From: Dr. Antonio Sciarretta
Message: 11048
Date: 2001-11-06
Could be Greek Boio:tia (boio:tos) < *bHoi- ??? cf. Bajarix, Bojorix, Bohemia, Bavaria (Bajovaria), etc. Perhaps this name came from another IE dialect (where bH->b instead of Greek ph). Boio:tos could be equivalent of Boute:s.
Can you tell me what is this root that seems to form ethnical and personal names ?
However, from a phonetic point of view, Boeotia is perfectly compatible with what postulated by V. Georgiev and others, that brilliantly explained a lot of toponyms in ancient (southern) Greece by supposing the existence of a pre-Greek, but IE language with phonetic features different from Greek. In particular, *bh, *dh, *gh > b,d,g and *p, *t, *k > ph, th, kh. Another important feature would be the maintenance of *s-
This language, attributed to "Pelasgians", would explain for instance
Achelous fl. (Acarnania) < *akw-el- 'water',
Aedepsus (Eubea), cfr. Gk. aitho 'to burn',
Dyme (Achaia) < *dhu-mo- 'dark, smoke',
Inachus fl. (Argolis) < *is-n-@... 'rapid water',
Phaestum (Creta) < *pais-to- 'soot(ed)',
Salamis ins. < *sal-m- 'salted, sea',
Thebai < *(s)tebh- if compatible with the mycenean form te-qa proposed by Joao
various Larissa, -kynthos and -nthos
and many others, more problematic.
Most of these seems to have not a Greek etymology, so that in the past a "Mediterranean" substratum was invoked (or , probably, invented) to explain them.
Other ethnonym with this prefix could be Pho:kos (<*Phoiakos < *BHoy-nko-), instead of folk-etymology from pho:ke: "seal", or even Phaiax.
Is there some etymology for Thessalos (dialectal Phettalos)? *GWHedHyalos?
I found in Georgiev that etn. Thessali < *gw(h?)edh-s- 'to wish, love'. This would be (proto-)Gk., as most of the toponymy of northern Greece, in particular Epirus.