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Investigating the historical Slavic presence in our area in Ioannina, Greece

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Alexandra_K:
Hello again everyone,

Just out of personal interest and curiosity I am collecting information regarding the historical presence of the Slavs in our area of Epirus (village: Ekklisohori Ioanninon, previous name Tserkovista/Tsarkovista, area of Kourenta).

Here I copy some related information that I already tried to sum up in the previous thread I started here:

The other side of my family (maternal) come from the village Tserkovista (now Ekklisohori) in the area of Ioannina, Epirus. The village was a Vajunite settlement of the Middle Ages (earliest possible,  9th century). It had always belonged to a regional subdivision called Kourenta. Kurent(a) had been the surname of the Slavic Zupan owning or settling at the area. Most of the villages of Kourenta used to have names of Slavic origin like ours. I am writing all this to you, because one of these villages was called Vlachokatouno (Vlahokatuno). It was inhabited by Vlachs until the 17th century if I remember right. My very family must depict theoretically a continuation of this legacy like most of the locals. Of course, especially in my family we also have known Vlach and Arvanite roots.  According to historical sources the Slavic settlers of the area never left but settled for good, having sent away or annihilated most of the local male  population but often marrying to local women who had mostly survived the invasions. So through the centuries they gradually became assimilated culturally, genetically and linguistically.
There might still be some slight evidence of the Slavic legacy in the local dialect and pronounciation, I would think. Also some characteristic elements like the fact that the local surnames (esp. the female ones) would still sound very Slavic . As opposed to the official surnames the locals would refer to each other as follows: Kostayannova, Yannantonova etc. (These are actually the local unofficial surnames of my grandmother and great-grandmother). We also have the surname Detsikas pronounced Dečkas which made me think of dečko, now that I am trying to learn Serbian.
Anyways, I just mentioned this because the katun of  Vlahovic made me think of Vlahokatuno in our area. Nothing to do with my fathers family though 😉

Ok, so I was very curious to find out if the Vajunites could be linked to some modern-day Slavic population. I have only managed to find out that they were a Southern Slavic tribe. At some point, I was misled through the erroneous automatic translation (google) ;-) to think that they might have been actual Slovenes - however this was the mistaken translation in English of the word for "Slavs" in Serbian.
However, I have found one clue that brings me back to Slovenia: their mythical figure Kurent. Kurenta (the group of villages our village has always belonged to) was called like that because of the name of the Slavic Zupan who had settled there or owned the area. There is also a nearby village with the name Kourenta.
Based on the above, I also searched for a possible surname Kurent/ Kurenta and I only found quite a few cases in Slovenia and some in Croatia (for Kurent) and only a few in Romania (for Kurenta). I think though that the actual name of the guy must have been without the "a" at the end. The ending -a in Greek can signify the place(s) owned by the specific person (it is plural of neurtal as in sel-a).
Speaking of sela, the old center of our village was named Selio, also of slavic origin.
As for the original name of our village I copy my own notes from another post:
Our place of origin is a village near Ioannina, Greece, called Ekklisohori. It was renamed in 1928 and its original name had been Tserkovista (or Tsarkovista). Slavic for church village, more or less (see cerkov+ista-->coming from -ica). It was a Slavic settlement of the Middle Ages. It can be placed the earliest around the 9th century after the Slavs were christianized (see cerkov). The Slavic settlers have allegedly married mostly to local women and through the centuries they were assimilated both culturally and genetically, however leaving a distinct signature in place names, surnames and everyday vocabulary (even in our local accent I would think). The village was later on occupied also by Bulgarians, Serbs, and of course by the Turks. In the village and the broader area, the Greeks (and Slavs) have long coexisted with Vlachs and Arvanites as well.

I have been told by someone that the Serbs did not settle in big numbers, although they had conquered the area for some time - rather, a small number of noble Serbs settled and were given lands as rulers. According to the same person, the Bulgarians did settle more massaly though. I would have to look this up once.

Alexandra_K:
A list of the Slavic toponyms of the villages of Kourenta that I have put together is the following:

So this is a list of the Slavic names of villages belonging to the "Kourenta" group of villages which must have been settlements of the Vajunites:

Veltsista: "white place" (Gortzis)/ from the Slavic "Belciste" (Vasmer), area or fields belonging to Velts (Velts= fountain of water to the west of the village, river Veltsistino) (Bettis)/ of Slavic origin (Velts+ista)/ Slavic toponym (Oikonomou)

Gribovo and Gribianι: a) Vlach word...or b) Slavic word meaning place where mushrooms are abundant

Gourianista: (Vasmer) Gorjaniste, Gorjane= inhabitant of the mountain, (Oikonomou) Slavic "Gorjan"(Gor= arson < goreti= to burn+ ending -ist

Granitsopoula: Slavic, granica= sort of oak well-known in the area

Doliana: doljane= slavic word for inhabitant of the valley

Dragomι: Dragomir?

Zagoriani: (Vasmar) Slavic word zagorjane (the one who lives behind the forests-?), the name was given most probably by the Slavs who had settled at the back and western side of Ano Kalamas river).

Zelista: zeleno?

Zitsa: Slavic, soul or border

Karitsa: (Oikonomou), slavic "koryto" (basin)/ Slavic garb < v. goreti (to burn)/ (Bettis) Slavic, kara = punishment or sentence

Kosoliani: of Slavic origin- no further explanation

Kourenta: of Slavic origin - no further explanation (Kurent???)

Mosiari: ? sounds a bit Slavic too but could not find info

Brianista: ? sounds Slavic to me :-) but again could not find info

Pogdoriani: Slavic word meaning a place under the mountains

Raiko/Rajko: from the surname Raikos, Greek version of the Slavic Rajko. Name of the first settler or owner of the area/ Slavic noun "Raj"= paradise

Rahovitsa/ Riahovo (see Arahovistsa): place with walnuts

Sioutista: was founded by Souliotes (Arvanites) that fled to the area as Sioutista from the Slavic name of the mountain "Kasidiaris" which refers to a goat without horns

Tserkovista/ Tsarkovista: Slavic "Cerkov"+ ista, area with churches

Alexandra_K:
Sorry for the repetition of some information but I am trying to sum up here some of my past posts from another forum. Below another post of mine citing information about the village's name and the Slavic settlement from a book about our village (Ekkisohori- Tsarkovista Ioanninon by P.D.Tziovas):

Most of the villages' names were changed or hellenized in the 20th century. Our village's name was changed in 1928 from Tsarkovista to Ekklisohori (Greek literal translation). Others changed even as late as the 1950's or even 60's, if I remember right.

Now about the name of our village, more specifically, I am quoting (and translating) P.D. Tziovas from his book: Ekklisohori, Tsarkovista Ioanninon:

"The name Tsarkovista or Tserkovista is produced by the Slavic Curkua (=church) and together with the known toponymic ending -ica, it means position of a church, or place dedicated to a church or even a village near a church and this, beacause the ending -ista is plural (Bettis). Labridis supports that the name is "signifying a place with the meaning, small royal property, from the replacement of consonants in Tsarskovica", and in another instance he claims that the name comes from "cerkov (=church) and that it denotes a dedication to the maintainance of a church". Finally, Vasmer regards as most probable that the name is produced by the Bulgarian, tsirky, tserkov, tserko-viste that means church".

"According to Pr. Zakinthinos the epirot toponyms Tsarkovista, Tserkovista, Tserkouviana etc. are etymologically connected to the Old Slavic word meaning church and as such could not be older than the second half of the 9th century, when the apostolic action was observed for the christianization of the Slavs. The size of the villages (oikismoi) where the Slavs settled depended on the number and the order of the inhabitants and ranged from 5,000 to 30,000 square meters. Each village (oikismos) had on average 8-10 houses with 40-50 appr. inhabitants, while the big villages could reach 20 houses with approx. 100 inhabitants."

"Based on this, the largest group of Slavic invaders must have settled to the west of today's village in the position "Selio" which means village, where there was according to the inhabitants' tradition, the most ancient church of the area, dedicated to Saint Taxiarches. Of course, the Slavic invaders settled all over the village, by displacing or annihilating the weaker local residents, from whom only the women survived, who through intermarriage secured many racial qualities of the natives, with first and foremost the passing down of the Greek language to new generations".

In this other forum, some people suggested that the Vajunites must be mostly connected to the Eastern Balkans (eg Bulgaria, North Macedonia...) judging from the linguistics of the toponyms. He also gave me the example of a word we use, ververica, saying that it is similar to the Macedonian language.

Well, that's it for now. Any ideas or opinions are more than welcome!

Hvala! Laku noć!

Alexandra_K:
Some other info I have found:

Hello again! This source mentions the Slovenes, Serbs, Croats and slavified Bulgarians as the Slavic tribes who invaded and settled in Greece. Of course, it does not specify the origin of the Vajunites in particular but it names in general all of the above South Slavs (as opposed to a supposedly initial all-encompassing Slavic group) as the ones who came to (what is now) Greece:

Σύμφωνα μ’ αυτή, οι Σλάβοι που εγκαταστάθηκαν στις ελληνικές περιοχές υπάγονται στη νότια ομάδα που περιλαμβάνει τους Σλοβένους, τους Κροάτες, τους Σέρβους και τους εκσλαβισθέντες γλωσσικά Βουλγάρους. Σε αντίθεση με την παλιότερη θεωρία του Kopitar, που δεχόταν ότι οι πρώιμοι Σλάβοι που κατέβηκαν προς τον Δούναβη αποτελούσαν αρχικά ενιαία φυλετικά ομάδα που διασπάστηκε εκ των υστέρων, η νεότερη φιλολογική σχολή υποστηρίζει ότι τα σλαβικά αυτά φύλα έφεραν εξ αρχής τα στοιχεία της διαφοροποίησης. Έτσι, πολύ νωρίς, στην οικογένεια των Νοτίων Σλάβων διαμορφώθηκαν τρεις κλάδοι που τους χαρακτήριζε γλωσσική ιδιορρυθμία: οι Σλοβένοι, οι ΣερβοΚροάτες και οι Σλάβοι του Αίμου, που είναι γνωστοί με το άσχετο προς τη Σλαβική οικογένεια όνομα των Βουλγάρων.

The historical overview of Ancestry DNA's "Greece and the Balkans" category agrees with the above source:

Slavs and the Byzantine Empire
As Roman rule weakened, newcomers made their way into the Balkan Peninsula from the east. Some, like the Goths and Huns, came as raiding parties. But starting in the 6th century, the Slavs came to stay. They included Serbs, Slovenes, and Croats. They were followed by the Bulgars—a Turkic people from Central Asia—who founded two empires in the Balkans. As the newcomers moved in, many locals fled coastal lands for the mountains, where they became herders instead of farmers. Byzantine Greeks lived throughout Asia Minor, the Greek Islands, and parts of the southern Balkans. They spoke medieval Greek, practiced Christianity, and identified as Romans. Olive groves and vineyards were common, and bread, wine, and olives were staple foods.

Maybe it does not answer my initial question, but it puts the Slovenes, Serbs and Croats also in the picture. Well, probably a more specific answer is not so easy to reach.

Alexandra_K:
Here are also just a few local words which could be of Slavic origin according to some uncle of mine that I happened to ask:

An unkle of mine just told me a few other words we are using and he considers to be Slavic.
"Γενικά υπάρχουν λίγα μικροτοπωνύμια και πολλές ονοματοδωσίες παλαιών αγροτικών εργαλείων, 'όπως σβάρνα, κόσα,κούρβα. Πολύ συνηθηζόταν η λέξη ζακόνι = συνήθεια αλλά και άγραφος νόμος!..."
He writes that there are a few microtoponyms as well as a lot of names of agricultural tools such as svarna, kosa, curva...he also mentions the word zakoni= habit but also unwritten law. I don't know if they are indeed of Slavic origin? I will try to gather other words too that older people might be using.

I also know we use glava, ververitsa and goustera.

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