On the Toponym of Varna - between Etymology and Ethnohistory (Nazvanie Varna – meždu etimologiej i etnoistoriej)

On the Toponym of Varna - between Etymology and Ethnohistory, The paper discusses the origin of the toponym of Varna and its ethno-linguistic background, related to the founding of the Bulgarian state by Asparuh’s Bulgarians in 680, in the light of new archeological data. It argues in favor of the assumption that when settled between the Pontos and the Balkan Mountains, Proto-Bulgarians denominated Varna the area they had conquered. The Slavic hypothesis of the hydronym/ potamonym type of origin that turned into an urban name related to OBulg. vran’’, which means ‘black (Black River)’ or to I.-E. root *var, OBulg. var’ ‘fervor, swelter’ with further Slavic and Baltic parallels, adj. var’n’, varn’ ‘hot, scorching’, is deemed inconclusive for its insufficiently backed up absence of liquid metathesis in the form and because in the Varna region the Slavic presence dating to 7th c. has not been traced. A Thracian hypothesis, based on the hydronymic nature of the substrate toponymy and on the continuity with pre-Slavic local names is considered. Alleged Thracian tokens from *ver- < Obulg. v’rěti, v’r’ǫ 'boil, spring, wallop' are compared to some Latvian and Lithuanian isogloss with early oikonyms in Prussian. A non-Slavic origin hypothesis of the name Varna is discussed in connection with the I.-E. root *ṷer-/*ṷeru-/*ṷrū- naming fortified places, common in the I.-E. languages, and spread widely in the Indo-Iranian language communities since Antiquity. The author puts forward the thesis of Illirian (Messapian) origin of Gr. Βᾶρις 'large house, tower, castle', > βαυρία, ‘οἰκία’. Preference is given to the idea for an authentic Greek semantic way of evolution with ā >au of the adj. βαρύς ‘lourd’ to 'important'; for Greek βᾶρις, the pre-Greek substrate root *bar(w)- is assumed, with reference to numerous archaic Eurasian toponyms denoting 'fortified place; old castle, fortress'. As the most persuasive solution is taken the Old Iranian form *Varu-, representing a denominative adj. *varu- ‘broad’, which served as a basis for different North Pontic archaic hydronyms, linguistic relicts of the East Iranian dialects. The name *Varu- was used by the North Pontic Iranians to refer to the Dnieper river, it was reflected in Var in the Hun language as described by the Gothic historian Jordanes (6th c.) and in the Pechenegs’ language Βαρούχ in K. Porphyrogenetus (10th c.), with an extension inherent of Ossetian Iron. væraχ, Digor. oræχ, uruχ 'wide'. Herodotus referred to Volga as Ὄαρος, using an ancient Gr. word that matches exactly the Οld Iranian adj. varu- 'wide,' which probably ascends to Βορυσθένης – the first article of the ancient Greek name of the Dnieper. A supposition expressed is that the Old Iranian substantivized adj. *ṷar[u]- could undergo a natural semantic evolution from 'wide, spacious, large' to 'significant, important, huge', and due to this it spread widely initially in hydronyms and subsequently in the European and Asian oronymy and oykonymy. It is only a guess if Iran. *Varu- 'wide, spacious' is likely to have been re-interpreted afterwards as Ṷaro, thus becoming part of Old European hydronymy. This would build a bridge to European hydronyms that share the root *ṷer.