro. kamen (‘stone’), Lupeščina < Cro. lupež (‘thief’), Pišćenjak < Cro. pijesak (‘sand’)), many of the old Romanic toponyms dating from the pre-Croatian era and Early Christian period have been preserved (i.e. Sakarun < Lat. siccus; Rina < Lat. arena; Sabuša < Lat. sabulum; Kluda < Lat. cludere; Sutmiho < Lat. Sanctus Michaelis) as well as the ones from the Venetian reign in Dalmatia (i.e. Tufera < It. tufo; Petrara < It. pietra). The names have been classified into three categories: the toponyms motivated by the characteristics of soil (i.e. Milna < PS *mělъ (‘mud’), Pečeno < Cro. pijesak (‘sand’), Saskinja < Lat. saxum (‘stone’)), the toponyms motivated by piracy (i.e. Stračinska < Saracen pirates, Gonoturska < Lat. portus innganatorum (‘the bay of thieves’), Tatinja < Cro. tat (‘thief’)) and hagionyms exhibiting a reflection of the Old Dalmatian adjective sanctus (i.e. Stomorska < Sancta Maria, Supokrač < Sanctus Pancratius, Sušćepan < Sanctus Stephanus) which can be exclusively found along the coast in the immediate vicinity of the sea. The authors also offer a new theory on the etymology of the name of the island of Čiovo.

The Substratum (Thracian) Place Names in Romania and Bulgaria. Some Thoughts Regarding Methodology and Deontology.

The paper analyses the most relevant situations in the case of the Thracian, occasionally Illyrian, place names and their persistence until now, mainly in the modern territories of Bulgaria and Romania, as well in the adjacent areas. The focus is on the Romanian and Bulgarian place names, the origin of which may be labelled as ‘substratum origin’. The paper also tries to locate approximate areas with different phonetic treatment in the final phases of Thracian, why we are not allowed to postulate ‘several Thracian languages’, and why the data suggest a close relationship between Thracian and Illyrian, rather than divergence. The available data lead to the general conclusion of a vast area of closely related satem idioms—Thracian and Illyrian— with quite clear relations with the Baltic (or Balto-Slavic) and Iranic (or Indo-Iranic) linguistic groups. Not at all rarely, some form suggest a very old, Pre-Indo-European origin, which is in full accordance with the archaeological discoveries, which reveal rich, wonderful cultures and civilisations emerging in the early Neolithic period in the Fertile Crescent, then migrating towards southeast Europe, then north towards the Carpathian basin. The Thracians and the Illyrians, together with the Greeks and the Hittites, were expressions of a cultural mix between the local, indigenous populations and the new comers—the Indo-Europeans. Many place names do support this reconstruction.

Albanian Odonyms in North Macedonia as Means for Preserving Linguistic and Cultural Heritage

Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

This paper analyses some problems related to street names in North Macedonia, the necessity of their translation or adaptation into Albanian, as well as some issues related to the standardization of these names. Street names (odonyms) constitute a prominent feature of a city's linguistic landscape and they are associated with a particular nation in geo-linguistics. As a result, certain political regimes using their authority, influence/change/or do not accept changes in the existing street names and designations. Language itself is a marker of the identity of a group of people and as such carries a symbolic value, especially in cases where two languages are identified with two national communities, which due to several reasons may be in a "conflict". In such situations, state authorities tend to influence in favour of that group that constitutes the dominant part of the nation, giving priority to the language of this group. In general terms, this is also the context in...

Place names and places in Latvia

Valoda nozīme un forma / Language Meaning and Form, 2017

The first part of this article is devoted to the Latvian lexeme vieta 'place', which is a rather rare place name-approximately 200 such toponyms (mostly microtoponyms) occur in the card index of Latvian place names of the Latvian Language Institute (University of Latvia). This is a peculiar generic lexeme, used as the second of what is referred to as an independent component of compound names or collocations, to some extent semantically empty so that without prior knowledge, it is not obvious what type of geographic object is being named. However, it cannot be claimed that the toponymic component vieta has no meaning, as its most common meaning is 'the place, where some object or phenomenon has existed earlier' (Šķūņa vieta, Cepļa vieta), reflecting memories of the past. A rarer alternative is the type of names that are associated with an object that exists at present. Even fewer toponyms with the second component vieta are related to some person (expressing possessive meaning), to some processes, associations, etc. Furthermore, it is surprising that a massive concentration of those vieta-names are found in Eastern Latvia or Latgale. The second part of the article introduces the study of Latvian place names that indicate a location regarding another place name. These are compound names and collocations that have as their first component Augš-'upper-', Apakš-'below', Virs-'over, above', Starp-'between', Zem-'under-', etc. Place names with Kalna-/Kaln-'hill-, upper-and Lejas-/Lej-'valley-, lower-' are very often used as toponymic antonyms (Lejasteteri-Kalnteteri). The most prevalent prefixes, which help to navigate regarding other topo-objects, are Aiz-, Pa-, Pār-; only a few examples have been recorded with the formants Starp-, Iekš-, Priekš-. For this latter type of toponym, another place name or nomenclature word usual serve as an etymon.

Livonian place names: documentation, problems, and opportunities

Eesti ja soome-ugri keeleteaduse ajakiri. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics

Livonian is one of the most endangered languages in Europe. Place names of Livonian origin are found not only where Livonian was recently spoken, but also in territories historically inhabited by Livonians across Latvia. Collection and study of place names in Livonian, however, has been fragmentary and largely occurred as part of other research. Documenting place names through field work is no longer possible, as few Livonian speakers remain and most of them know only already documented place names. This article gives an overview of previous work on research of place names in Livonian and grammatical features of such place names, examines techniques for collecting and reconstructing place names in Livonian using innovative approaches with existing data sources (e.g., harvesting place names from metadata), and explains the need for an authoritative source so Livonian place names can be used on official signage to visually demarcate the Livonian areas of Latvia and restore the Livonia...

THE INDO-EUROPEAN BACKGROUND OF GREECE AND ALBANIA OBSERVED THROUGH THE AREAS' HYDRONYMIC AND TOPONYMIC EVIDENCE Authors

2022

Using the so-called "Nordwestblock", a hypothetical area in Northwestern Europe with unique linguistic interest, firstly proposed by Kuhn (1963) and Gysseling (1960), as a starting point, this paper will research on whether the Old (or Proto-) Indo-European layer, datable from the 4th millennium BC is also apparent in the hydronyms and toponyms of modern day Greece and Albania. To achieve that, a plethora of Indo-European roots is selected based upon the probability of it being representative of this proto-layer, in accordance with local hydronymic and toponymic data. This study aims at complementing findings from research by Krahe (1964) and Woudhuizen (2020) and is the first one, to our knowledge, to particularly examine in tandem, in this sense, the southwest end of the Balkan Peninsula. Hopefully, this research will support the longitudinal investigation of the Indo-European evolution in the area.

Lithuanian toponyms of ethnonymic origin

2022

The aim of this article is to discuss the formation of toponyms derived from ethnonyms in the southern part of Lithuania, known as Southern Aukštaitija ('Southern Highlands'). This semantic group of toponyms differs from base words in both characteristic and meaning. The research of ethnonymic-origin toponyms reveals the ways in which proper names reflect the worldview of the inhabitants of the region. The material for the article was collected from the Geoinformation Database of Lithuanian Toponyms. To explain the origin of toponyms with reference to base words, the Dictionary of Lithuanian Surnames and the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language were used. This research focuses on word formation based on the structural-grammatical classification of hydronyms developed by Lithuanian linguist and etymologist Aleksandras Vanagas. Each group of ethnonymic-origin toponyms studied is divided into primary and secondary toponyms, with the latter category split further into derivatives, composites, and compounds.