The common Indo-European root between “άκρη” in Greek — “akre” — and krai/kraj in Slavic languages…?
From my post, Turkish Alevis and Syrian (or Lebanese…or Turkish?) Alawites — a Twitter exchange:
The “akrites” were the Byzantine border warlords who defended the Empire’s southern frontier — the άκρη or “edge” [akre] — which as I mentioned here is what the word “krai” or “kraj” in Ukraine means, or in Serbo-Croatian Krajina — but were half-Arab culturally and every other way themselves. The most famous is the ballad of “Digenes Akritas” who was born of a Greek father and Arab mother.
The Krajina region of Croatia (in green…roughly…it didn’t include Dubrovnik) where the Hapsburgs settled large numbers of Serbs starting in the 17th century, to guard their “kraj” — their frontier — against the Ottomans. With Krajina Serbs the bearers of this tradition of armed frontiersmen, this was arguably the tinder-box region of Serbian minority Croatia where the whole war began.
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Comment: nikobakos@gmail.com
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