The name of the Slavs: etymology and meaning

A name is the first identification attribute of a barbarian group. This does not apply only to a term the group is referred to in written sources and which distinguishes the group cognitively from other groups. When taking into consideration an anthropological premise that ascribes a significant role within the group identity (or the group as such) to the complex of myths and symbols1, the actual name represents an essential point of the self-identification. Together with the second essential feature (psychologically interconnected with the first one) — a historical (theogonic, cosmogonic) myth, it shall be considered a basic element of the identity construction.

Петербургские славянские и балканские исследования Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana applied by Theophylact Simocatta when he connected the Slavs with ancient Getae 10 . Due to a later «non-tradition» or rather a «non-naming» the Slavs as Getae, this identification did not raise many emotions or interpretations 11 . Another «naïve» etymology mentioned by Procopius, namely the etymology of the name Sporoi which should have been applied for both Antes and Sclaveni represents the weakest of all of these theories 12 .
As far as this topic is concerned, firstly we would like to draw the attention to a terminological and epistemological discrepancy that has been accompanying the whole issue of the Slavic ethnogenesis and identity. The name of one of the Jordanes' groups Sclaveni is in both translation and semantic meaning identical with the present term -the Slavs. Thus the thing is that although Jordanes mentions three and Procopius two barbarian groups (Antes, Sclaveni and Venethi), one of these groups covers terminologically remaining groups as welltherefore in literature, we can encounter «the Slavic Antes and Venethi». Thus the Sclaveni are the Slavs as well as the Antes and Venethi falls into the same category 13 . The term Slavs serves for both «narrower» and «broader» semantic application 14 . When talking about the events of the 6 th century, we understand and use the term «Slav» as an equivalent to a (Latin) Sclaven.

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Those pieces of information that enable the construction of the pillars of a barbarian group ethnic identity after many centuries are of an internal origin -especially from stories of origo gentis, or come from external sources -Roman, or post-Roman intellectuals. The Goths or Lombards do not concentrate their belongingness to the group around «own language» in their origo gentis. It is Tacitus, Isidor of Sevilla, Hrabanus Maurus or Regino of Prüm who emphasise the language as an identification symbol of gentes 15 . The barbarian elite, the militarized Traditionskern with an opposite approach to education, certainly did not ascribe the language such a significant position 16 . The role of a single «exclusively barbarian language» at a creation of the Slavic identity of the Sclaveni and Antes is mostly a projection of the modern linguists and historians.
A role of the language as far as a group identity is concerned becomes more prominent at the reconstruction of the ethnic name of the Slavs. A proposition about Slověnin, a Slavic ethnic group (gens, tribe, nation) representative whose auto-definition links him with other Slavs via the language and speech as early as in the 6 th century, or even a centuries earlier, has its unshakable place in the scholar discourse 17 . Thanks to a parallel to a more-than-a-thousandyear existence of the Slavic language, the ethnonym has been perceived as a symbol of the ancient times which had proved and confirmed its durability 18 .
Once the name issue is being approached, it is actually an attractive, «language-motivated» etymology which attempts to reconstruct an auto-ethnonym of the Slavs directly from the base and an individual word -*slovo 19 . Such a name thus emerges as a result of, as Šimon Ondruš called it, «natural law of the opposition», where «mute Germans» symbolised the rivaling party. In literature, this reconstruction appears regularly, as the Slovak linguist put it: «Because for the Proto-Slavs, the Germanic people were babbling, inarticulate and that Петербургские славянские и балканские исследования Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana is why they perceived themselves being a counterpart to the Germanic people as they were speaking clearly, using the words» 20 . Then Ondruš continues: «With a huge probability, we may assume that a primal collective name for the Slavs was Slovi, meaning those who listen, speak in an articulate manner and use words».
The second part of the ethnonym is (generally accepted) suffix *-ěninb/ *-janinb (plural *-jane) which represents some sort of the «affinity», «close relationship» 21 . Slověn / Slovan (in a so-called non-productive form) would have been an appellative similar to bratěn / bratan which de facto confirms a thesis of the Slavs as those «linguistically» related 22 . Among the Slavists, it was by no means less popular searching for a word base in a word sláva (glory) as an Adam Czarnocki's quotation attests 23 . In an attempt to come to a satisfactory etymology, attention has been focused on more «romantic» interpretations. There were some attempts to reconstruct the name as a derivation from the natural environment where the Slavs had been believed to have lived in literature. Slověne are those who should have lived in the area of mysterious Slova, a further unidentified location of Jan Peisker, or placed close to some island -Lithuanian salava of Leszek Moszyński 24 . The base of names as Slavo, Slova, Slavje is supposed to indicate an Indo-European denominator *kleu-in a meaning of to flow 25 . However, a suitable geographical object has not been satisfyingly identified yet 26 . The most Commentarii/Статьи attractive of these theories is deriving from one of the names for the Dnieper (though preserved as an epitheton ornans not earlier than in the 17 th century!) Slavuta, *Slovąta, or *Slaventā 27 . A base word *slov-is labelled by Jan Otrębski a stem of a reflexive pronoun (originally *slob-, documented in Gothic silba, or as a similar base for Celtic *selv-), which would mean the Slavs were «their own people / their people themselves» 28 . Linguists or historians working with linguistic facts built the auto-ethnonym of the Slavs a priori on a linguistic base -on *slovo (a word), which logically confirmed that a personal substrate that had created the ethnonym had done so on the basis of the Slavic linguistic equipment 29 . We do not presume that a group that had already established its representative «brand» -a name; placed in its identity a rational and conscious realization that they were using their own special «Slavic language». Such a motive would be quite unique as far as the ancient and early medieval barbaricum is concerned! 30 Thus currently, we tend to reject a language as an identifying factor which helps creating the very base of the identity, represented by the auto-ethnonym of a group in case of the Slavs. From a merely technical point of view: such an «attribute» would not have delimited the Slavs -or Sclaveni even from their closest neighbours, the Antes -as Procopius writes they used the same barbarian language.
Therefore from August Schlözer onwards, it has been accepted that the Greek form Sklavenoi (Σκλαβηνοί) is derived from an originally Slavic form of Slověne (or Sloviene, alternatively Sloviane) 31 . The authors generally agree in this respect 32 . Wawrzyniec Surowiecki wrote that the Greeks (Greek-speaking) were inserting a consonant k between s and l in order to keep a diphthong Sl (thus a typical consonant cluster Skl) -otherwise they would not have 27 Schramm G. Venedi, Antes, Sclaveni, Sclavi. P. 184. -The reasoning goes as follows: centuries later, groups or tribes were called according to the rivers. Even before Schramm, it had been Kazimierz Moszyński writing about a connection with the river Dnieper. He pointed out that a couple of Dnieper's Pripjat's or Don's tributaries wield the same base word *Slova, alebo *Slava, here explained as a «clear», «limpid» river (Moszyński K. Pierwotny zasiąg języka prasłowiańskiego. Wrocław; Kraków, 1957. P. 142). 28 Havlík claims that Ptolemy had already incorrectly recorded Slavenoi / Sklavenoi under the term of Souobenoi (Havlík L. Osídlení Balkánu Slovany a byzantská historiografie // Studia Balkanica Bohemoslovaca. Brno, 1970. P. 50). This faulty transcription would have had, according to Otrębski, a philological base 59). 29 To be more precise, from a language which was labelled Slavic only centuries later.  33 . Concepts of originally non-Slavic stem of the ethnonym of the Slavs appear in the scholar discourse rather marginally. Omeljan Pritsak, later followed by Lujo Margetić suggested deriving the name of the Slavs from Turkic saqla-, a verb which can be translated as «to guard» or «to supervise» 34. Pritsak derived a name of the Saqlabi, Sqlawi from (proto?) Turkic *saqla-gu, which he subsequently developed in a proto-Bulgarian forms of *saqla-w and then *sqlaw-35 .
A theory authored by Cracowian linguist Zbigniew Babik reconstructs an ethnonym which could have reflected an identity of the barbarian retinue. Babik considers a singular form ended with *-janinЪ as well as a plural form ended with *-jane secondarily derived (from the original *Slověni a *SlověnЪ); on the other hand, he rejects the theory of deriving the ethnonym from *slovo as unconvincing, or rather inconsistent which is a proposition difficult to argue with 36 . In addition, Babik is quite right to emphasise that *slovo did not possess in the oldest preserved version of the Slavic language the same meaning as it has now (slovo, meaning a word; reč, meaning speech) 37 , which undermines original logics behind a supposed construction of this auto-ethnonym. As the most probable option, Babik suggests the derivation of the name of the Slavs from a verb *sluti slovą, which means «to be famous», «to enjoy the glory» 38 . Such a derivation should originally have labelled those who «enjoy the glory», that means a group of warriors -then it would have served as a very apt name. Subsequently, this name was  1944. No. 1. P. 25). Schramm points to the same suffix in case of a form «Roman» -gradually derived from rimЪ, and further on rimljěninЪ / rimljaninЪ, although these forms appear only centuries later (Schramm G. Ein Damm bricht… P. 145). 37 See: Otrębski J. Słowianie… P. 37, who points out that the oldest form looked different -*sloves-, which is confirmed by an Old Russian adjective form sloves-nyj (Babik Z. Współnota językowa prasłowiańska. P. 842). Similarly, it emphasises that it is not possible to reconstruct the name on the basis of a verb *sloviti, which cannot be traced back in this chronological layer either.

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applied to a greater society and further on, via denominations in Greek and Latin, became an umbrella term for a conglomerate of groups -differing from other groups by designed ethnographic categories 39 .
Thus the name of originally a single group of the barbarians, which could be related to a language perceived by the Romans as a foreign -later on a means of communication applied in the Avar Khaganate as well as communities on its borders -spread slowly amongst those speaking that particular language 40 . Later etymology and semantics of the name of the Slavs was conditioned by a fact that the Slavs, originally a barbarian gens on the borders of the Roman Empire, had become a name for all the users of any form of relevant languages and dialects and a widespread ethnographic brand in the East Central Europe. In Frankish or Byzantine sources, there are accounts of people who had been given names ending with a suffix -slav 41 , there are geographical entities named as Sclavonia, Sklavinia which were understood as the «land of the Slavs» 42 . The name of the Slavs was permanently embedded in both consciousness and knowledge of medieval intellectuals to such an extent that the first concepts of the history of the Slavs emerged at that time 43 Bratislava, 2011. Vol. 2. No. 1. P. 12-20; 3) Vývoj chápania geografického termínu Sklavínia v historických prameňoch 6.-14. storočia // HZ. 2008. No. 1. P. 124-143. 43  ideological as well as spiritual concept was authored by Constantine the Philosopher. He interconnected the etymology «conditioned by the language» with the symbolic of the Christianity in an introduction to a Slavic translation of the Gospel Book (Aprakos), called Proglas. The name of this society, derived from a (Slavic linguistic) word base *slovo and the naming of the Slavs as «People of the Word» is an intellectual-religious axis of the concept of the second half of th 9 th century. The same applies to later texts, celebrating Byzantine mission in Moravia and Pannonia 44 . The Slavists have kept trying to trace this etymology back to the 5 th and 6 th century. Thus codified (as well as sacred), the Slavic language represented an strong tool in an self-identification with a (much older) linguistic reality present on European area(s).
However, these are phenomena that only follow a historical fact of creation and existence of the name of the Slavs. The retinue that had planned and organized the raids to the right bank of the river Danube in the first decades of the 6th century did not «suffer» from similar intellectual delicacy. When accepting a widespread opinion of a Slavic linguistic base of the ethnonym, we must realize that this fact was no hindrance for «other» members of Slavic Traditionskern, for sure the Antes, Gepides or Lombards. Quite the contrary, the name celebrating the victors was very apt for a heterogeneous group.