Slavs and nemtsy

[FRISON Philippe]

As far as 'nemets'is concerned, I have always been told that the term comes
from the usage imposed by Russia's authorities in the Middle Age, according
to which Russians were not allowed to speak to foreigners. 
Merchants had to propose a barter in placing their products on one side, and
the foreigners would put the quantity of theirs which they judged to be
eequivalent to those of the Russians on the opposite (without a word).

There foreigners therefore came to be called "nemtsy". As those who took
part in these deals were mostly Germans, they were finally called like that
as the word "inostrantsy" was came to be used for foreigners in general.

Philippe Frison

-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Price [mailto:charlesprice_50 at YAHOO.COM]
Sent: 21 ñåíòÿáðÿ 2000 ã. 13:25
To: 
Subject: Slavery? origins of the word "Slav" and its relation to "slave"


Apologies- the previous message appeared not to go
through.

I know of three competing etymologies for the term
Slav; the issue is evidently politicised.

1) Slave (Russians tend not to be very happy about
this one).
2) Slava: meaning "Glory". (They prefer this one.)
3) Slovo: meaning "Word", denoting the ability of
Slavs to communicate with each other. Conversely,
Germans were labelled "Nemtsy", meaning "dumb, unable
to speak", because of their inability to communicate
with Slavs.

Futher clarification of this question would be
interesting, but I am not sure where it is discussed
in detail; I think there may be something in
Billington's "Icon and the Axe".

Charles Price


--- "Jolanta M. Davis" <jmdavis at FAS.HARVARD.EDU>
wrote:
> I know that this subject was probably discussed
> before but it's impossible
> to search SEELANGS archives for "Slav" to find it
> anyway, can someone please advise me where to find a
> good discussion of the
> origins of the word "Slav" and its relation to the
> word "slave"
> for instance, when did the Slavic people fist start
> calling themselves
> "Slavs", did it start with a particular tribe/nation
> of Slavs and then
> spread or was it proto-Slavic, when does the word
> first appear in print,
> also when did the Romans first used "sclave," what
> did it used to mean, was
> it borrowed from the Slavic languages?
> thank you
> Jolanta Davis
> Jolanta M. Davis
> Publications Coordinator and NewsNet Editor
> American Association for the Advancement of Slavic
> Studies (AAASS)
> 8 Story Street
> Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
> tel.: (617) 495-0679
> fax: (617) 495-0680
> http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~aaass/
>
>
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