The legendary homeland of Herodotus - Halicarnassos - by interpreting the ending "-assos" as "-at" (alternating "t-s" as in Greel dialects, and ignoring the ending of the nominative case) turns the toponym into (H)alikarneti ("land of (h)alikarni"). Taking into account the suffixes "-et" and "-n-" we come to the root, or rather, to a combination of roots: "(h)ali + kari". The word "kari" in Georgian means "wind" or "door", and "ali" is "flame" or "scarlet". Although, a more likely interpretation is "ali karni" = "red-haired Carians". This part of Anatolia was inhabited by the mysterious Carians, who came from nowhere and spoke a language unknown to the Greeks. It is not known whether they were red-haired, but we already have the right to assume this.
The starting "Ha" may be also the definite article. If so, then we are left with "Ha Lycarnati" (in Greek the name is spelled via the ypsilon). Thus, the stem would be "Lycarni" which is a clear cognate with Lycia, a neighboring land.
No matter how you interpret "Halicarnassos", it does have the Megrelian "-at" suffix.
0 Comments