Original scientific paper

The Name of Croats

Ranko Matasović

Abstract

This paper uses the oldest attestation of the name of Croats to reconstruct its Proto-
Slavic form as *Xurwāt- > *Xъrvatъ. We then explain why this name figures in the Latin
and Greek documents of the 9th and 10th centuries respectively as Croatae and Khrōbátoi.
Wt then show that all of the hitherto suggested Slavic etymologies of this name are either
implausible or outright impossible. Only the etymology deriving *Xъrvatъ from Iranian
*harw-at- „guardian, protector“ fulfills the criteria of formal derivability, historical plausibility
and semantic probability. However, one needs to assume that this name was borrowed
into Proto-Slavic from Proto-Ossetic or Alanian, because only in that Iranian language there
is a change of *a to *u before a syllable containing *w.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

228825

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/228825

Publication date:

1.6.2019.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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