This looks rather suspect. To be sure, the
modern Slavic name for the mountains, Karpaty, cannot be very old; it was
borrowed after liquid metathesis and the change of short *a into *o, most
likely about the 8th century. But early Germanic *xarvað- would have become
Common Slavic **xorvod- > **xravod- in dialects related to Croatian. Besides,
where is the "-ian" part? One would definitely expect an ethnonymic suffix like
*-ên(-in)- or *-ak- in a name derived from a mountain range.
The starting point for any sensible
etymology must be *xrvat(-in)-, the form which underlies the attested
versions of the name.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2001 4:54 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Alans, Aryans, etc
To me "Hrvat" looks rather like "Carpath-ians", and in
particular like
a possible Germanicized form *{harfath-}, c.f. the recorded
Old Norse
form "Harvadh-fjollum" (dative plural).