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Many place names in Europe survive from before the introduction of Indo-European culture. One pf the fist things people ask is "where are we?", "what river is that?" etc. Of course the answer is usually "Here" or "that's the river", but incoming people don't tend to change a place's name, they just add new locations by creating new settlements. Thessaly appears to be one of these. The various dialect variations point to a common Proto-Greek Kwettalos from which the dialect forms:
Θεττᾰλός (Thettalós) – Attic
Πετθᾰλός (Petthalós) – Thessalian
Φεττᾰλός (Phettalós) – Boeotian
arise normally, but like many other Greek words it can't be traced back to any other Proto-Greek roots or earlier Indo-European forms and is assumed to be a "Pre-Greek" word whose use continued after the arrival of the first Greek speakers in the region following the Aegean collapse (a collapse in culture and population preceding Indo-European expansion comparable to the fall of the Roman Empire in Britain).

This message was edited 9/15/2017, 6:12 PM