Medjugorje?

[ANNE V. GILBERT]

Mike:

> I know very little about Slavic languages in general, but on reading that
> "Medjugorje" means "between the hills" I immediately turned to a deeper
> source for analyzing the word as medju plus gorje.  It looks like it was
> produced by the same process that produced Mesopotamia, "between rivers".
>
> Does Slavic "medju" point back to the same IE root as Latin/Romance
> "meso"/"medio"?

The only Slavic language I know really well is Russian, and by now what I
know is pretty, well, rusty.  Medjugorje started appearing in the news
aabout 10-15 years ago, as the place where an "apparition" of the Virgin
Mary appeared, and it became famous for having lots of pilgrims in wartorn
Croatia(where it's located).  But pretty much the first time I saw the name
of the place, I immediately "translated" it as "mezhdugore", which would be
"between the hills/mountains" in Russian.  I don't know if  "mezhdu/mejdu"
"points" back to Latin/Romance "meso/medio", but it's certainly a
possibility as Slavic languages all belong to the Indo-European family, as
do English and "Romance" languages.  Maybe there's somebody on this list who
could enlighten us more on this.
Anne G