HEBRAIC WORDS IN SARDINIAN TOPONOMASTICS

Gian Pietro Zara has credit for having published the book I cognomi sardi di origine ebraica (Artigianarte, 1994) that put forward again the same work of Eliezer Ben David issued in 1937. Excluding a flaw, and adding 10% of surnames not investigated by Zara, we have in Sardinia about 400 Hebraic surnames. Very ancient surnames, all originating from 2000 and even 3000 years ago.

The very high number of surnames is without comparison anywhere in the world. Relating that number to the Sardinian dwellers when the surnames appeared, the proportion is even amazing. Sardinia had, around the beginning of the Roman Empire, according to estimates, 2-300,000 people, that is about 30,000 home hearths. Considering that in the ancient age many Jewish families had increased, we aren’t far from acknowledging to have had in Sardinia, even before 19 a.D., at least 6,000 Hebraic families in a total 30,000, a ratio of 1 to 5.

As far as the non-surnaminal words, there aren’t too many. From 6000 Sardian-Semitic headwords analysed, those unequivocally Hebraic are only 2%. Those seem a few but in fact are many, also because the surnames are counted apart. Moreover it is needed to be said that, amongst 6000 Semitic-Sardian reviewed headwords, we have excluded the very numerous headwords that we recognize common in all the spoken languages in the Orient 2-3000 years ago, it being difficult and mistaken to distinguish between a linguistic Hebraic estate and Semitic estate.

The Phoenicians came to Sardinia not in golden loneliness but mixed together the Jewish, and the evidence of that is the little treasure of 50 Hebraic headwords, that didn’t fall from the sky.

The place-name Betilli (Sadali countryside) has an exclusive comparison with bet-El (Hebraic name of the sacred place revealed to Jacob as ‘God home’ and marked by a stone, a betilus). Canahini, ancient curatoria (administrative district) of Gallura, in the Luogosanto countryside, has an exclusive comparison with Hebraic Canahan. Massada, a village now extinct, cannot be separated from the hebraic Massada fallen in 73. Sìnnai isn’t a Sardian invention, but a sign of inextinguishable homesickness left by a Jewish group. Sini is an allomorph of Sinnai. Segossini is from Akk. seχrum Sinai ‘Little Sinai’, and in fact stood against Sinnai village. The Sisini village (Suelli countryside) < Hebraic Seh Sīnai (one of the Yahweh names = ‘that of the Sinai’).

Hafa, the ancient name of Mores village, is connected to Jāfa, place name of Galilea. Romana isn’t from Roma but is a height adjectival, from Hebraic rūm ‘height, altitude’, rōmēm ‘high, lofty’. The cheese Pecorino Romano isn’t made by Romans but by the Jewish dwelling in the Sardinian mountains (from rōmēm). Bruncu Salamu is a Dolianova height dominating the St. George springs, still considered therapeutic. It refers to Bab. šalamu ‘peace, well-being; to become healthy’, identical to Hebraic šalom and the toponym Jeru-šalem. Galilla, ancient name of Villasalto, has its ancestry in Galilea. Galilla was a Sardian tribe. Caillottu is a mildly offensive nickname that those in Armungia and Villasalto use to insult each other, understanding it as cunillottu ‘rabbit, cowardly’, whereas in fact it’s the ancient adjective of the Galilla tribe (< Galilea).

Cuccuru s’Arraxu (Sinnai countryside) is a pleonasm, a repeated name (in Sardian toponomastics it occurs often, when the meaning of a word is lost), and means ‘summit of the summit’, from Hebraic qōdqōd ‘skull, summit’ (pronounced in ancient Sardian cùccuru < *cùccudu) + rōš ‘head’. Giba name < Hebraic gib’a ‘bump, elevation’. The golleis are characteristic flat heights in Baronìa, not very high, < Hebraic gūllā ‘goblet’. Su Gologone too, the most powerful source in Sardinia, has the same root. The Sardian water demon is Maimone < Hebraic maim ‘water’. Fruit is remembered in the toponyms Pirri and Pirrei < Hebr. perrī ‘fruit’, pirreī ‘fruit (of a tree)’. The toponym Orani < Horam (a Canaanite astral deity). So as Gonare toponym. Bidda Mores < Hebr. moreh ‘autumnal rains’ was an ancient village in the Sarrok mountains. Silki, a place now incorporated into Sassari, is < Hebr. Silchi. Monte Sirai, famous height near Carbonia that was inhabited by Phoenicians and Punics, has references in the Ass. Ṣuru, Phoen. Ṣr, Hebr. Ṣôr and means Tyros, better ‘(town of) Tyrioi’. Villa-Sor has the same origin. While Sorres (Borutta countryside) doesn’t mean ‘sisters’ (Sardian sorres) but < Hebr. ṣûr ‘cliff, rock’. Succa surname < Hebr. sukka’ ‘tent’. Talana < Hebr. talā ‘variegated, marked’ referring to land with trees and pastures. S’Arcu Artilai in the Gennargentu mountain < Aramaic talmudic ’artilai ‘nacked’. Arcuerì in the second part remembers Hebr. rē’û ‘shepherd, king-shepherd’ and means ‘the shepherd’s pass’ (in fact is a strategic pass for moving cattle). The same form is Tedderì (‘shepherds’ height’), Costa Rey (‘shepherds’ coast’) and so on.

Arcuentu (understood as ‘wind arc’) is a corruption of Arcu-betu, from Akk. arku ‘high’ + Hebr. bait ‘home’. Benetutti too is Hebraic, from Sardian bene, benas ‘springs’ + Hebr. takat ‘beneath’, and indicates the famous hot springs at the foot of the height where the village was built. The same is the result of Teletottes (Urzulei’s Supramonte), a toponym of the place where a river falls into a hole (< Hebr. peleg-takat ‘river that goes beneath’).

Tola (that is a surname too) has the reference in Hebr. Tola‛ (1 Cr 7,1 and passim) and means ‘scarlet coloured’ appearing as a nomen professionis (used by Jewish of the first wave in 1000 b.C.) to indicate a Jew who loaded the murex for Tyrus (see Toponomastica Sarda p. 56).

Teti toponym is < Hebr. tīt ‘mud’. Torralba isn’t a ‘white tower’ (Lat. alba ‘white’) but a ‘waste, uncultivated height’ < Aram. Tur ‘height’ + arbu ‘uncultivated’. The Hebr. shoah ‘ruine, destruction’ is repeated in Sardinia with the same meaning (Campidanian iterative šu-šu ‘ruin, destruction’).

Tsìppiri is the ‘rosemary’ < Hebr. sapīr, safīr ‘lapislazuli, sapphire’ (for his flowers colour). Zuri < Hebr. Zur (1Cr 8,30). Zurru, Tzurru is a surname < Hebr. Tzur (1Cr 2,45). Ziu, Otzìo is an ‘irrigated meadow’ < Hebr. Zuv ‘flux, jet, gush’ or < Ziu, Zio (second month: April-May, the one of flowering). Pischina Urthàddala is a tri-compound headword of Urzulei (Supramonte countryside): is a little pond inside a big grotto < Akk. χurru ‘hole, cave’ + Ugar. ṭa’t ‘sheep’ + Hebr. dalu ‘cup’ = ‘pool for sheep’s drinking’. Caddozzu, Campidanian adjective ‘filthy, dirty’, is the perverted result of the obstinate Jewish annihilation by Christian priests, < Hebr. qadòš ‘martyr, holy’. Villa Scema (Villacidro countryside) remembers the daily liturgy named Shemah Yisrael.

Finally, we summon the pitta (a sort of bread) from Hebr. pita. And we don’t close this report without summoning the surname Saba, well-known in the Orient and in the Bible (see one of the many, the Queen of Saba).