Slove^n7sk7j6 (= Slavonic : Slavic)

[Alemko Gluhak]

Proto-Slavic *slove^ne "Slavs" has *slov-, which is in the verb *sluti,
*slovoN "to speak clearly etc.". The root slav- in some Slavic languages is
secondary, because of *slava "glory" (*slava has the same Indo-European
root, *k'leu- "to hear"; *slava = IE *k'lo_w- (*k'lo:w-), *slov- = *k'lou-,
*slovo "word" = IE *k'lewos, Gen. *k'lewesos).

Compare OInd. s'ravas- n. "glory, name etc.", Gr. kle'(w)os n. "voice,
news, glory" (compare Herakle_~s ~ Sl. *Jaroslav7), Tokh.A klyuw, B ka"lywe
"glory" 

IE *k'leu-: Alb.quhem "to be called, to be named", Lat. cluor "glory", OIr.
clu' etc.

IE *k'lo_w-: OInd. s'ra_va'yati "proclaims", Kashmiri ha_wun "to explain",
Avest. sravayeiti "proclaims", MPers. sra_y- "to sing", Pers. sara_yi_dan
id.; Lith. s^lo've. "glory", Latv. slava, slave id.

IE *k'leu-s- "to hear": Arm. lur. "being silent" (*k'lus-ri-), OIce. hlust
"ear" (Germ. *hlustiz < *k'lus-ti-s), OEng. hlyst "hearing, listening"
(hlystan "listen" > listen)

(FYI: IE < Nostr. *q./iw/lV "to hear" > Afroasiatic, Kartvelian, Uralic,
Dravidian, Altaic; the Nostratic root has other parallels.)

-- M. Fasmer (= Vasmer), `Etimologicheskij slovar' russkogo jazyka III,
Moskva 1987 (transl. of Russ. etym. Wörterbuch)
-- Petar Skok, Etimologijski rjec^nik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika III,
Zagreb 1973, s.v. Slaven
-- France Bezlaj, Etimolos^ki slovar slovenskega jezika III, Ljubljana
1995, s.v. Sloven 
-- Alemko Gluhak, Hrvatski etimolos^ki rjec^nik, Zagreb 1993, s.v. Slaven
-- Marko Snoj, Slovenski etimolos^ki slovar, Ljubljana 1997, s.v. slovenski


The form _Slavonic_, with -on-, is from (Middle) Latin -- compare Croatian
Slavonija, for NW part of Croatia (<-- Latin <-- Hungarian <-- Old Croatian
Slovenje = *slove^n6je), similar in some other Slavic languages. 

Eng. Slavonian "Slavic" XVI, Slavonic XVII (The concise Oxford dictionary
of English etymology, ed. T.F. Hoad, ... 1993 etc.)

OF course, there are some other explanations for *slov-. 



Alemko Gluhak
Zavod za lingvisticka istrazivanja
Hrvatske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti
(Linguistic Research Institute
of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts)
Ante Kovacica 5, HR-10000 Zagreb
Hrvatska/Croatia
alemko.gluhak at infocentar.tel.hr


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