Неизвестен старобългарски сан
An Unknown Old Bulgarian Honorific Title

Summary/Abstract: The article examines new evidence for a honorific title дроугъ /дронгъ /дрьгъ / дъргъ, found in the Slavonic version of the Chronographia Georgii Synceli, in the Old Testament (Jonah 3: 7) and in the Martyrium St. dementis, Papae Romani. These medieval Slavonic texts have been preserved in manuscripts copied in the 14-th - 15-th centuries, but translated in Bulgaria several centuries earlier, some of them going back to a Glagolitic original. The Greek equivalents of the Slavonic title (σύγκλητος ή, Tк τ\ς συγκλήτου, συγκλητικός }, μεγιστAνος, Dρχων, οs Tν, τЭлей Ђντеς, περιφανής) prove that it was used to refer to a notable person, a boyar, a dignitary, a person of power. It is argued that the different phonetic variants do not depend on the spelling in the manuscripts and that the etymology of the primary form дроугъ has a parallel in the Altayan lexeme даруга, darga t.e. “he who stands at the head, a man of higher status”, and is a borrowing from the Persian dārîyā, darova. This Persian-Altayan title was used by the Proto-Bulgarians, but it lost its original meaning early and was not understood correctly by the Slavonic men of letters, who either "corrected" дроугъ into дронгъ or reinterpreted дроугъ, according to the Slavonic root дрьг -/дрьж- in the sense that it signifies strength and power.

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