THE MYSTERY OF THE NAME "MACEDON"
Edouard Selian
American Chronicle
8052
01 July 2009 12:42:36
Macedon or Macedonia was the name of an ancient kingdom in the Balkan
Peninsula of Southeastern Europe. The territory of this kingdom now
is a region in North Greece, Southwestern Bulgaria, and the Republic
of Macedonia.
The neighbors of Macedonians, the Bruges (1) tribes, spoke the
Indo-European language. Initally, one might think that the key to
identifying the meaning of the words "Macedon" and "Macedonia" lies
only in the Indo-European mother language.
In the word "Macedonia" the "-ia" is a suffix as in many words in the
Indo-European languages. Hence, the word that we have to interpret is
"Macedon".
The word "Macedon", from the Indo-European point of view, is a compound
word which consist of two roots: "mac" (mak) and "don". The vowel
character "e" between them is a linking character. Thus, the formal
structure of this compound word is "Mac-e-don".
In the Indo-European languages we have similar words as the last
root-word in "Macedon": "dom" (in many Slavic languages); "domus"
(in Latin language); "dam" (in Sanskrit); "dun" (in Armenian), and
etc. The meaning of "dom", "dam", and "dun" in these languages is
house, homeland, or fatherland. No doubt, the word "don" in "Macedon"
has the same meaning and derives from the Indo-European "dÅ~Lm" (3) –
house, homeland or fatherland as in this mentioned above languages and
has no relation to the Russian river "Don" (2). We see that in Slavic,
Latin, and Sanskrit languages the root always ends with the consonant
"m" (dom, dom-us, dam) with the exception of Armenian. In Armenian
language the root ends in "n" (dun). This exception in Armenian is
believed to be due to the influence of the suffixes in the Hurrian
language (6). Since "don" in "Mace-don" ends in "n", the root-word is
likely a Hurrian word for house or homeland. This raises the question
of whether "mace" is also a Hurrian word.
In some Slavic Indo-European languages we have the word "mac" (a
poppy), but there isn´t information that Bruges (Phrygians) were
familiar with bleating this plant from which opium is made. However,
the meaning of the first root-word in "Macedon," "mac" (mak), in the
Indo-European mother language is "sheep". Similar words as "makaka"
(bleating animals – sheep, goat) we have in Sanskrit, "maki" (female
sheep) in Armenian, and other Indo-European languages (3).
Based on above, the meaning of the compound word "Macedon" is
"Sheep Land" or "The Land of Sheep". However, there is more likely
interpretation of the word "Macedon" after the discovery of one word
in the old Armenian language – "Macenotsats".
In an Armenian history (4), from 9th century, there is a text about a
monastery that´s named "Macenotsats" (belonging to Macedonians). In
"Mace-notsats" we have a suffix "-notsats" (in Classical Armenian
language). Usually there is no need to link the suffix with the name
with a linking vowel. So, "e" is a part of "Mace" (Make) in the word
"Macenotsats". If we assumed that the "e" in "Macedon" is a linking
vowel and "mac" is sheep, then "Mac-e-notsats" would have an absurd
meaning – "a monastery belonging to the sheep" (5). Thus, the letter
"e" is not a linking vowel in "Macenotsats."
The Indo-European mother language doesn´t explain the word "mace"
(make) and for that we looked for a non-Indo-European language to
explain this word. One of these languages was the Hurrian language
which we mentioned earlier. Traces and influence of this language
was found in some Indo-European languages (7).
In the Hurrian language there is a word "maske" (7) meaning
"farmer". The "s" in "maske" dropped out and formed the old Armenian
word "Macenotsats" (Macedonians).
Also, in modern Armenian, there is a word "mshak" (orally pronounced
"m-shak" (9)) – farmer, whose origin is the Hurrian "maske". So,
"mace", as well "mshak" are from Hurrian origin.
Based on above, it´s most probable that "Macedon" is comprised of two
words from Hurrian origin: "make" (farmer) and "don" (house, homeland)
and means "Farmer homeland" (8). We don´t know the real name for the
word "house" or "homeland" in Hurrian because almost all Hurrian nouns
end in a vowel. However, we can reason that this vowel was /i/ as most
nouns in Hurrian ended in /i/. Thus, the word in Hurrian was "doni".
There is one more issue with the Hurrian hypothesis. The Hurrians could
not combine multiple steam to form new words. In Hurrian there were
a large number of suffixes which could be attached to the existing
stems to form new words. The name "Macedon", with two root words,
has no suffixes and was formed by non Hurrian speakers. The language
that these non Hurrian speakers used to form the name "Macedon"
is a mistery.
Bibliographs and Various Comments by the Author 1. The earliest
mentioning of the Bruges are contained in the historical writings
of Herodotus: "The Phrygian equipment was very similar to the
Paphlagonian, with only a small difference. As the Macedonians
say, these Phrygians were called Bruges as long as they dwelt in
Europe, where they were neighbors of the Macedonians; but when
they changed their home to Asia, they changed their name also
and were called Phrygians. The Armenians, who are settlers from
Phrygia, were armed like the Phrygians. Both these together
had as their commander Artochmes". Herodotus "Histories":
u/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Hdt.+7.73
7.73 2. In the Russian language, "don" appears in the Middle
Ages as "The Big Don" and means the river with many channels
or often changing a channel. The ancient Greek called this
rever Tanais.
3. Hr. Acharian. Etymological root dictionary of the Armenian
language. Yerevan, 1977, vol. III, p. 291.and 1979, vol. IV, p. 427.
4. *** Makenotsats place of dwelling — a monastery in province
Gelarkuni, district Sjunik. 828, during the revolt of Babek
…a monastery was ruined (See: Mov. Ð~Zаl., p. 267–268;
Stepanos Orbelian. History of area of Sisakan. Tiflis,
1910, p. 159, in Arm. language, further — St. Orb.).
story-ru/chapter21_30.html#2
5. The word "mace" in some languages means a weapon, a measurement,
a spice and so on, but none of these meanings are appropriate when
one attempts to use them in "Macenotsats monastery."
6. "Extinct language spoken from the last centuries of the 3rd
millennium BCE until at least the latter years of the Hittite
empire (c. 1400-c. 1190 BCE); it is neither an Indo-European
language nor a Semitic language. It is generally believed that the
speakers of Hurrian originally came from the Armenian mountains
and spread over southeast Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia at
the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE. Before the middle of the
2nd millennium BCE, parts of Hurrian territory were under the
control of an Indo-Aryan ruling class, the Mitanni, whose name
was incorrectly applied to the Hurrians by early researchers".
ticle9041610/Hurrian-language See also:
e#Morphology 7. John
Ahmaranian. Hurry-Armenian origins of Abraham. Windsor Productions,
Pasadena, CA, USA, 2004, p. 77 – 89.
8. According to one dictionary
( erm=Macedonia), the Macedonians
were "highlanders" or "the tall ones" because the origin of Greek
"Makedones" is related to the "makednos" (long, tall) or "makros"
(long, large), but linguistically is unclear how from "makednos"
or "makros" was generated "Makedones". Also, the "highlanders" are
usually not "tall".
9. See the Armenian Alphabet pronunciation in: