Milena VRBANOVA
One of the "most mysterious" concepts in the early medieval Bulgarian titulary, is "tarkan". Moreover, for unknown reasons, this title always appears in a "double form" Bori-Tarkan, Zera-Tarkan, Zhupan Tarkan, Olgu Tarkan, and even Kana-Tarkan, which historians regard as "inexplicable" tautology.
Why for more than a century, after an ocean of spilled ink, have Bulgarian and foreign scientists failed to adequately interpret this mysterious word? Because - as I have repeatedly written, no one cares what it is as a part of speech - noun, adjective, participle, adverb or something else. And this is the first condition for explaining an ancient word. Mediocre thought leads the unskilled researcher to the presumption that every title is some noun.
After I revealed the meaning of the ancient Bulgarian title "ichirguboil" (see my article "The meaning of the title Ichirguboil", also included in my new book "The name Bulgaria and the ethnonym Bulgarians"), in an elegant way, related to the evidence I give that the Etruscans (Lydians) and the Trojans are part of Bulgarian ethnicity, I came to the deep, primary meaning of the word "tarkan". And it turned out to be much older than the ideas we have about it, connecting it only to the Early Middle Ages.
A long time ago, foreign scientists realized that the name of the Etruscan kings of Rome - the Tarquinii (Priscus and Superbus) - has a strong sound similarity with the title "Tarcan". In his book "Peak Bulgaria" ( 2016 ), I draw a parallel between the generic name of the Tarquinii and the oldest name of the Lydian capital Sardis - Tarna or Tarhna. In the cited book, I associate the name Tarna ( Tarhna ) with that of our capital Tarnovo and many other settlement names characteristic of Bulgaria - Trun, Trnava, Trunak, etc. But, although such an idea is not devoid of meaning, as I will explain below, it does not lead directly to the meaning of the names Tarquinius, Tarchna, and the word "tarkan".
In his article "Etruscans, Thracians, Bulgarians, Russians" I accept that the apparent sound similarity, even for a first-timer, between the name (or nickname) of the Lukomon Tarkun (Tarkun), predecessor of the Tarquinia, and the ethnonym "Thracians" (with permissible inversion of the sounds "a" and "р" ) is another sign of the belonging of the Tarquinians, and of the Etruscans in general, to the Thracian and Bulgarian ethnic groups. But subsequently I realized - the translation of Tarkun as "trakun" - Thracian, Thracian - is not correct, the meaning of the name is different, identical to Tarquinius, although the spelling is different. Revealing the meaning of "Tarquinius", I will also explain that of "Tarkun".
And so we come to the certain conclusion, also expressed by previous researchers, that the generic name Tarquinius and the title "Tarcan" are semantically connected (to this semantic thread I add the name of the Lydian capital Tarna - Tarhna). But however glaringly homonymous they may sound, their identity cannot be proved until the common ancient concept which gave rise to them is discovered. This concept would shine a powerful spotlight on the meaning of both Tarquinius and Tarchna and "Tarkan".
Well, Bulgarians, I discovered this concept. And it is "torkva" - torquis, torques - the male necklace. Why does it "tork"? Because in the most ancient world this particular male ornament was a sign of belonging to the high aristocracy. And at the same time a sign of subordination to the king's supreme authority - one of the meanings of torquis is "yoke", "yoke".
The word "torque" derives from the Latin, and probably Thracian (Pelasgian) verb torqueo, torsi, tortus - to turn, turn, wrap, twist, twist. Most often, the tork is made of curved metal threads. In Latin, the person awarded the distinction of torqua is called torquatus, which is the meaning of the generic name of the gens Manlia, from which the famous politician Titus Manlius Torquatus is descended. I think that the generic name Tarquinius of the Etruscan kings of Rome means exactly the same - "wearing torkva", that is, "belonging to the upper class".
The verb torqueo has a very clear Bulgarian origin, because its oldest meaning is "to roll" - in the sense of "twist", "wrap". The word "tarkan" nothing but passive participle of the verb torqueo - "to roll" and means "a person awarded a torkva" - that is, belonging to the Bulgarian aristocracy. The word "tarkan" literally "rubbed".
From my interpretation, it is clear that "tarkan" is not a title, but a general characteristic of the Bulgarian and Etruscan (Lydian, Meonian) upper class - "wearing torks", "torquats", "rubbers". Therefore, when some of the representatives of this class received from the king a high state rank, they also accepted, in accordance with it, the specific title "bori", "zera" etc., added to their general status as "shrunk". This explains the mysterious "double vision" of the "Tarkan title", which is not a title in itself, as I have already explained. In the title "kana tarkan" there is no "tautology", because "kan" in the word "tarkan" does not mean "canas", but is simply a syllable from the passive participle of the verb "to roll", from which the noun "torkva" is derived.
The name of Tarna (Tarchna), the capital of Lydia, the old homeland of the Etruscans, can be translated as "wreath", because one of the meanings of torquis is "wreath of branches".
Compatriots, for which time I ask you - do you realize the importance of these discoveries? They thunderously - like a cannonball - inform you that Etruscans (Lydians, Maeons) and Bulgarians are one and the same people and that the language spoken by the all-powerful Tyrians is the Bulgarian language. Our mother and father tongue, which we savagely reviled. These discoveries speak of the unattainable greatness of the Bulgarian family in ancient times. That is why the Greeks burned Bulgarian books and erased our historical memory. If we were a primitive Turkic horde, no one would lift a finger to erase the evidence of such an unenviable origin.