Re: [tied] Proto Romanian Cradle

Dear Piotr,

Here is another example of people remembering their (almost forgotten)
ancestors: the Armenian names "Armen" and "Armenuhi". For most Armenians
today these two names are just names. They do not have any special
meaning in Armenian because Armenians call themselves "Hai" in their own
language and their country is "Haiastan".

"And what does all that prove about the origin of the Romanians?" Only
that the Romanians have no recollection at all about their proto cradle
being anywhere else, but Romania (or Dacia).

Best regards,

Paul Alesu

Piotr Gasiorowski wrote:

----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Alesu
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2002 11:15 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Proto Romanian Cradle

> No. The popularity of the first name Dacia in USA is not due to the
fans of
Dacia Maraini (sorry Ms Maraini!). As a fad, one may expect it spread
relatively
even among the population. In USA the first name Dacia is found mostly
related to
Spanish (Mexican) surnames. So, in my opinion, the Spanish colonists
and
immigrants brought this name to Americas over the last five centuries
from
Europe.

Have you heard of any women named Dacia before the 20th century? I've
checked some databases of early
Italian (and other) names -- no Dacias anywhere.

http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/

I'm beginning to suspect that the name Dacia is something quite
different from what we initially assumed --
e.g. a modern pet form of Audacia -- a rare name, but not unheard of.

> About your opinion that, if genuinely old, it would be adjectival
here is a
counter example: the name Argentina is fairly popular, not
Argentiniana.

It would be a counterexample if Argentina were a Classical name, which
it isn't, and if <argentina> couldn't
be an adjective, which it can be (the feminine form of <argentino>,
amigo).

> Anyway, my point was that in Romanian there are not - at least not
popular -
names like, let's say, Dalmatia, Dalmatiana or Dalmatian.

And what does all that prove about the origin of the Romanians?

Best,

Piotr