Re: Loya History and Origin
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In reply to:
Re: Loya History and Origin
Cynthia Heinemann 1/19/05
Hi Diana!
Teh Basque people are a very ancient people and their language is very old and totally isolated, it is not a surprise that those are the literal meanings of the words for ceilng and knife, but it is fascinating!The Etruscan language was extinct as a language by the time of Christ, and it ceased to exist as a dialect by the 5th century. Yet, there are place names, words and surnames that survived among the most isolated villages of Tuscany where, up to the turn of the 20th century, farmers still chanted ancient prayers and incantations in the Etruscan language, which is not related to Latin as is standard Italian and Spanish and French. Our surname is one of those words that survived, which came to be used as a surname.I believe the arrival of the Loya to Navarre, however, was not in Etruscan days,, but much later, before Spain took over Navarre from the French in 1512 during the persecution of dissenters from the Roman Catholic Church in the previous century.Like I said, though, Navarre was one of several destinations where our family group fled, as there are Loyas in Norway, Sweden, the Ukraine etc. and have been in those places for a long time, long enough to be assimilated into each local culture. Although, like I said, Navarre was all French at that time, half of it came under Spanish rule. Spain, as you know, was the superpower at that time, the most influential nation, consequently, like Rome became the center of Christianity because Rome was the most powerful empire yet Christianity actually originated in Palestine among a few Jews, so the Loya who came under Spanish rule and became Spanish subjects became the center of Loya history and their home in Navarre is assumed to be the origin of the Loya, but in reality our origin is to be found in the isolated villages of Tuscany, since only among the people who preserved the surviving words, prayers and names in the Etruscan language could our surname have been possibly preserved and passed down.