Probstner skrev:elof skrev:T.ex. Slovenien skulle betyda "solens vender."
Jag trodde att slavernas eget namn på sig själva härrörde från ordet
slovo, d v s "ord", i överförd betydelse "de vilkas ord man förstår" till skillnad från germanerna,
njemtsi, som betyder "de stumma". I mitt tycke låter allt annat ganska långsökt.
Det har funnits några teorier:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14042a.htm
However, as early as the fourteenth century and later the name Slav was at times referred to the longer form Slovenin with o as the root vowel, and this longer form was traced to the word Slovo (word, speech), Slavs signifying, consequently, "the talking ones," verbosi, veraces, homoglottoi, consequently it has been the accepted theory up to the present time. Other elucidations of the name Slav, as clovek (man), skala (rock), selo (colony), slati (to send), solovej (nightingale), scarcely merit mention. There is much more reason in another objection that Slavonic philologists have made to the derivation of the word Slav from slovo (word). The ending en or an of the form Slovenin indicates derivation from a topographical designation. Dobrowsky perceived this difficulty and therefore invented the topographical name Slovy, which was to be derived from slovo. With some reservation Safarik also gave a geographical interpretation. He did not, however, accept the purely imaginary locality Slovy but connected the word Slovenin with the Lithuanian Salava, Lettish Sala, from which is derived the Polish zulawa, signifying island, a dry spot in a swampy region. According to this interpretation the word Slavs would mean the inhabitants of an island, or inhabitants of a marshy region. The German scholar Grimm maintained the identity of the Slavs with Suevi and derived the name from sloba, svoba (freedom). The most probable explanation is that deriving the name from slovo (word); this is supported by the Slavonic name for the Germans Nemci (the dumb). The Slavs called themselves Slovani, that is, "the speaking ones", those who know words, while they called their neighbours the Germans, "the dumb", that is, those who do not know words."
Men beträffande Grimms uppfattning:
The opinion once held by some German and many Slavonic scholars that the names Suevi and Slav were the same and that these two peoples were identical, although the Suevi were a branch of the Germans and the ancestors of the present Swabians, must be absolutely rejected. Scattered names found in old inscriptions and old charters that are similar in sound to the word Slav must also be excluded in this investigation.
Fast hur vattentätt är det egentligen att njemtsi='de som inte talar vårt språk'? Gudmund Schütte, "The Gothonic Nations" (1929), vol. I, sid 14:
For the sake of completeness I mention the fact that Peisker, Grauert, and Gleye derive it from the Old German tribe Nemetes.
Och nemeterna:
Nemetes, West German tribe with Celtic name; nemeton, 'sanctuary', Celtic > O.L. German nimid
d.v.s. njemtser kan snarare ursprungligen betyda 'asyl, fristad' och vara orsak till den moderna slaviska betydelsen.(?) Då finns inte det starkaste skälet kvar att slovo = 'de som förstår vårt språk'!
I så fall kanske man trots allt ska söka ursprung från suevi eller de eurosarmatiska grupperna stavanerna (
stauenoi eller
astauenioi)! D.v.s. omkring baltikum. Asiensarmaterna
soubenoi är snarare khazar-relaterat: (Peter B. Golden, "Khazar Studies", s. 35)
The Sabirs, who probably came from Central Asia, occupied parts of Western Siberia (their name figures in the toponymics of the area and indeed may be seen in the word Siberia itself). By 515 we find elements of them in the Caucasus-Don-Volga triangle where they play an important part in Byzantium's Persian wars. The martial arts were highly developed amongst them. Procopius tells us that they constructed excellent siege machinery. Malalas notes that they had an army of 100,000.
