Question on a Bulgarian name (fwd)

[Iskra Iskrova]

This is not a very common Bulgarian name. I have, personally, never heard it. However, I found tidbits of information in the Bulgarian etymological dictionary published by the Bulgarian Academy. This is my amateur etymological hypothesis:
'Joz' is a lexical entry in the above cited dictionary and it has various meanings in several dialectal areas. Some of them, such as 'heart of a tree' cannot be easily related to humans. The most promising that I found is 'sheep flock' (in use in the Rhodopi and the Kazanlik area). Along with it goes the lexical item jozchija 'shepard' (attested in the Rhodopi) that comes from Turkish jozçu. As pointed out by Michaela Burlikovova -an is a possible first name suffix in Bulgarian (which might well have Turkish origins, but I don't want to venture on that one). If I am on the right track, the name Jozdzhan may simply mean 'the shepard'. The likelihood of this hypothesis will increase if the person who carries this name is either from Turkish descent or comes from the Rhodopi area, in which case there will be convergence of geographic and lexical evidence for such explanation. 

Best, 
Iskra. 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
Iskra Iskrova
Indiana University
PhD student in Linguistics and French
 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Paul B. Gallagher
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 2:07 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Question on a Bulgarian name (fwd)

Edward M Dumanis wrote:

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 19:14:51 -0600
> From: Michael Dumanis <michael_dumanis at hotmail.com>
> To: dumanis at buffalo.edu
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Question on a Bulgarian name (fwd)
>
> I never heard the name Iozdzhan during my year in Bulgaria. It sounds a
> lot like Justin and Jason, doesn't it?

Russian google produced 16 hits (8 of them duplicates) for
        йозджан
(Y-O-Z-D-Zh-A-N), all from Bulgarian sites. No signs of etymological
info, though.

To my ear, it sounds vaguely reminiscent of Johan/John/Ioann/Ivan, but I
can't account for the consonant cluster in the middle.

--
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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