Folia onomastica Croatica, No. 24, 2015.
Original scientific paper
Pre-Slavic river-names in Croatia which have not been attested in ancient sources
Dubravka Ivšić
orcid.org/0000-0001-5971-6407
; institute of croatian language and linguistics
Abstract
The oldest geographical names on Croatian territory, pre-Slavic toponyms, are
those which existed there before the arrival of Slavic tribes in the 6th/7th century.
The only certain criterion for defining a Croatian toponym as pre-Slavic is its
attestation in ancient sources, i.e. in texts and inscriptions dating prior to the arrival
of the Slavic tribes. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the methodology
of researching Croatian pre-Slavic toponyms which have not been attested in
ancient sources.
This paper studies the names of Croatian rivers longer than 50 km which were
not recorded in ancient sources, but are considered to be of pre-Slavic origin. These
are Bednja, Cetina, Korana, Krapina, Krka, Lonja, Mura, Odra, Pakra, Sutla,
and Una. For each river-name, historical (mediaeval) records are cited and etymological
analyses are given. An attempt is made to state whether the name can
be considered of pre-Slavic origin or how probable its pre-Slavic origin is.
Keywords
toponyms; river-names; hydronyms; pre-Slavic toponyms; mediaeval sources
Hrčak ID:
156920
URI
Publication date:
10.4.2016.
Visits: 4.523 *