Talk:Dragoman

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I added as much as I know on the subject 82.76.86.64 00:36, 27 October 2005 (UTC)Dand.

It is not of Bulgarian origin, though it looks like, at least the Drago- part. The -man part however is not of Slavic origin. So, specialists on Ottoman history and language should have their say. In Bulgaria, there is a small town Dragoman, once populated by Dragomans, which is only notorious for being close to the border with Serbia and the place where Bulgarian custom officers check the trains traveling between Sofia and Belgrade. Cheers 85.11.148.31 17:31, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

...what is your point? Who suggested that it was "Bulgarian in origin"? Who would even imply such nonsense? Dahn 19:32, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Roots of the word

In his book From Babel to Dragomans, Bernard Lewis explains as follows:

Here we have an early form of what later, in English, came to be called 'dragoman'. A meturgeman is a translator; the word is very old, and goes back to Assyrian, where ragamu means to speak, rigmu is a word and the taf'el form indicates one who facilitates communication. This word meturgeman, also turgeman, passed from Aramaic to Hebrew, to Arabic, to Turkish, to Italian, to French, to English, and many other languages. It occurs in Italian in the form turcimanno, no longer used in modern Italian. In French it becomes truchement, in English, dragoman and drogman. The Hebrew word Targum is from the same root.

You can read the full chapter excerpt here compliment of Oxford University Press the book publisher. --CltFn 14:53, 31 December 2006 (UTC)