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[Piotr]:
One popular story is that the Veneti used to
establish settlements in central Europe as far north as the Baltic,
possibly in order to control the amber trade (they also had a
reputation as horse dealers). It is certainly true that the
Mediterranean end of the Amber Road was at Aquileia (such a famous centre of trade between northern and southern
Europe in Roman times that it earned the name "Second Rome"), in the
land of the historical Veneti; it's also true that the archaeological
cultures of the upper Elbe and the Oder basins, as well as the
southern coast of the Baltic (in the Hallstatt period) show features
which link them to northern Italy (e.g. house-shaped and "facial"
funerary urns like those known from Etruria). Ptolemy's
Ouenedikos kolpos (Wenedic Bay) is generally
identified with the Bay of Gdansk. With something like
*Wenetoi as a starting point it's easy to arrive at
Jordanes's 6th c. Uenethi/Venethae
(apparently synonymous with his Sclaveni 'Slavs') or
mediaeval German Winidi, Wenedi,
Winadi '(Western) Slavs'. The name doesn't seem to
have been applied by any Slavic tribe to themselves; nor does it have
a Slavic etymology (while its connection with PIE
*wen-e- 'to love' seems evident), Perhaps the Germani
transferred the name of the Veneti, their erstwhile neighbours in
Central Europe, to the Slavs who replaced them.
There is a hypothesis by Victor V. Martynov
concerning the Slavic glottogenesis ("Yazyk v prostransyve i vremeni"
Moscow, 1983). He claims that the Proto-Slavic language is actualy a
West-Baltic language altered by 2 mighty influences: Italic one in the
12th-9th cent.BC and East-Iranian (actually Scythian) one in the
6th-5th cent.BC (+ contacts with Germanic and Celtic tribes in 5th-3rd
cent.BC, but these are not very important). In other
words Proto-Slavic consists of Baltic, Italic and Iranian
ingredients like English consists of Anglo-Saxon and Old-French
ingredients.
In the context of Venedi/Wends problem the most
interesting for us is the first stage of the Slavic glottogenesis:
interaction of the West-Baltic substratum with the Italic
superstratum. Martynov stresses that he uses the term "Italic"
conventionally, it could be any West-IE language of that epoque
(including Venetic). He believes that Lausitz (Luzhitskaya) culture
represents the result of this interaction.
Martynov gives the list of pairs of Slavic words
which reflects the appearance of the "Italic" ingredient . First word
from every pair gives the Balto-Slavic variant (all of them have
strong Baltic parallels + sometimes other IE correspondencies), every
second word gives the synonymous Italic variant (they have only the
precise Italic parallel + maybe other West-IE but not East-IE
correspondencies, i.e. they can't belong to the common Balto-Slavic
heritage).
' - soft sign
" - hard sign
|
Meaning
|
Balto-Slavic word
|
Slavic word from the
"Italic" source |
Latin (Italic) word
|
|
Child |
bern" |
det" |
fetus |
|
Muzzle |
b"rna |
rydlo |
rostrum - rodere |
|
Pig |
cula |
svinja |
sus |
|
Right (direction) |
desn" |
prav" |
pravus [inversion] |
|
Bull |
govedo |
byk" |
(bos) |
|
Goos |
gos' |
goser' |
(h)anser |
|
Pasture |
g"nati |
pasti |
pasco |
|
Pigeon |
g"rdlica |
golob' |
columbus |
|
Throat |
g"rdlo |
gl"t" |
glutire |
|
Good season, summer |
jara |
leto |
laetus |
|
Lamb |
jar" |
agn" |
agnus |
|
Needle |
(j)edla |
j'g"la |
jugum |
|
Lake |
jezero |
loky |
lacus |
|
Horse |
komon' |
kobyla |
cabo |
|
Hoe |
kopac' |
motyka |
*mattuca [vulg.Lat.] |
|
Corner |
kot" |
og"l" |
angulus |
|
Left |
kriv" |
lev" |
laevus |
|
Thigh |
k"lk" |
bedro |
(bedrom) |
|
Swan |
k"lp' |
olbod' |
albundus [vulg.Lat.] |
|
Hammer |
kyj' |
molt" |
(maltos) |
|
Swamp |
luza |
bolto |
(balta) |
|
Moon |
mesec' |
luna |
luna (louksna) |
|
Small |
mez" |
mal" |
malus |
|
Flour |
moka |
bors'no |
farina |
|
We |
my |
ny |
nos |
|
You (pl.) |
*ji |
vy |
vos |
|
Ram |
ov'n" |
baran" |
(bero) ? |
|
Weave |
peti |
plesti |
(plekto) |
|
Finger |
p'rst" |
pal'c' |
(polikis) |
|
Pitch |
smola |
p'k"l" |
pix, picis |
|
Pitchfork |
soxa |
vidla |
(*uidla) |
|
Old |
star" |
mator" |
maturus |
|
Guest |
svat" |
gost' |
hostis |
|
Axe |
tesla |
sekyra |
securis |
|
Marry |
voditi |
snubiti |
nubo (snoufo) |
|
Earth |
zemja |
t'lo |
tellus |
|
Stove |
z'd" |
g"rn" |
furnus |
|