Talk:Croat

Needs etymology

Is this English ethnonym a corruption of Hrvat? 24.29.228.33 22:49, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

English ethnicon Croat is mediated by Latin, whence it came from North-West Slavic xrovat-, itself from Common Slavic *xorvat by liquid metathesis; Common Slavic *xorvat- < Proto-Slavic *xarwāt- attested e.g. in Ancient Greek toponymics such as Χαρβάτι, Χαρβάτι, Χαρβάτα. Croatian self-ethnicon Hrvat is OTOH inherited from Common Slavic variant stem xъrvat-, but both are obviously ultimately derived from the same source, either Iranian, Germanic...there are various theories regarding that. So you can indeed say that it is some kind of a "corruption", but that term is not really appropriate as it's perfectly normal for terms borrowed from languages with radically different phonology and phonotactics to be changed in the language-acceptor. --Ivan Štambuk 01:55, 26 November 2008 (UTC)