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Venedes
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Several other names have been used for (or conjectured to refer to) those people, including Wends , '''Veneti''', '''Veneds''', '''Venedi''', '''Vinedi''', '''Vendi''', '''Venethi''', '''Wenets''', '''Venets''' and '''Wenetes'''.


RELATION BETWEEN VENEDES AND SLAVS

The Venedes were originally an Indo-European People in the area of Pommeranian Poland . Their traces can be seen in Pre-Slavic hydronyms found in the Vistula and Odra river basins (Gołąb 1992: 263-267).

They eventually assimilated with the Proto-Slavs, forming the modern Slavic ethnicity. The Germanic peoples later transferred the ethnonym ''Veneti'' to Slavs . For this reason, the various forms of the historical name ''Veneti'' in medieval sources (as qouted above) often refer to Slavs . For example, in 551 AD, Jordanes writes of ''Venethi'', identifying them with ''Sclaveni'' and ''Anti''.

Interestingly, the name for Russia in Finnish is ''Venäjä'' (''Vene'' in Estonian) which is believed to be derived from the name of Venedes.


UNCERTAIN THEORIES SURROUNDING THE VENEDES

Nationalist ideologies have often made use of the uncertainty regarding the Venedes. Some Slovene individuals claim, for example, that Venedes were the Proto-Slavs , an Aryan folk from Lusatian culture along the Amber Path who conquered and settled the region between the Baltic Sea and Adriatic Sea . This theory, however, has been rejected by several scholars as untenable.

  • sloveninъ 'Slav', ---slovene in Proto-Slavic means Slavs and is derived from one basis ''---slov-'' known in geographical names and is preserved in names of rivers Lithuanian ''Šlave'', Russian ''Sluja'', Polish ''Sława'', ''Sławica''. Very similar is also Croatian , Serbian ''slavelj'', ''slavina'' 'bung, 'pipe'. If a hypothesis is correct ''---Slovene'' firstly meant ---'inhabitants along the river ''---Slova'' or ''---Slovy'' '. Proto-Indo-European basis is ''---klou-'' 'to wash, to rinse', and is known, for example, in Latin ''cluere'' 'to clean, to wash', Lithuanian ''šluoti'' 'to clean, to wipe'.


  • slovene'' might be derived from Proto-Slavic ''---slovo'' 'word' If this surmise is correct regardless to word formation, the name of the nation primarily meant something like ---'people, to whom it is possible to talk and who understand our language'. It could be opposed to the word ''nemtsy'' (i.e., "mute ones") for foreigners in general and Germans in particular.



VENEDES AND ADRIATIC VENETI

It is uncertain whether the Baltic Veneti or Venedes were related to the Adriatic Veneti , a people whose language is attested in inscriptions dating from 6th to 1st centuries BC and is known to have been particularly closely related to the Italic Languages (see Venetic Language ). The one source which may point to a possible connection between the two peoples are similarities of hydronyms attested in the Vistula and Odra river basins (which are attributed to the Baltic Veneti) with those attested in the area of the Adriatic Veneti (for examples and comparisons see Gołąb 1992: 263-267).


SEE ALSO



REFERENCE

Gołąb, Zbigniew (1992). ''The Origins of the Slavs: A Linguist's view''. Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 1992. ISBN 0-89357-231-4.