Changes

'''Note''': What we can '''safely assume''' is that from the 13th century onwards there were '''two ethnic''' communities living on the island in the middle ages, one being descendants of the Roman Empire and the other being of Slavic descent </ref><ref>[http://books.google.com.au/books?id=p3oGybOY1w4C&pg=PA103&dq=korcula+Venice++Slavs&hl=en&ei=oMBjTJPQBoicvgPkpPCeCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=korcula%20Venice%20%20Slavs&f=false When Ethnicity Did not Matter in the Balkans:] by John Van Antwerp Fine. (p103)</ref>. With time these languages started to overlap. By the time the Zuvelas arrived on the island the majority of the population of the island of Korčula (in particularly the west end) spoke ''old Croatian'' <ref>Closely related to Chakavian of the 15th century. " ''..... Chakavian dialects of western Croatia, Istria, the coast of Dalmatia (where a literature in that dialect developed in the 15th century), and some islands in the Adriatic. In those areas...'' " '''taken''' from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/104539/Chakavian</ref> with a mix of the Romance Dalmatian language <ref>Dalmatian-language:''"Dalmatian language,  extinct Romance language formerly spoken along the Dalmatian coast from the island of Veglia (modern Krk) to Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik). Ragusan Dalmatian probably disappeared in the 17th century; the Vegliot Dalmatian dialect became extinct in the 19th century"'' '''taken''' from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150247/Dalmatian-language.</ref> and with heavy influences of Venetian (''lingua franca'' of that era). This is in essence is the old Korčula dialect.

'''Note''': What we can '''safely assume''' is that from the 13th century onwards there were '''two ethnic''' communities living on the island in the middle ages, one being descendants of the Roman Empire and the other being of Slavic descent </ref><ref>[http://books.google.com.au/books?id=p3oGybOY1w4C&pg=PA103&dq=korcula+Venice++Slavs&hl=en&ei=oMBjTJPQBoicvgPkpPCeCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=korcula%20Venice%20%20Slavs&f=false When Ethnicity Did not Matter in the Balkans:] by John Van Antwerp Fine. (p103)</ref>. With time these languages started to overlap. By the time the Zuvelas arrived on the island the majority of the population of the island of Korčula (in particularly the west end) spoke ''old Croatian'' <ref>Closely related to Chakavian of the 15th century. " ''..... Chakavian dialects of western Croatia, Istria, the coast of Dalmatia (where a literature in that dialect developed in the 15th century), and some islands in the Adriatic. In those areas...'' " '''taken''' from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/104539/Chakavian</ref> with a mix of the Romance Dalmatian language <ref>Dalmatian-language:''"Dalmatian language,  extinct Romance language formerly spoken along the Dalmatian coast from the island of Veglia (modern Krk) to Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik). Ragusan Dalmatian probably disappeared in the 17th century; the Vegliot Dalmatian dialect became extinct in the 19th century"'' '''taken''' from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150247/Dalmatian-language.</ref> and with heavy influences of Venetian (''lingua franca'' of that era). This is in essence is the old Korčula dialect.

So with time verbally Antonio would become '''Antun''' ''or'' Ante. It is quite possible later that both verbally Antonio and Ante were used with Antonio slowly disappearing from local language, a process of several centuries . Written language was a different story, Latin and Venetian Italian were the standard written language back then so Antonio still existed in written form. In 1797 the island of Korčula was no longer part of the Republic of Venice (dissolved by the French Empire: 1797). The last Italian language government school was abolished in the town of Korčula on the 13th of September 1876.

So with time verbally Antonio would become '''Antun''' ''or'' Ante. It is quite possible later that both verbally Antonio and Ante were used with Antonio slowly disappearing from local language, a process of several centuries. Written language was a different story, Latin and Venetian Italian were the standard written language back then so Antonio still existed in written form. In 1797 the island of Korčula was no longer part of the Republic of Venice (dissolved by the French Empire: 1797). The last Italian language government school was abolished in the town of Korčula on the 13th of September 1876.

Currently my thoughts on the actual word Xuvella as a surname might have been reinterpret with the Zuvelas arrival on the island in the early 1600s, which also signalled a new fresh start for the family.

Currently my thoughts on the actual word Xuvella as a surname might have been reinterpret with the Zuvelas arrival on the island in the early 1600s, which also signalled a new fresh start for the family.