Introduction

In my previous post we touched upon the geography and place names around Peloponnesus. We even looked at the name of the Peloponnesus itself, which revealed to us that so-called “Slavic” placenames existed in antiquity as well. Now, in this post we will look at them in even greater detail.

One of the biggest fallacies of the Carpathian theory, which supposes that a mass influx of Slavic migrants from the north swamped the lands and contributed to the change of toponymy.  We saw in the previous post however, that that is not true. I am not denying the reality that there was indeed a migration of “Slavic” peoples into the Balkans, but this was not the sweeping wave it is presented to be. How can someone possibly believe that an enormous influx of “Slavs” swarmed over half of Europe and displaced the entire population that lived there. Today, sixty percent of European countries are Slavic, filled with Slavic speaking people. One must ask, what happened to the previous population? Did they suddenly evaporate out of thin air? And isn’t it normal for a migrant population to take on the language of the people where they move to? For instance, when people move to Germany, they learn German, they don’t impose their own language on the population. Colonisers do this, like the Roman, English and the French. But the “Slavs” were not colonisers.

This should suffice for now on this matter. We will tackle the issue of this alleged mass-migration of Slavs in another, dedicated post.

We will now see that even in the time of Ancient Macedonia, such “Slavic” placenames already existed. This again begs the following conundrum, “how is that possible, when the “Slavs” arrived much later in time?” It then naturally follows that they didn’t arrive from anywhere, but were already here, and those that did arrive were merely returnees, coming back to their old homeland. There can be no other logical explanation. Thus, the famous parable that there was no “Slavomacedonians” in antiquity, and that the Ancient Macedonians do not equal these “Slavomacedonians” crumbles like a house of cards.

First we should mention that Macedonia was divided in Upper and Lower Macedonia, never in south, east, north or west. Upper Macedonia was the northern, mountainous region, while the Lower was the southern, coastal region. That is why the modern designation of North Macedonia makes absolutely no sense. If there is a “North Macedonia”, then naturally there also should be west, east and south Macedonia. Since there is no such thing, there is no such thing as North Macedonia either; there is only one Macedonia, period.  

Lower Macedonia

Let us begin with Lower Macedonia:

The most obvious example that would immediately fall in the eyes of a “Slavic” speaker is the place called Pallene on the Chalcidice peninsula.

Pallene id est Palena means “scorched”, “ignited” in Macedonian, coming from the word “pali/zapali”, “to ignite/set on fire.”  We can even render it as “Palenje (Палење)”, which means “setting on fire”.

According to legend, Zeus did battle there with the Titans and for that reason the land was set on fire, and hence the land was called Phlegra. Phlegra is the “Greek” for ignited, so from this follows that they simply translated Pallene to Greek.

Here we also find the well-known city, Thessaloniki. This is the Greek name for the city, but this is a Macedonian city. It only got the abovementioned name after the partition of Macedonia at the Bucharest summit, with the infamous Bucharest accord at 1913, when sixty percent of the Macedonian ethnogeographic region was handed to Greece.  The proper name is Salonika, or Solun (Солун) in colloquial Macedonian. It was founded by the son of the Macedonian general Antipater, Cassander, and named after Cassander’s wife Salonika, who was the daughter of Phillip II.

Near Pallene we find the city Smila. There are two possible readings for this:

One, that it comes from the compound of “ s + mila”

Two, from the word “smileno”.

In the first reading, “s” signifies the … “so” meaning “with” (it is shortened to “s’” in some eastern dialects, for example “s’sila”, “with force”) and “mila” meaning “nice/pleasant”. So this would give us “with nicety”, “the nice way”.

In the second reading, “smileno” means something that has become dear to you.

For example, “mi se smili chovekot”

“I like the man” or better yet “I’ve come to like the man”.

We also have Smilevo, a village in the Republic of Macedonia.

Other cities include:

Prasilos (Prasil) which is compounded from “pra”, a suffix meaning “too much”, and “silen”, meaning “strong.” In modern Macedonian this looks like “presilen” , “too powerful/strong”.

Sinos, without the Greek suffix gives us “Sin” which can mean either “son” or “blue”. In this case it is most likely the latter as it is a city found near the sea.

On Crete there is a placename called Sivas (Siv/Siva) which comes from “grey”, “siva”.

In this region we also find a place name Leibethra (id est Leivetra, Ley+ vetra). We explained this word in a previous post when we talked about the ancient Macedonian vocabulary, but just a brief reminder we will mention here that it comes from the word for “water spring”, “Leibethron” (Leivetron).

Another place names that clearly sound “Slavic” are: Metona and Pydna.

Furthermore, Solun was located in the region of Mygdonia where we also find:

Gareskos, that is Garesk, another, typical Macedonic construct. There is also the city of Dreabeskos/ Drabesk in the region of Edonia. (Compare to Omsk in Russia, Minsk in Belarus etc … )  

Arethousa (Aretusa) which has a Hittite sound to it (another proof that the Hittites were a Balkan, Macedonic tribe).

Lete – means “summer” in Macedonian (standard form Leto, “lete” in some dialects). It used to mean “year” in older Macedonian speech, and it still does in some “Slavic” languages. Hence the name of the goddess Leto.

In Pieria we can find Galepsos (Galeps) and Oisymne (Oysimne).

South of Pieria, in Botaia we have:

Edessa (compare to Odessa in modern day Ukraine);

Berrhoia (Beroiya);

Mieza (Miesa) named after Miesa, the daughter of Beros, son of Makedon.

Compare Miesa to Maritsa (river), klanitsa (butchery) etc. It’s clear that the “-sa” suffix is Macedonic.

There many other place names that bear that suffix:

Keramitsa, Lagavitsa, Igumenitsa,  near the Prespa region in Greek occupied Aegean Macedonia.

Komitsa, Makrinitsa, near Bulgaria, etc …

Beres too is a Macedonic name, which when we drop the “-es” it gives us Ber (hence place names like Berovo in today Macedonia, Bernica etc …) the aforementioned city Berrhoia carries his name as well.

The two Macedonian capitals, Aigai and later Pella, respectively, are also located in Botaia.

Pella most likely is derived from the name of the tribe, Pelasgi, which, as mentioned previously, if we take it to be read with a “b” instead of a “p” would give us “Bela”, that is “white”. (Hence the Latin/Italian “bella” , “beautiful”).

In the regions of Almopia and Amphaxitida we find the city Europos (Evrop), bearing the name of Europos, one of Makedon’s sons.

Upper Macedonia

From Lower we move to Upper Macedonia, and there we find:

Preveza, from “prevez”, “veil”;

Zitsa id est Zhitsa, from “zhitsa” “wire“;

Vonitsa,

Kozani, from “koza”, “goat”. This is a typical Macedonic construct (cf. Podmochani, Dupeni … all villages in R.O.M).

Another example is Doliani, from “dol”, “valley”, shortened form of “dolina”,  (hence the Gaelic “dol”)  thus the name “the valley ones”.

Here is also the region of Paionia which comprises modern day Republic of Macedonia. )  “Pa” is a “Slavic” prefix that designates something which is located further than a certain thing (in modern Macedonian “-Po” ex. “potamu”, “potaka”) so the  name literally means “after Ionia”

In this region we find the cities:

Argos; the centre of the Pelasgians. In Macedonian it would be “Arg”, derived from the word “ar” meaning “land”. Compare to “argat/argatin” “land tiller”.  Hence “the land” where the Pelasgians thrived.

Stoboi (Stobi, central R.O.M Likely comes from the compound “S + toboi”, “so + tebe” , in Modern Macedonian, meaning, “with you”.

Astibos (Astibo, modern day Shtip, central R.O.M). ); we can see the name remains virtually unchanged even after two thousand and plus years. “A” here is a foreign inclusion and I will explain why later. That gives us the name Stibos, id est Shtibo (remember that Hellenes don’t have the “sht”), which means that later it simply became Shtip, The b > p is an example of a  common Macedonian grammatical trait called “final devoicing”, which allows ease of pronunciation. For example the word for bread, “leb/леб” is pronounced as “lep/леп”. In light of this we can safely say that Shtib > Shtip.  

Antigoneia, bearing the same name as the Macedonian royal name Antigon. Most famous of these is Antigon II Gonatas (Gonat), the ruler of Macedon ( 276-239 BC).

Stenai (Stena); this place name is self-explanatory. Stena means “rock” in Macedonian, hence we have the German “stein”, and the English “stone”.

Doberros (Dober, modern day Debar, in western R.O.M).  Dober comes from  “dobar”, meaning “good”.

Then we have cities like:

Styberra (Stibera), “sti + bera”, “site + beram” in Modern Macedonian meaning “to gather everyone”, thus “S’tibera.

Batyne (Batina).

Pelagonia was also a region, today is the largest field in R.O.M. It bears the name of the Macedonian tribe Pelagonians (Pelagonci). It contains the unmissable prefix of Pela, same as the royal capital, and like it, it is also derived from the Pelasgi.

In Odomantika  we have:

Sirhai (Sira);

Gazoros (Gazor); Could come from the word “gas” (compare to the Russian “gaz”, also “gazirano”, “carbonated”  , in Macedonian).  Nevertheless, many other “Slavic” placenames are formed with the suffix “-or” as well: Pretor (Macedonia), Kotor (Montenegro) etc …

Scotoussa (Skotusa); another Hittite looking construct. Could bear the name of the legendary Scottish Queen, Scota. We’ll expand more on this connection in another post when we look at the Celto-Macedonic connection.

Another region is Parorbelia, called as such for its vicinity to the mountain Orbelos (Belasitsa), which is today in the Bulgarian occupied region of Macedonia. Here we have another example of a translation, but this time into common, colloquial Macedonian, because Orbelos is not a “Greek” word.

It comprises of the word “oros” , which means “mountain” in Koine, but comes from the Macedonian “gora”, (compare to Sveta Gora, Crna Gora (Montenegro) etc …) and “belos” id est “belo” hence, “orobelo”, that is “gora bela”, “white mountain” which what Belasitsa stands for.

Thus, Parorbelia means “after Orbelos (Belasitsa)”, the “r” clearly being a connector for ease of pronunciation since we have two vowels next to each other.

Even when we go further down, deep in Peloponnesus we find a place called Veligosti, which means “grand guests”.

Veli comes from the adjective “velik”, (cf. Alexandar Veliki), but when used as prefix it drops the “k”,  hence we get Veligosti. Other examples include “Velipetok, “grand Friday” (the Friday before Easter).

Gosti is the plural form of the noun “gost”, “guest”; hence the English, and also the German “gast”.

We have Ramnous near Athens, which comes from “ramno”, “flat” (cf. Ramne, a village in Ohrid).

We can find Volos which is an interpetatio Graeca of “vol” meaning “ox” (cf. Veles in central R.O.M) named after the deity Veles or Volos, who was a god of the underworld, crops, but most importantly cattle (hence his name).

There is a place name called Kamena Vorla. Kamena, like Stena is very much obvious and it means stony (It is the feminine form of the adjective) while Vorla comes from an old Macedonic word which means “puddle”. In Modern Macedonian it has become “vir”. Vir comes from the verb “izvira” , “to spring from”, in the sense of water (cf. izvor, water spring)  so the stagnant water (puddle) has been named vir. In this case Vorla could actually be an old word for “izvira”. This gives us the reading of “Stone Spring.”

We have four placenames that bear the name of Livadia or Livada. This name comes from the Macedonic noun “livada” and it means “meadow”.

There is one Livadia on Crete, one in Arcadia, one on the island on Kitira, one near Bulgaria, and one Livadi, meaning “meadows” in the administrative unit of Macedonia.

Notes From Bellow

We can also see Arachova, which comes from rakova, the plural form of the noun “rak”, meaning “crab”. This explanation is offered by one Jacob Phillip Fallmelayer  German scholar from the 19^th century.  In his exhaustive work “Die Geschichte des halbinsel Morea” (The History of the peninsula Morea) Fallmelayer lists many of the placenames in Greece that have a “Slavic” origin, and Arachova is one of them. He explains that the  Greeks, Albanians and Turks all use an “a” before words that begin in consonants (as we saw above with Shtip) so in this case that gives us Rachova (cf. Rakova in Croatia).

Another interesting piece of information that comes from Fallmelayer is that the Peloponnesus peninsula after the “mass” arrival of the Slavs was known as Morea by the locals. He explains how linguists contemporary to him struggled to interpret this name, because they refused to accept its obvious, “Slavic” origin. Morea comes from the word “more”, “sea”, and it simply means “a land of the sea”, or “sea land”.

He also locates in the area around Arcadia what he calls “Peloponnesian Slavonia”. Though his claim is that this shift occurred after the “barbarous settlement”, it is interesting how it coincides with some of the ancient accounts that the Pelasgians originated in Arcadia. If the Pelasgians are the true proto-“Slavs” (which they are) then it would mean that these “barbarous Slavs” are simply remnants of the ancient Pelasgians, infused with fresh arrivals from their northern peoples. Even if they originated further north, they were settled all throughout the peninsula, including Arcadia.

This is crucial for us, because not only does Fallmelayer here expose the faults of contemporary linguists but also the linguists of today who continue perpetuating this aversity towards the “Slavic” languages. They simply refuse to believe that anything coming from their beloved Hellenistic world can be “Slavic”, for the sole reason that it will shatter their romanticised view of the region and its history. The same goes for the modern day Greeks and their government, who stubbornly maintain that there are no (“Slavo”) Macedonians in Greece, that they are the Macedonians; they simply cannot come to terms with the truth that is obviously there.

To these people Fallmelayer sends a powerful message  which can be applied all the same to the modern day Greeks as well:

“If they [Hellenophiles] still want to console themselves with the thought that, even though the ancient families of Hellas have completely perished, they have nevertheless implanted their language and accent of the invading peoples and have uninterruptedly maintained their dominion there, then we must unfortunately rob them of this consolation . . . and declare their faint hope to be a delusion, since it turns out that in the open country in Arcadia and Elis, in Messenia and Laconia, in Boeotia, Phocis and Acarnania, Slavic has been spoken for many generations, just as it is still spoken in Serbia and Dalmatia . . . “

Much like the independent researchers of today, Fallmelayer was branded as a Slavophil by his colleagues and accused of spreading “pan-Slavism”. Yet, he was simply stating the truth.

Fallmelayer clearly asserts that that any connection the modern Greeks had with the ancient world was severed with the arrival of the “savage hordes of Scythian Slavs”, as he calls them. Despite that however, we must correct him, because as we have seen, he is wrong, and we need to go one step further and say that any connection they had was severed when Alexander of Macedon conquered the entirety of “Greece”.

Most of the Greek regions that he enumerates, since the time of Philip have always been historical Macedonian lands, ever comprising the ethnogeographic boundaries of Macedonia until the dreaded year of 1913, when hundred percent in toto of the land was robbed from the Macedonian. His ancestral home was sundered in three, major pieces: 64 percent, including the core of Macedon went to Greece, 30 percent went to Bulgaria and 10 percent went to Serbia; even Albania got 1 percent. All four newly formed nations, each younger than the other, all backed by the West, got their hands on historical Macedonian lands, while the Macedonian was left with the measly peace now forcefully renamed to North Macedonia.