Lessico
Sloveni
La
Slovenia prende il nome dalla tribù slava degli Sloveni che nel sec. VI,
cacciati dalla Pannonia dagli Avari, vi si insediarono. Proseguendo nella loro
offensiva gli Sloveni, invano contrastati da Bavari (popolazione germanica appartenente probabilmente al ceppo dei Marcomanni)
e Longobardi
,
occuparono zone del Friuli sino al Piave e dell'Austria lungo la valle del
Danubio (sec. VII-IX). Ma l'insediamento a piccoli gruppi in queste vallate
alpine, isolandoli dalle altre genti slave dei Balcani, tolse agli Sloveni
ogni possibilità di mantenersi indipendenti. Caddero infatti sotto
l'influenza dei popoli germanici mentre le loro terre finirono sotto il
dominio dell'Impero asburgico. La Slovenia recuperò l'indipendenza soltanto
nel sec. XX nell'ambito del regno di Iugoslavia. Di quest'ultima, trasformata
in Repubblica federale nel 1946, ha fatto parte fino alla dichiarazione
d'indipendenza, nel 1991.
Unless
we are to conjecture Stlavani for Ptolemy’s
Stavani, or to insist on the resemblance of his Suobeni to Slovene, the name
Slav first occurs in Pseudo-Caesarius (Dialogues, ii. 110; Migne, P.G.
xxxviii. 985, early 6th century), but the earliest definite account of them
under that name is given by Jordanes (Getica, V. 34, 35, C. 550 A.D.):
Dada . . . ad coronae speciem arduis Alpibus emunita, -iuxta quorum sinistrum
latus, qui in aquilone vergit, ab ortu Vistulae fiuminis per immensa spatia
Venetharum populosa natio consedit. Quorum nomina licet nunc per varias
familias et loca mutentur, principaliter tamen Sciaveni et Antes nominantur.
Sciaveni a civitate Novietunense (Noviodunum, Isak~a [?] on the Danube Delta)
. . . usque ad Danastrum et in boream Viscla tenus commorantur . . . A flIes [?] vero, qui sunt eorum fortissimi, qua Ponticum mare curvatur a
Danastro exienduntur usque ad Danaprum; ci. xxiii. 119, where these tribes are said to form part of the
dominions of Hermanrich. Sclaveni, or something like it, has been the regular
name for the Slays from that day to this. The native form is Slovne; in some
cases, &g. in modern Russian under foreign influence, we have an a instead
of the o. The combination si was difficult to the Greeks and Romans and they
inserted t, th or most commonly c, which continues to crop up. So too in
Arabic Saqaliba, Saqldb. The name has been derived from slovo, a word, or
slava, glory, either directly or through the -slav which forms the second
element in so many Slavonic proper names, but no explanation is satisfactory.
The word slave and its cognates in most European languages date from the time
when the Germans supplied the slave-markets of Europe with Slavonic captives.
The name Antes we find applied to the Eastern Slays by Jordanes; it may be
another form of Wend. Antae is used by Procopius (B.G. iii. 14). He likewise
distinguishes them from the Sclaveni, but says that both spoke the same
language and both were formerly called Spori, which has been identified with
Serb, the racial name now surviving in Lusatia and Servia. Elsewhere he speaks
of the measureless tribes of the Antae; this appellation is used by the
Byzantines until the middle of the 7th century.
(http://45.1911encyclopedia.org)
Within the region of Chorasmia-Havila Ptolemy recalled the presence of various Scythian peoples who, in “The Tribes”, were traced to Israelite entities. Examples include the Aspassi (Menasseh of Joseph), the Massaei (Menasseh), Machetegi (Maacha in Menasseh), Suobeni (Jospeh), Samnites (Simeon), Zaratae (Zarathites of Simeon), Namastae (Namuel of Simeon), and so on. It will be noticed that the mentioned groups are predominantly from Menasseh, or from Joseph, (father of Menasseh), or from Simeon and the Khazars are recorded as belonging to the Tribes of Simeon and Menasseh. Most of the peoples listed by Ptolemy had migrated westward at the time of the Hun invasions of Europe or before then. (www.britam.org/khazars.html)
