*slovEne and Sclaveni

From: slavophil68
Message: 65933
Date: 2010-03-06

Dear All,

I've noticed that the question of Slavic ethnonyms has been discussed on this list already, but I'm particularly interested in the word "Sclaveni"

I found a mention of it in the following messages:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/1084
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/1220
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/3423
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/4365
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/4396
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/58222
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/64371

...but I didn't learn much.

I'm interested in the historical phonology of "sclaveni", why is there this /-c-/, why /sklav-/ rather than just /slav-/? Is it the /-k-/ that was intrusive in the works of ancient authors or is /slovEne/ a simplification of an older /sklovEne/ (***s-k^leu-), or is Slaveni < ***s-k^leu-, while /slovEne/ < just */k^leu-/? I don't know if this is possible...

By the way, I found a ridiculous explanation on a website of a pseudo-panslavistic nationalist, who has suggested that "slovani" is from "slo-vani", the latter part being supposedly related to "ven-" in "Veneti, Venedi" etc. LOL! I think this is impossible, isn't it?

Any comments welcome!

All the best,

Mirka