Slavery? origins of the word "Slav" and its relation to "slave"

[dawn]

The difference in meaning you mention of the words 'mir' i 'svet' between
Russian and Slovenian also exist within Russian.

Mir - peace, world
Svet - light, world (although more like the english 'earth' I think)
(Neba - heaven, the heavens
Vselennaia - universe
Kosmos - cosmos)

Can anyone say more about the distinction between the two and their usage?
They seem to be subtle variations of each other.

Thanks,

Dawn

> From: JMD <dintinjana at SIOL.NET>
> Reply-To: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
> Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 14:00:41 +0200
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: Re: Slavery? origins of the word "Slav" and its relation to "slave"
>
> A word from a layperson who dabbles in etymology in her spare time, if I
> may. :-) Slovo = a letter, word. // Perhaps this would be a useful analogy:
> Nemec = a person who does not speak, is "nem (nemec)" even today (mutec =
> mute); the word for "German" still used today is "Nemec" (in Slovene, for
> example). My assumption: if the other person spoke a language you did not
> understand, it was pretty much the same as if you were talking to someone
> who is mute(dumb, speechless) - you would have to rely on sign language -
> hands, not sound. Also, if you consider the Russian word "mir" (sorry, I
> don't have the C. keyboard) and today's Slovenian "mir", you see amazing
> connections: in Russian, this word stands for the cosmos, in Slovenian it
> means "peace". So the ancients must have perceived the cosmos - the starr
> sky - as a place that is peace+ful. Take another example, the name Miroslav
> (Frederick, Friedrich): miro + slav = he who celebrates the peacefulness of
> the cosmos with his word. The word 'celebrate' is incidentally also =
> 'slaviti'. :-) And the Slovene word 'svet', which means 'the world', also
> means 'holy'. The world as a holy place, imagine that.
>
> 'Sciavi' or 'sclavi' must have come later. It's interesting though that I
> don't seem to be able to find any old pejorative Slovenian words for the
> neighbouring German or Italic peoples - all are recent (Lahi, Svabi -
> pre -WW I and post- WWII). I would be interested in hearing the comments of
> those who have studied etymology professionally.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Mia Dintinjana
> dintinjana at siol.net
>
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