Grahner

[Tom Priestly]

One possible meaning of GRAHNER: someone from Central/Western Slovenia.

The form "Grainer" was very common in the Eastern U.S.A., in states settled
by Slovene immigrants (e.g., Pennsylvania), in reference to themselves - or
in reference to Central Slovenes by non-Central Slovenes. Most of the
Slovene immigrants to this area were from the coal-mining areas of Slovenia
and worked in that and allied industries in the U.S.A.
The word "Grainer" was a corruption of "Krainer," namely, someone from
"Krain" - the German form of Carniola = Central/Western Slovenia - (e.g.,
Oberkrain = Gorenjsko, area to the NW of Ljubljana; Unterkrain = Dolenjsko,
area to the SE of Ljubljana).
There was an article on this by Joe Kess, a linguist at the University of
Victoria, B.C., Canada, several decades ago in a journal devoted to
American Onomastics (was it *American Naming*?)

Tom Priestly

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
*  Tom Priestly
*  President, Society for Slovene Studies
*  Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
*  University of Alberta
*  Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E6
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*  email:           tom.priestly at ualberta.ca
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