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ArchivesKatayun (Katâyûn, an Iranian female forename)
[A reply to an archived message about Caucasian forename “Ketevan”]
Hi
I’m a 21 years old Kurdish boy living in Iran and interesting in linguistics. For me etymology of the Iranian forename, Katayun (~Katâyûn), is fairly interesting since it’s my girl friends name. As she, my girl friend, made me aware Katayûn has several meanings; “queen”, “queen of great kings”, “queen of great countries” and eventually “queen of world” . As you mentioned the forename Ketevan maybe derived from Iranian Katâyûn. So there we get some traces helping us out in case of finding this Iranian forename’s etymology. In Kurdish we have kevanî “housewife” in front of Persian kadbanû. Both Kurdish “kevanî” and Persian “kadbânû” share a same root: kata (house, place, city) + bânû (wife). In my opinion Katâyûn has the same etymology but has gone through a different way of development. In this case Old Iranian kata could mean “1. city, country 2.king, lord” because the current –common- Iranian word for king is “shâh” which etymologically has the same root as shahr (Kurdish shâr, from Avestan xshathra) “city”. There is another evidence that can make it clear Old Iranian “kata” means king too: in archaic Persian and modern Kurdish we have “kay” meant king. This word could be considered to be derived from a Middle Persian word like “kat” < Old Iranian “kata”. There is not any doubt in meaning of the second part, banû. Persians and Kurds nowadays use this world in the mentioned meaning. Therefore we can suppose such development for this Iranian forename: Katabânû > (b>v) Katavân > (v>y, â>û) Katayûn > Katâyûn.
With best regards to you and deepest emotions for my sweet heart Katâyûn
Emanoel Snaza
Hi
I’m a 21 years old Kurdish boy living in Iran and interesting in linguistics. For me etymology of the Iranian forename, Katayun (~Katâyûn), is fairly interesting since it’s my girl friends name. As she, my girl friend, made me aware Katayûn has several meanings; “queen”, “queen of great kings”, “queen of great countries” and eventually “queen of world” . As you mentioned the forename Ketevan maybe derived from Iranian Katâyûn. So there we get some traces helping us out in case of finding this Iranian forename’s etymology. In Kurdish we have kevanî “housewife” in front of Persian kadbanû. Both Kurdish “kevanî” and Persian “kadbânû” share a same root: kata (house, place, city) + bânû (wife). In my opinion Katâyûn has the same etymology but has gone through a different way of development. In this case Old Iranian kata could mean “1. city, country 2.king, lord” because the current –common- Iranian word for king is “shâh” which etymologically has the same root as shahr (Kurdish shâr, from Avestan xshathra) “city”. There is another evidence that can make it clear Old Iranian “kata” means king too: in archaic Persian and modern Kurdish we have “kay” meant king. This word could be considered to be derived from a Middle Persian word like “kat” < Old Iranian “kata”. There is not any doubt in meaning of the second part, banû. Persians and Kurds nowadays use this world in the mentioned meaning. Therefore we can suppose such development for this Iranian forename: Katabânû > (b>v) Katavân > (v>y, â>û) Katayûn > Katâyûn.
With best regards to you and deepest emotions for my sweet heart Katâyûn
Emanoel Snaza
This message was edited 8/4/2007, 12:05 PM
1
Replies
Two interesting points:
1) in our language "kat" means executioner. Relation - probably had been brought in from the East during the crusades.
2) "woman" is often as a second part of name, like "gina" (Regina, Königin (queen, literally King-woman) in our slavic language Kněžna (pronounce kiniezhnah) would be in dialects as "kněgiňa" (pronounced something like kinieginijah) - gina is even in the the "vagina". But here the "woman" is fusing with "evan", which comes close to Eva, Eve, Ivana, Živana Livana, Livia and host of other womens' names, which all of them have one thing in common: "Live". In Slavic languages Life is "život", i.e. Živana is associated with life and so are all these other names. Now if I can get "evan" from Ketevan, it gives the "life" part into the name. Also one might interpret this one name Ketevan in lower or higher ranks, from Queen to just a housewife - but the principle here should be that this is not the single housewife, but "ruler" of her household. That's where all comes together - it might be the lowest and poorest family, but the lady there rules its family and household like a queen.
Now, notice the similarities of King and Queen and Kete - they all start with K (Kveen you might say for Q). And Königine or Kněžna also start with K, followed by "n". Kete - there is K followed by "t" - but where do you create the t? On your upper palate, the same as n. Only n is nasal, but touches the same place in mouth. Therefore in times past, where the characters were not fixed by being written, it was easy to slide from t to n or vice versa. So Kete as queen is very plausible even when looking through the prism of European languages.
For me a wonderful take away here is that "Eve" and "Gina" might come from same base: giving life.
1) in our language "kat" means executioner. Relation - probably had been brought in from the East during the crusades.
2) "woman" is often as a second part of name, like "gina" (Regina, Königin (queen, literally King-woman) in our slavic language Kněžna (pronounce kiniezhnah) would be in dialects as "kněgiňa" (pronounced something like kinieginijah) - gina is even in the the "vagina". But here the "woman" is fusing with "evan", which comes close to Eva, Eve, Ivana, Živana Livana, Livia and host of other womens' names, which all of them have one thing in common: "Live". In Slavic languages Life is "život", i.e. Živana is associated with life and so are all these other names. Now if I can get "evan" from Ketevan, it gives the "life" part into the name. Also one might interpret this one name Ketevan in lower or higher ranks, from Queen to just a housewife - but the principle here should be that this is not the single housewife, but "ruler" of her household. That's where all comes together - it might be the lowest and poorest family, but the lady there rules its family and household like a queen.
Now, notice the similarities of King and Queen and Kete - they all start with K (Kveen you might say for Q). And Königine or Kněžna also start with K, followed by "n". Kete - there is K followed by "t" - but where do you create the t? On your upper palate, the same as n. Only n is nasal, but touches the same place in mouth. Therefore in times past, where the characters were not fixed by being written, it was easy to slide from t to n or vice versa. So Kete as queen is very plausible even when looking through the prism of European languages.
For me a wonderful take away here is that "Eve" and "Gina" might come from same base: giving life.
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FYI: the name Khatoun is (likely) a variation on Katayun.
1