Sunday, August 18, 2013

KARTVELIAN TOPONYMS IN ITALY

The Kartvelian toponymic prefix Sa- in combination with Kartvelian roots is quite popular in Italy too. 

The most amazing is the village in Southern Tirol, Trentino, Valle di Non, named Salobio. In Georgia this word is known perfectly well since it's the name of one of the best Georgian restaurants in Mtskheta. Literally 'salobio' means 'place of beans', with 'lobio' being a famous Georgian dish. Compare the name of this Italian village with such Georgian villages as Saniore (place of garlic), Saboloke (place of radish) or Sataple (place of honey).


Mtsheta. Photo of Kartvelian History & Language Research Center

In the province of Friuli-Venetia-Giulia there is a small town named Sachile. It is constructed impeccably from Kartvelian toponymy point of view, and its root - chili - translates from Kartvelian as reedmace. Reedmace is a bog grass, and the town indeed was built on a boggy terrain.

In Lombardia, not far from Milan, there is another town called Samarate. Again, it's the perfect Kartvelian toponymic structure sa+<root>+e, and again, it has a Kartvelian root 'amarta' that mean jasper. The whole Lombardia and Nothern Italy in general has more than few deposits of jasper.

As it has already been told, Torino of XIX century used to have an exciting district Sagorgo, which is translated as 'place of gorgi'. And we already remember that 'gorgi' could be that pan-Kartvelian nation that left the Kartvelian traces all over the Old World.

Sardinia has a town of Sarule, which has all the rights to be translated from Kartvelian as 'place of sleep' for 'ruli' meaning exactly 'a sleep'.

Absolutely astounding is the case of Val de Soane, which was named in honor of the mysterious tribe of... Suaneti (100% coincidence with the famous Georgian province of Svaneti), who are known to have come from Swiss province of Grigioni:

'...I Suaneti erano un antico popolo alpino...'.

The city of Udine used to bear a name of Udene:

...which also is a Kartvelian construction with the negative prefix u- and a suffix of abstract nouns -e. The root 'dena' in Kartvelian means current, stream. So, the word 'udene' means 'absence of current', 'stagnation'. Why would Udine associate with stagnation? Simply because the main toponym of the province is a STAGNANTE Laguna di Marano:

The toponym Rieti exists both in Central Italy as a town and in Georgian municipality of Gori where its known as Kvemo (Upper) Rieti. As to the root's meaning, obviously has something to do with the word Rioni, which is the name of a Georgian river as well as means 'plenty of water'.

A full story about Scupi meaning 'Scythian' can be found in a separate entry, while the toponym of Sascupo is an indirect proof of the Scupi-hypothesis. Besides, it's another Italian toponym constructed by Kartvelian rules and meaning 'place of scupi'. The site with such a name is located in Italian Perugia.

The ancient tribe of Samneti, that used to live around Pescara, may be interpreted from Kartvelian point of view for having the word 'samni' as the root. It means 'three' in Kartvelian, while Samneti were in fact a confederation of three tribes: irpini/caudini, caraceni and pentri.

Incredibly, the hugely popular word 'Latin' also comes from Kartvelian language. Everyone knows that 'latin' is an adjective derived from the province of 'Lazio'. Less people know that Lazio used to be written as Latium. And very few know that 'Latium' has another spelling of 'Laetium'. For example, the province of Lazio is called 'Laetium' here:

It brings us closer to possibly Kartvelian name of this ancient province that had to be 'Laeti'. We already met this name around Spanish Barcelona, where an Iberian tribe of Laieti used to live. The root 'laa' in Megrelian means 'swamp'. And now have a look here:

...where we see a big region in Lazio named Paludi Pontino. 'Paludi' means exactly 'swamp'.
And here is another link that shows that Barcelonian 'Laieti' used to be located among swamps as well:

Venezia (Venetia, Veneto, Venetum), once having been looked as at a part of our pan-Kartvelian system, easily accepts the Kartvelian toponymic suffix -et: Veneti, 'land of veni'. The root 'veni' does not exist in Kartvelian dictionaries in pure form, but the word 'venahi' (ვენახი) does. It means 'vineyard' or 'grapewine'. The Venice wines are well-known and are more than siginficant in Italian wine industry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veneto_wine

The same root can be observed in the name of Venus. Let's make sure that Venus patroned the wine-making:
...Vinalia urbana (April 23), a wine festival shared by Venus and Jupiter, king of the gods.Venus was patron of "profane" wine, for everyday human use. Jupiter was patron of the strongest, purest, sacrificial grade wine, and controlled the weather on which the autumn grape-harvest would depend...".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(mythology)

Ambrones. This was an ethnonym (self-name) of Italian Ligurians. At the same time, 'Ambri' is the name of a giant in Georgian mythology. 'Ambroni' is an adjective, i.e., 'originating from Ambri'. To finish it up, Ambrakia is an ancient city on Greek Ionic coast, founded by... Gorgus, and neighbouring a town of... Katsuli!...

Right between Italian provinces of Liguria and Emilia there is a town called Bedonia. While in Dusheti municipality of Georgia there is a village named Bedoni. The absence of the final 'a' doesn't mean anything significant. In Basque language, for example, it's nothing else but an article - Donostia.

The Sicilian toponym of Ucria relates rather to Ukrainian history than to Georgian, until we stumble upon an Italian surname of Saucro...

The tribe of Peucetii in Apulia is nothing else but 'land of peuci', formed with the help of the same Kartvelian suffix -et. While 'peuci' are 'pechenegs' (compare to Ptolemy's 'peucini' in Ukraine).

The word 'bari' in Kartvelian language means 'a plain'. Is Italian city of Bari located on a plain or not, you can see here:

Yes, it is, the plain is alluvial. This root is also present in the toponym of Barletti (derived from Baruli) and, unexpectedly, in Varese, which used to be called Baretum. Despite that the city is located in the mountaneous region, in fact, it's on a plain.

The tribe of Equeculi, which is placed by Ptolemy in Central Italy, has the Kartvelian suffix -ul too. It is proved by existence of a Kartvelian word ექექი (ekeki). It's a name of a famous Georgian ancient church in Tortomi (now Turkey):

In Northern Italy there can be found an interesting toponym of Samolaco, which looks highly Kartvelian for its either Sa- or Samo- prefix. The possible root of 'laki' (ლაქი) in Kartvelian means 'stain'. "Molaki', correspondingly, means 'stained person', and 'Samolako' means 'place of the stained'.

Finally, the group of Luino, Livo, Livigno and Turris Libisonis is a very likely proof of worldwide presence of 'Lubi' Kartvelian nation, the full story of which is in a separate entry.

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