Summary
The article includes 33 village-names from the three prefectures of We- stern (Greek) Thrace. For each village a table is given which includes: a. its current name, b. the Turkish name as it was registered in the first official census taken by the Greek State (1920), c. the original Turkish name according to the attempted etymology, and d. its explanation.
After this table an etymological interpretation is maken. Registrations as old as possible of the village names found in Ottoman and Greek censuses, documents and various other sources, are used. Ιn cases wherever it was possible, the Turkish name which is still used in the local verbal tradition is given. When an idiomatic variation of the name is given, an explanation based οη the phonetical laws of the local Turkish dialects is attempted. The etymology is also based οn historical infoήnation about the village.
Some very interesting points of the article are the following:
1. Turkish names having their root in older Byzantine names such as Ir- tzan from. Gratzianu, Efrem-kioi from Efraim, and Tsermen from Tzernomianu. The observation is made that the Byzantine name Gratzianu is still in use for the Turkish name of two villages, called today Gratine and Arisbe (after the change of their name in 1920). The same happened also to the Byzantine Efraim; there is an Efrem in Bulgaria and an Efrem-kioi (its name was changed to Ferygion) in Greece.
2. Very close to Komotene is situated a village called in Turkish Melekli. Αn hypothesis is made that this name is a possible translation of the Byzantine Asomatos which was the name of a Byzantine fortress mentioned by the emperor Ioannes Kantakuzenos (1341-1355). Asomatos is a Greek adjective used as a title for the angels, while in the Turkish language the word melek is used.
3. The phonetical developments of the Thracian Turkish dialects some- times obscure the «etymological transparency» of the village-names. One of them is the dismissal of g. So, we receive a Susur-kioi coming from Su sιgιnkoy (water-buffalo's village), an Urlefrom Ugurlu, an Irtzan from Igncan.
4. Folk etymology often causes a change in the name form and leads t9 «false» change of the name in Greek. So a village named Günükler, which was the name of a Turkish tribe, changed to Güneyler «southern». Αn Etze-kioi (Ece is a Turkish anthroponym) has been related to ince (thin) and was changed to Lepte which in Greek means «thin».
5. The Turkish village-names very often give us information about the economical life of the villages and the profession of the inhabitants during the ottoman period. From a variety of names such as Gkempetzele, Ntolamtsilar, Tsohatzilar, and Tokmak-kioi we learn that the wool industry was an important profession for the Thracians during this period.
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου