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From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Re: "Slave" vs "Slav"
Message-ID: <D6KHEv.GJE@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <3kseun$obt@fiesta.srl.ford.com> <3kt8hg$5k9@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> <aldersonD60uHr.AKu@netcom.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 1995 14:54:29 GMT
Lines: 26

In article <aldersonD60uHr.AKu@netcom.com> alderson@netcom.com writes:
>In article <3kt8hg$5k9@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> aeulenbe@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Alex Eulenberg) writes:
>>And indeed, the Russian word for freedom is "svoboda". [...]
>>So you see, the proto-form looks like this:
>
>English "swear" is cognate with Russian "svara" = "altercation"
>--Germanic *w is never cognate with Slavic *l, always with Slavic *w.

Of course, no etymology is too absurd to have been proposed, and the
derivation of _slav-_ from _svoboda_ has had its day too.  As Vasmer
reports, it has been suggested by Otre\bski 1947 and criticised by
Lehr-Splawin'ski.

Vasmer himself calls Otre\bski's efforts something which is rendered
as _neverojatnye ehksperimenty_ in the Russian translation.  This is
ambiguous as to whether it is impossible to believe that the claim
might be correct or that anyone would think of proposing something
so outlandish in the first place, and I thought the second was meant
until I saw that the German original said "unwahrscheinliche Experimente",
which I think can only mean the first.

-- 
`"Haud oan there a meenit," says the king tae Joseph, "I've been thinkin."'
Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk)    (J Stuart, _Auld Testament Tales_)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,   Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
