Slavistik vs. Slawistik (was: Slavic vs. Slavonic)

[Robert Orr]

OK, I know this is a bit late, but a slight amendment is called for.

On Sat, 7 Feb 1998, Bjoern Wiemer wrote:

> Hello,
>
> a month ago I lanced a request concerning the terminological "distribution"
> of the attribute SLAVIC vs. SLAVONIC in the Anglosaxon world. I apologize
> for not having delivered the short summary I promised to write. "Chelovek
> predpolagaet, a Bog raspolagaet..." - a serious influenca and the
> termination of the semester at our university are my only justification for
> this delay.
>         As for the above question, I have got the general impression that
> indeed 'Slavic' is American and 'Slavonic' British tradition (including the
> "dominions" Canada and Australia/New Zealand).

As a Scot/Brit, naturalised Canadian, I regret to say that in this
instance as in so many others, Canada follows US usage. This is a
wee bit cheeky of me, as I myself have succumbed to "Slavic", although
when I first applied to a  department of "Slavic" languages in Canada from
Edinburgh, I thought the name rather jarred (although not as much as some
of my preceptors!).  At the age of 21, I had hopes of getting people in
Canada to say "Slavonic", but rapidly abandoned them.

Almost everybody who answered
> my request, in one way or other hinted at that. The same holds for people as
> you and me, i.e. 'Slavists' (AE) and 'Slavicists' (BE), respectively.
>         But there seem to be exceptions; cf.:
> >_Slavonic_ is generally used in Britain, while _Slavic_ is used in America.
> >(One notable exception:  OCS is generally Old Church _Slavonic_ in the
> >States.  A word in Russian that is not E.Sl., but from liturgical, S.Sl.
> >influence, is called a _Slavonicism_ in the United States.)
> [from L.Billings]
>
> See also:
> > (...) Also, within the USA, "Slavonic" seems to be
> >used when people (especially people who know more about Slavic languages
> >and literatures than your average educated American!) want to sound archaic
> >or arcane -- so you'll hear "Old Church Slavonic" much more often than,
> >say, "the Slavonic languages."
> [S.Forester]
>
>         Thanks for your replies!
> Bjoern Wiemer.
>
>
>
> #+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#
>
> Bjoern Wiemer
> Universitaet Konstanz
> Philosophische Fakultaet / FG Sprachwissenschaft - Slavistik
> Postfach 55 60 - D 179
> D- 78457 Konstanz
>
> e-mail: Bjoern.Wiemer at uni-konstanz.de
> tel.: 07531 / 88- 2582
> fax:  07531 / 88- 4007
>                 - 2741
>
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