Slavic vs. Slavonic

[Robert Orr]

On Sun, 4 Jan 1998, Loren A. BILLINGS wrote:

> Bob BEARD wrote:
>
> >I don't know anything about the etymology.   The Russian word is
> >'slavyanskii' which may have suggested 'Slavonic'.  The underlying
> >stem is 'slav-' meaning 'glory' (quite a distance from the English words
> >'slave' and 'slob' derived from it).
>
> Actually, one book calls into question the 'glory' etymology of this word.
> I don't recall the title (something like "The origin of the Slavic
> languages," published circa 1950), but the author's name is William Hazzard
> CROSS.  More recent works might have shed light on this issue, but I know
> of none.  --LAB

Actually, there's an article by J P Maher (I don't have the exatc
referecne, it may be in one of the early JIES) which argues very
convincingly for the etymology slovene < slovo - "word", i.e., those who
speak in words.  slav- glory is also from the same Indo-European root; the
closest Greek cognate of slovo is actually kleos - "fame".  The form -kles
which appears in proper names might be seen as close to slav-.

slysat, sluxat', etc. are also related.

Robert Orr