Professional paper

The name “Slavonia”

Alemko Gluhak

Abstract

As in many other areas settled by Slavs, the territory which is and was called Slavonia, was named in the early Middle Ages after its inhabitants, the Slavs, Slověne. The root *Slověn- in various dialects appears as Slovin-, Sloven- + -ec, -ac. The name Slovin was applied to Slavonians (originally to inhabitants of the land “East of the Sutla”), to Croats and to South Slavs. The ethnonym Slovinac, plur. Slovinci, adjective slovinski, was used with various meanings: for Slavs in general, for South Slavs, for Slavonia (“East of the Sutla”), for South Slavs in former Illyricum, for Croats. The land “East of the Sutla” was called Slovinje, Slovenje, which was both an adjective in the neutral gendre and a collective noun (from the Common Slavic *Slověnьje, where the suffix –ьje totally corresponds etymologically to the Latin –ium in Latium, for example). From this name, through Latin mediation, the modern Croatian form Slavonia was derived.

Keywords

Slavonia; name; etymology

Hrčak ID:

7958

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/7958

Publication date:

26.3.2003.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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