The Names of Mulberry (Morus L.) in the Western Balkans

Abstract

The paper analyses the plant names of mulberry (Morus L.) in the languages of the Western Balkans: Modern Greek, Albanian, Aromanian, Istroromanian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian. Mulberry has been of great economic importance to the territory, but it is not indigenous to the peninsula. Literally transplanted, the residents of the Adriatic and the Balkans have since ancient times confused the autochthonous blackberry and the alien mulberry with each other: Alb. man / Dacian preserved the gloss ΜΑΝΤΕΊΑ “blackberry”, Lat. mōrum “blackberry; mulberry” > Arom. amură, Maced. kapinka “mulberry” < “blackberry”. As a result of etymological analysis, all phytonyms are divided into three groups: 1. Inherited words; 2. Loan words; 3. The impact of Semitic languages. Stratigrafically, the oldest native words are: NGr. μουριά, Alb. man and korrozi, Arom. (a)mură (< lat. mōrum). Maced. and Serb./Cr. words with Slavic roots crn- “black”, bel- “white”, bob- “bean Faba”, kapin- “thorny bushes – raspberry, blackberry” etc. These are understood to be connected with the names of other plants and can be late additions or metaphorical. The first occurance of mulberry in the Balkans is reflected in Greek συκάμινος (Semitic borrowing) (> Alb. skamna) and μορέα (supposed to be a fragment of a non-Indo-European Mediterranean substratum). The influence of μορέα was strong – through NGr. μούρα, μουριά it appeared in Alb. mure and Maced. dialects: murenka, murvina, moreyka etc. The third non-Indo-European root came from Asia Minor – Turk. dut; it entered all the languages of concern: Alb. dudё, Mgr. ντουτιά, Arom. dud, Maced. dud, dutka etc., Serb./Cr.: dud, dudinka, dudovina etc. As to late mutual borrowings, the influence of Modern Greek was strongest (esp. on Albanian and Macedonian). On the other hand, in some dialects one can perceive the local influence of South Slavic languages: Arom. cernice, Alb. murvё, morenkё, Istrom. murguacu. The Latin/Dalmatian impact is reflected in phytonyms such as Serb./Cr. murva/murпa over a wide area of the Eastern Adriatic. Though Aromanian is known to be generally influenced by Albanian, in this instance only one Albanian loan-word was found – mănaze (< Alb. manёzё < man).