OLD CROATIAN NAMES KEGЬLJ (*KÊGLJA) AND *PRKЬLJ OF BALKAN ROMANCE ORIGIN

Abstract

In the article it’s been scrutinized the etymology of the personal name Kegalj (Kegьlj), hypocoristically *Kêglja, being the name of the first prominent member of (starting from about 1300 AD) Old Croatian, čakavian, noble and later magnate family of counts belonging to the Hungarian nobility, family Kegljević, at first and Kegljin as well, but better known as Keglević (Keglevič, Keglovič), which till the beginning of the 17th c. lived and had seigniories in the teritory of Dalmazia, in the mid-stream of the river Zermagna, within the county of Knin, later in the teritory of Croatia as well, but from then onwards it begun spreading in few branches and transgressing in Hungary, where in the end it got Hungarized. The family was at first part of the litlle tribe or clan named Prklji, that obviously being the plural surname. For the Balcan Romance substratum and consequently previous Romance inhabitants have been witnessed in the very area of the personal name and ethnonym-surname mentioned, in the basin of Zermagna, as well as in the towns of Ervenik and Knin and their surroundings, and the rooths Keg- and Prk- aren’t obviously Slavic and not related to German Kegel “skittle” nor eventually with the kajkavian kehlja of Hungarian origin, it’s been given the following etymology – the personal name Kegьlj, former *Kegljь, before that *Kedljь, had come from Balkan Romance form *Kedlj(u) originated from the Latin personal name (former Latin family surname) Catullius, and ethnonym-surname *Prkьlj, former *Prkljь, had come from Balkan Romance form *Proklj(u), that being the personal name which became a surname there, originating from Latin personal name (former Latin family surname) Proculius. Therefore it’s also been concluded that the family Kegljević were of Romance origin, ie. they were Croatized and čakavized Romance people by origin, and were bilingual, Balkan Romance and Croatian-čakavian – about 1300 AD or in earlier times.