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Archiver > LITHUANIA > 2003-06 > 1054835829


From: David Zincavage <>
Subject: [LITHUANIA-L] Fw: Kolwzan
Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2003 10:57:16 -0700


----- Original Message -----
From: "wfhoffman" <>
To: "David Zincavage" <>; "Leon Stevens"
<>; <>
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 9:01 PM
Subject: Re: Kolwzan


> Greetings!
>
> David Zincavage <> wrote, regarding KOLWZAN:
>
> > I think Vanagas must be right in identifying Kolwzan as coming from a
> > Belarussian personal name of some sort. Perhaps Fred Hoffman can shed
> some
> > light on it. I doubt very much that it is of Jewish or Karaite origin.
> >
> > I think you need to try anglicized versions in the US, like Kolzan. The
> > original spelling is not likely to survive intact.
>
> Unfortunately, I could find nothing that shed light on the name's origin,
at
> least not to my satisfaction. The only mention I could find at all in my
> sources was in the _Slownik Geograficzny Krolestwa Polskiego_, Vol. 14,
page
> 493, discussing two manorial farmsteads and villages named Trokiele "in
> Oszmiana powiat, Soly gmina (4 versts away), rurual district of
Daukszyszki,
> 20 versts from Oszmiana, with a total of 8 houses, 98 Catholic
inhabitants.
> In 1865 the village belonging to the Piotrowiczes had 21 persons
registered
> in the census, whereas the one belonging to the Kol~wzans had 14." This
> would indicate the family owned a village and was therefore presumably of
> the minor nobility -- probably not Jewish or Karaite -- and had roots in
the
> Grand Duchy of Lithuania, possibly in the area now within the borders of
> Belarus.
>
> You may already have seen this -- if so, forgive me for mentioning it
> again -- but I did find a Website in Polish that discusses "Kowzanowie od
> 680 lat na Wilenszczyznie," http://archiwum99.tripod.com/442/kowz.html.
It's
> quite informative, and at one point the author says:
>
> > Drobne deformacje (Kouwzan, Kolwzan) wynikaja niekiedy z
> > zapisów fonetycznych alfabetem rosyjskim w dobie caratu lub
> > tez narzucone sa przez wladze litewskie poczawszy od roku
> > 1939 (Kovzan, Kovzanas).
>
> So this author claims KOUWZAN and KOL~WZAN are merely spelling variations
of
> KOWZAN, due to Russian or Lithuanian linguistic or cultural
> interference.This may be correct -- the documentation looks impressive,
and
> the professor who wrote this seems to be no dummy. But I'd hesitate to
> dismiss the L~ so quickly. Yes, it could be merely a result of Russian or
> Belarusian phonetic and orthographic interference; that's plausible. But I
> wish I could find an onomastics expert who's researched the name and says
> the same thing.
>
> However, that Website does refer to the Slownik entry I just mentioned and
> to places called Kowzany. That suggests to me the author has done his
> research and has established the link of Kowzan with Kol~wzan. Still, I
> didn't have time to read the whole thing carefully; so I might have
> misunderstood.
>
> If KOL~WZAN is just a variation of KOWZAN, Rymut's new edition mentions
that
> name under the root Kobza, indicating an ancestor was somehow associated
> with the musical instrument the _kobza_. But of course he's talking about
> the name if it's of Polish linguistic origin. Vanagas cites the Belarusian
> name Kouzan, Kovzan, as David mentioned; I can find nothing further on
that
> (I've been trying to get hold of a copy of Biryla's work on Belarusian
names
> for years). For that matter, in Ukrainian _kovzannya_ means "skating." And
> Vladimir Dahl's Russian dictionary mentions _kovza_ as a root meaning
> "sliding on the ice for fun," and even mentions a noun _kolzanka_ or
> _kolvzanka_, "clearing away a spot on the ice for children to slide on."
> Note the alternate spelling of the noun that includes a non-palatalized L!
>
> So instead of clearing things up, I may have made them much worse. Was a
> Kol~wzan a kobza-player, or a kid having fun sliding on the ice? I don't
> know. I suspect detailed successful research into the family history is
the
> only way to clarify the name's derivation. When I Googled the name
KOL~WZAN,
> including the proper hard L, I got a lot of matches, including the Website
I
> cited above. There is some info out there, and there are contacts to be
> made.
>
> And now, having left you all bewildered, my work here is done, and I will
> move on to find others who need my unique brand of assistance ....
>
> William F. "Fred" Hoffman
> Author, _Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings_
>
>
>

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