Slav (ethnonym)

Possibly the oldest mention of Slavs in almost historical form is attested in Ptolemy's Geography (2nd century) as () and (), both listed as Scythian tribes living near Alanians north of Scythia (first roughly between Volga and Ural Mountains, second between the Baltic Sea and Black Sea). Zbigniew Gołąb accepted Pavel Jozef Šafárik's opinion that Greeks inserted or for Slavic (reconstructing Proto-Slavic '), and "through the labialized articulation of the vowel /ɔ/ conditioned by the preceding /u̯/" in Proto-Slavic ' (). He derived the name from Greek ('I scatter grain'), because "they populated the land with scattered settlements". He described their society as democratic, and their language as barbaric. Jordanes wrote about the Slavs in his work (551): "although they derive from one nation, now they are known under three names, the Veneti, Antes and Sclaveni" (); in 19th century identified with the West Slavs, East Slavs, and South Slavs, a division based on the linguistic similarities between particular Slavic languages and dialects. He stated that the Veneti were the ancestors of the Sclaveni and the Antes, the two having used to be called but are now "chiefly" (though, by implication, not exclusively) called Sclaveni and Antes. Jordanes' and Procopius's were used for the ethnogenetic legend of the Slavs, the ancestors of the Slavs (the subsequent ethnic group name). Thus, the Slav ethnonym at first denoted the southern group of the early Slavs. That ethnonym is attested by Procopius in Byzantine Greek as ('), ('), ('), ('), or Σκλαβῖνοι (''), while his contemporary Jordanes refers to the in Latin. In Ancient Greek there are no words with the root sl-, thus the original ethnonym was transformed into skl-'', as that root was present (in , 'hard'). == Church Slavonic manuscripts ==

In East Church Slavonic manuscripts, the ethnonym is spelled (), such as in the Primary Chronicle, Sofia First Chronicle, Novgorod First Chronicle and Novgorod Fourth Chronicle. In the source dating to 898 included in the Primary Chronicle, the term is used both for East Slavic tribes and more often for a people (in the Kievan Rus' society, alongside Varangians, Chuds and Kriviches). == Etymology ==

The origin of the Slavic autonym is disputed. • According to Roman Jakobson's opinion, modified by Oleg Trubachev and John P. Maher, the name is related to the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root seen in slovo ('word') and originally denoted "people who speak (the same language)", i.e. people who understand each other. The word slovo and the related slava ('glory, fame, praise') and ('hearing') originate from the PIE root ('be spoken of, glory'), cognate with Ancient Greek ( 'fame'), whence comes the name Pericles, Latin ('be called'), as well as English . • Another widely cited view is expressed by Max Vasmer, who points out that the suffix Proto-Slavic , otherwise seems to derive nouns only from toponyms; hence Vasmer assumes that this word, too, is derived from a toponym - probably a hydronym, comparable to various Slavic river names with the same apparent root such as Russian Слуя, Polish , , Serbo-Croatian (), further related to Ancient Greek (, 'lave'), (, 'flow'), (, 'surf, rough water'), Latin ('to clean'), ('sewer pipe'). According to this view, the connection to ('word') would be the result of a later folk etymology. It has been suggested that the word may be derived from a place named Slovo or a river named Slova; this, according to some, is implied by the suffix . The Old East Slavic () for the Dnieper River was argued by Henrich Bartek (1907–1986) to be derived from and also the origin of . However, this name of the Dnieper River is only attested in the 17th century. • Based on an uncertain S. B. Bernstein speculated that it derives from a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European , cognate to Ancient Greek (; 'population, people'), which itself has no commonly accepted etymology. According to the widespread view, which has been known since the 18th century, the Byzantine (), (), borrowed from a Slavic tribe self-name *Slověne, turned into , (Late Latin sclāvus) in the meaning 'prisoner of war slave', 'slave' in the 8th/9th century, because they often became captured and enslaved. However this version has been disputed since the 19th century. An alternative contemporary hypothesis states that Medieval Latin via secondary form derives from Byzantine (, ) or (, ) with the meaning 'to strip the enemy (killed in a battle), to make booty, extract spoils of war'. This version is criticised as well. == See also ==