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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
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