origin of the word 'Slav"

[Sapief]

>         In the early 1920's, my grandfather was a student at Alliance College
 in
> Pennsylvania. His professors gave the same origin as did J.P. Maher for the
> word 'Slav'. It derived from 'Slovo' (word) and  was used by the early
> Slavs to refer to those with whom they could communicate, i.e. the 'worded'
> ones. He was also told that the Germans are called 'niemiecki' meaning 'the
> mute ones' because their language was incomprehensible and harsh to the
> ears of the early Slavs.
>
>         Does this explanation of 'niemiecki' have any merit, or were my
> grandfather's professors indulging in some German-bashing?
>

Georgy Gachev makes reference to similarity between 'nemets' and
'nemoi' (and 'ne my') in "National Images of the World" (in
Berry, Ellen and Anesa Miller-Pogacar, _Re-Entering the Sign: Articulating
New Russian Culture_, Ann Arbor: U. Mich Press)

Filipp Sapienza
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Language, Literature, and Communication
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY 12180

www.rpi.edu/~sapief/cri.htm