Origin of the word Slav

[Robert Orr]

Quick answer, because one recurrent problem is starkly illustrated here:

"From the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, I learn that the English
word "Slav" derives from the medieval Latin sclavus, meaning "captive."
Under the entry "slave," the dictionary gives the same medieval  Latin term,
and explains that it is "identical with the ethnic name  Sclavus [Slav], the
Slav peoples having been reduced to a servile state by  conquest during the
ninth century.""

The derivation is actually the other way round.  The Latin term (probably
via Byzantine Greek, off the cuff) is derived from the ethnonym "Slav"
because Slavs were so common in slave markets ca. 800-900 AD (possibly
making their descendants eligible for reparations? well, why not), as if a
certain other word had come to mean a generic "slave" in English.   "Slav"
ousted  Latin "servus", and is preserved in most modern (if not all) Romance
languages, and has been borrowed into English and German  (but not Insular
Scandinavian).

The slovo - word derivation is most likely.  there's an excellent (as
always) article by J.P.Maher from about 1970, and there's an extensive
discussion in Golab:  The Origin of the Slavs, A Linguist's View.

I have to leave in a minute, but if I find no-one has given these exact
references by later today, I will do so this evening.



  ----- Original Message -----
From: "Katerina P. King" <kpking at MTHOLYOKE.EDU>
To: <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 9:34 AM
Subject: [SEELANGS] Origin of the word Slav


> I am posting this for a historian friend. I remember studying this
question
> in various introductory courses a long time ago, but is there a short
> answer?
> Thanks,
> Katya King
>
> I write in the hopes that a member of this list group will be able to
> clarify for me the relationship between the words for "Slav" in English
> and in the Slavic languages themselves
>

>
> Slavic-language words for "Slav" [Slovan, etc.], meanwhile, seem to have
> an etymology rooted in the word for "word" [slovo]. Slavs, to themselves,
> were people who could speak intelligibly -- as opposed to Germans [Nemci
> -- with "mute" the root here].
>
> Now for my questions. Is the above information correct? Would I be right
> in concluding that the resemblance between the English-language word for
> "Slav" and the Slavic-language words for "Slav" is purely coincidental,
> and not the result of any borrowing?
> --
> Katerina P. King, Ph.D.
> Mount Holyoke College
>
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