Macedonian Names

[Dr. Evil]

Thats why I said: my association, not etymology.
BTW, there are many slavic masc./fem. names srb/cro/pgdm/bg derrived from "GROZD" (bunch of grapes)

Everybody likes wine (woinos , vino) !!!!

[Dr. Evil]

The name Sirras (Σίρρας)

Sirras (Σίρρας), is one of the most specific Macedonian names. It is attested only 3 times and all of them in Macedonia.

1) Sirras from the "Bakkhiad" royal house of Lynkestis was Philip's II maternal grandfather (father of Eurydika) and lived ca. 440?-370? BC.

2) Another Sirras is attested in Lete of Mygdonia around 325 BC

3) And finally, another Sirras is attested in Pella around 100 BC


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What does it mean and is this name Greek or not ?

The starting point of the analysis is the double rr. If the name is Greek and, more specifically, Macedonian then it must follow the general rules of the Macedonian dialect.

When we find a consonant reduplication in Macedonian then the chances are 2:

i) Macedonian, like Thessalian reduplicates the consonant before an /i/ and if a vowel follows , the /i/ is eliminated.

Examples:

-Lakonian Perdikias (<*Peri-dikias "famously just" , cf. eudikia) is found costantly Perdikkas in Thessaly & Macedonia.

- The Thessalian river Titarissos coexists with Titarisios , the name Mnasias in Thessaly is also found Mnassas , meanwhile the name Periandros has been attested as Perrandros in Thessaly. Macedonia provides us with Xennias («Ξεννίαν ἄνδραν μακεδονίζοντα τῇ Φωνῇ») and the two very characteristic Macedonian names Arridaios (hapax Erridaios indicating eri/ari- + dais) and Arrabaios (hapax Errebaios indicating eri/ari- + aba , Aeolic for "hebe" > Arri-aba-ios >> Arrabaios like Thessalian Periandros > Perrandros).

If this is the case then Sirras can be reduced to Sirrias/Sirias , but, unfortunately this reduction does not help us to proceed.

ii) The other possibility for Macedonian & Aeolic reduplication is during one of the so-called Greek Compensatory Lengthenings:

1CL: the intervocalic complexes *sm,sn,sr,sl :

*esmi >> Attic-Ionic eimi , Doric emi , Aeolic emmi
*usmes >> Aeolic & Macedonian ummes , all others humes
*krasna >> Aeolic & Macedonian kranna , Doric krana , Attic-Ionic krene
*khesra >> Attic-Ionic kheira , Doric khera , Aeolic kherra

2CL : The clusters in *ns etc :

*pantia > *pansa > Thessalian pansa , Lesbian paisa , other pasa
*montia > *monsa > Lesbian moisa , most others mousa , Lakonian mosa
gerontia > *geronsia > Attic-Ionic gerousia
*mens > Ionic meis/menos , Attic men/menos , Thessalian meinnos , Lesbian mennos

3CL : The clusters containing the digamma /w/ (the old "digamma" F)

xenwos (Linear B ke-se-no-wo) >> Doric xenwos , Attic-Ionic xeinos/xenos , Aeolic Xennos
perwas >> Attic peras , Ionic peiras , Aeoic perras
korwa >> Attic kore , Ionic koure , Doric korwa , Aeolic & Macedonian korra

What I want you to note from all this is this:

"Where Ionic has spurius diphthongs (ei,ou) and Doric has long vowels (e,o) then in Aeolic (and Macedonian) we expect reduplication !!!"

Furthermore, I would like to remind you that after examining the Macedonian dialect Brixhe concluded that (just like Aeolic) it tends to render e>i & o>u !!!

This means that Sirras can be a variant of Serras and if a compensatory lengthening lies beneath the double /rr/ then there must be variants of Seires / Seras in the other dialects.

Are there ?

With great surprize I found out in Ionian Ephessos the name Seires , that is the expected Ionian variant of Macedonian Sirras (<*Serras) , if a compensatory mechanism is invloved (*Serwas or *Sersas). Plus, I found more Seir- names like the Seirakos attested in Lamia & Aetolia.


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I searched for PIE roots that could help me and bingo, I found this:

The PIE root *ser-"line up"/"put together"/"arrange" , in Greek gave:

URL=http://img293.imageshack.us/i/seriess.png/][/URL]
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Greek : eirein - "line up together in rows" >> "arrange"/"put in order" (*sers/serw >> *seir/serr >> *heir > eir-ein)

Furthermore, the Germanic branch has Gothic sarwa & Old Norse so:rve , which made me choose *serw as the root I was searching for.

If the original Greek name was *Serwas then it's Ionic variant is expected to be Seires and it's Aeolo-Macedonian one Serras >> Sirras (cf. Aeolo-Macedonian κικλήσκετε vs. κεκλήσκετε etc).

Remember:

xenwos gave Ionic xeinos/xenos , but Aeolic xennos
korwa gave Attic kore , Ionian koure , but Aeolic korra
...
and we have *serwas providing us Ionian Seires , but Macedonian Sirras

Furthermore eirein is not the only Greek cognate of *serw ... there is anotherone more obvious :


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Ionic......................: eimi , xeinos , koure , peiras ... seire , Seiras
Doric......................: emi , xenwos , korwa , perwas ... sera
Aeolo-Macedonian...: emmi , xennos , korra , perras ... *Serras >> Sirras

The connection of Sirras with eirein , seira , Seires through *serw seems inescapable .. the only thing left is to find its meaning.

Sinse *serw is linked with "bind together"/"put together"/"arrange in line/raw" it seems to me that Sirras / Seires is linked to seira , just like Tagos is linked to taxis :

Just like Tagos is the commander "who puts the army in taxis" ,
so does Sirras/Seires is the commander "who puts the army in seira" !!!

[Dr. Evil]

The Macedonian name Μόλογρος

Μόλογρος is a hapax attested macedonian name.It is a very rare greek name that has been attested only 2 times in the Peloponnese as Μόλοβρος. The name is linked to homeric μολοβρός meaning "gluttonous"/"greedy". Fortunately, the same name name has occured in the Linear B tablets of Pylos as
Mo-ro-qo-ro , that is as /Mologwros/ with a labiovelar *gw that helps us etymologize it:


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It is a zero-grade form of /Mologworos/ > Μολοβόρος/Μολογόρος meaning literary μολο-βόρος that is "he who eats a lot" :

μολο- an Aeolo-Mycenaean variant of μάλα - "very" (cf. Macedonian γόρπος for καρπός , Aeolic στρότος for στρατός , Arcado-Cyrpiot στόρπα for αστραπή ).

&

-βόρος meaning "eating" (βορά-food realted to voracious)

μόλοβρος finds it's exact synonym in πολυβόρος!!!

About the labiovelar becoming «γ» in Macedonian this is exactly the same case with Boeotian πρεγέα & πρισγεῖες and Cretan πρεῖγυς (<πρέσγυς) instead of "standard" Greek πρεσβεία,πρεσβεῖες & πρέσβυς ... all from *presgwus as you can see in the last lines here !!!

[Dr. Evil]

Ἄσανδρος

Ἄσανδρος is a very frequent name in Thessaly & Boeotia (84 times !!!) , relatively frequent in Macedonia (15 times), but quite rare outside these regions. A hapax variant Ἄσσανδρος has been attested. It is a Thessalo-Macedonian variant of the name Αἰσάνωρ attested hapax in the Peloponnese along with its derivative Αἰσανορίδας.

Ἄσανδρος - Αἰσάνωρ reminded me the couple Ἀλέξανδρος - Ἀλεξάνωρ . So it seemed opportune to me to search for other examples of the first synthetic Αἰσ- appearing as Ἀσ- . The confirmation came from the well known name Αἴσωπος which is also attested as Ἄσωπος / Ἀσωπός and a hapax Ἄσουπος from Macedonia showing the expected (ω > ου) turning just like Thessaly & Boeotia.

A further confirmation of the triad αἰσ- / ἀσ- / ἀσσ- comes from the variants of Aeropos :

Ἀεροπός / Ἀϊροπός / Ἄροπός / Ἀρροπός


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Once the connection between αἰσ- & ἀσ- is made it is interesting to note that in Macedonia (Pieria) we find a stream named Αἴσων , in Boeotia & Sicyon 2 rivers named Ἀσωπός and in the Ionian colony Cyzicus a river named Αἴσηπος . The most famous example comes form Thessaly, where Jason's father was Αἴσων and there was a city in Magnesia Αἰσωνίς named after him.


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The root of the element ἀσ/αἰσ must be linked to the word αἴσιος , which provides Ἄσανδρος / Αἰσάνωρ with the meaning of "righteous man".

[Dr. Evil]

Βορτᾶς

A hapax attested name in Macedonia is that of Βορτᾶς . It is interesting for three dialectal features:

1) The voicing of «π» into «β» , just like the Macedonian variant Βορδῖνος of the common Thessalian name Πορτῖνος.

2) The metathesis «ρωτ» > «ωρτ» and then the shortening of «ωρτ» into «ορτ» due to operation of Osthoff's law:

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Similar examples of Osthoff's Law are Cretan Πορτεσίλας for Πρωτεσίλας (Πρωτεσίλαος), Πόρτων for Πρώτων and the Macedonian region Ἐορδαῖα indicating a Macedonian ἐόρδας for Ἐρωδιός (a waterbird that frequents the lakes of this region).

3) Contraction of the ending -έ(F)ας in -ᾶς , a common feature of many northern greek dialects. Note that the name Ἀπελλέας appears only hapax in this form in Macedonia and 50 times as Ἀπελλᾶς :

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Apply all these 3 features together and you get the "standard" form of Macedonian Βορτᾶς : It is a dialectal variant of Πρωτᾶς itself a variant of Πρωτέας . Both forms have also been attested more than once in Macedonia.

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