From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 17771
Date: 2003-01-19
----- Original Message -----
From: <andelkod@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 12:08 AM
Subject: [tied] South Slavic name from 820th
> Einhard in his anales mentions one slavic princ in 820th Croatia
> under name Borna.
> I always asked myself what is the meaning of that name. Is it posible
> that this have something with later slavic names Brana or Branko.
> Is it there metathesis of liquids in work.
Yes, I'm almost sure it's the same name. *born- was eventually metathesised to <bran-> throughout South Slavic and in the Czech-Slovak group, and to <bron-> in Polish. The stem of the verb *borniti 'defend' is the first element of a number of dithematic names in Slavic; one example, still very popular in Poland, is <Bronisl/aw>, cf. Bronislaw Malinowski the anthropologist. Any of them may have been abbreviated to <Bron-> plus a hypocoristic ending (Polish Bron-ek, South Slavic Bran-ko, etc.).
> And could the names Porin and Porga (greek source - Porfirogenitus)
> have something in common with Borna, because that could be the same
> person?
They look like different names. If you want some educated guesses, <Porin> seems to be a derivative of *pora 'strength', and <Porga> of *porgU 'obstacle'.
Piotr