Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/64

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SLAVS


42


SLAVS


that in the course of time among the Slavic peoples the southern Slavonic written in Glagolitic letters be- came the langviage of the Roman Rite, while the northern Slavonic written in Cyrilhc letters was the language of the Greek Rite. The prevailing use of the Latin language and the adoption of the Roman alpha- bet by many Slavic nationalities caused the use of the Glagolitic to diminish and Latin to gradually take its place. The northern Slavic peoples, like the Bohe- mians, Poles, and Slovaks, who were converted by Latin missionaries, used the Latin in their rite from the very first. At present the Glagolitic is only used in Dalmatia and Croatia. Urban VIII in 1631 defi- nitively settled the use of the Glagolitic-Slavonic missal and office-books in the Roman Rite, and laid down rules where the clergy of each language came in contact with each other in regard to church ser- vices. Leo XIII published two editions of the Gla- golitic Missal, from one of which the illustration on page 45 is taken.

The liturgy used in the Slavonic language, whether of Greek or Roman Rite, offers no peculiarities differing from the original Greek or Latin sources. The Ruth- enians have introduced an occasional minor modifi- cation (see RuTHENiAN Rite), but the Orthodox Rus- sians, iiulgarians, and Servians substantially follow the Byzantine liturgy and offices in the Slavonic ver- sion. The GlagoUtic Missal, Breviary, and ritual fol- low closely the Roman liturgical books, and the latest editions contain the new offices authorized by the Ro- man congregations. The casual observer could not distinguish the Slavonic priest from the Latin priest when celebrating Mass or other services, except by hearing the language as pronounced aloud.

Gl.MZEL, Geschichte der Slavenapo&tH Cyrill u. Method, u. der stanschen Lilurgie (Vienna, 1S61); Harasiewicz. Annales Ru- thena (Lemberg, 1862) ; Golubinskt, Istoria Russkoi Tserkvi, I (Moscow, 1904). ii. 326-42; Taylor, Ueber den Ursprung des gla- golitischen Alphabets (Berlin, 1881) ; Zeiller. Les origines chre- tiennes dans la province de Dalmatie (Paris. 1906); Nilles, Kalen- darium Manuale, I (Innsbruck, 189G); Echos d'Orient, VIII (Paris, 1905).

Andrew J. Shipman.

Slavs, The. — I. Name. — A. Slavs. — At present the customary name for all the Slavonic races is Slav. This name did not appear in history until a late period, but it has superseded all others. The general opinion is that it appeared for the first time in written documents in the sixth century of the Christian era. However, before this the Alexandrian scholar Ptolemy (about A.D. 100-178) mentioned in his work, 'Teuypa^nKTi v<j>-qirian" , a tribe called Stavani (ZTavami), which was said to live in European Sarmatia between the Lithuanian tribes of the Galinda; and the Sudeni and the Sarmatic tribe of the Alans. He also men- tioned another tribe, Soubenoi (Sou/Sevo/), which he as- signed to Asiatic Sarmjitia on the other side of the Alani. According to Safafik these two statements refer to the same Slavonic people. Ptolemy got his information from two sources; the orthography of the copies he had was poor and consequently he believed there were two tribes to which it was necessary to as- sign separate localities. In reality the second name refers very probably to the ancestors of the present Slavs, as does the first name also though with less certainty. The Slavonic combination of consonants si was changed in Greek orthography into stl, sthl, or ski. This theory was accepted by many scholars before Safafik, as Lomonosov, Schhizer, Tatistcheff, J. Thunmann, who in 1774 published a dissertation on the subject. It was first advamed probably in 1679 by Hartknoch who was supp<jrted in modern times by many scholars. Apart from the mention by Ptolemy, the expression Slavs is not found until the sixth century. The opinion once held by some Ger- man and many Slavonic scholars that the names Sueri and SUm were the same and that these two j)eoples were identical, although the Suevi were a branch of


the Germans and the ancestors of the present Swa- bians, must be absolutely rejected. Scattered names found in old inscriptions and old charters that are similar in sound to the word Slav must also be ex- cluded in this investigation.

After the reference bj' Ptolemy the Slavs are first spoken of by Pseudo-Ca'sarios of Nazianzum, whose work appeared at the beginning of the sixth century; in the middle of the sixth centuiy Jordanis and Pro- copius gave fuller accounts of them. Even in the earliest sources the name appears in two forms. The old Slavonic authorities give: SlovSne (plural from the singular SlovSnin), the country is called Slovifisko, the language slovenesk jazyk, the people slovefisk narod. The Greeks WTote Souheiioi (in Ptolemy 'Zovpevol), but the writers of the sixth centur\' used the terms: Sklabenoi (~K\af3r)i'ot), SIdniicnni (SKXai'Tjvof), Sklabi- noi (S/cXa/Sri-oi), Skliiiiiiiiii (SjcXai/irai). The Romans used the terms: Sclnnriii. Srlauini, Sclauenia, Sclau- inia. Later authoi-s einiilov the expressions Sthla- bt-mii {XeXaprj^ol), Slhlahinin {ZeXafitvoi, XeXa^ivol), while the Romans wrote: SMaueni, Sthlauini. In the "Life of St. Clement" the ex-pression l,e\apcml occurs; later writers use such terms as Esklahinoi (Eff/cXa/Sii/oi), Asklabinoi (AirA-XajSirai), Sklabinioi (2kXo- ^Lvtoi), Sklaiienioi (SicXaii^i'ioi). The adjectives are sclamniscus, sclavaniscus, sclavinicus, sclauanicus. At the same time shorter forms are also to be found, as: sklaboi (2/cXoj3oO, sthlaboi {ISXi^oi) , sclavi, schlavi, sclavania, later also slavi: In addition appear as scattered forms: Sclauani, Sclauones (SKXaj3aJcoi, E<r- flXo/3>)(rioro(, XeXa^oyevels) . The Armenian Moises of Choren was acquainted with the term Sklavajiti: the chronicler Michael the Syrian used the expression Sglau or Sglou; the Arabians adopted the expression Sclav, but because it could not be brought into har- mony with their phonetical laws they changed it into Sakldb, Sakdlibe, and later also to Slavije, Slavijun. The anonymous Persian geography of the tenth cen- tury uses the term Seljabe.

Various explanations of the name have been sug- gested, the theory depending upon whether the longer or shorter form has been taken as the basis and upon the acceptance of the vowel o or o as the original root vowel . From the thirteent h century until Safafik the shorter form Slav was always regarded as the original expression, and the name of the Slavs was traced from the word Slava (honour, fame), con- sequently it signified the same as gloriosi {alv(Tol). However, as early as the fourteenth centurj' and later the name Slav was at t imes referred to the longer form SlovSnin with o as the root vowel, and this longer form was traced to the word Slovo (word, speech), Slavs signifying, consequently, "the talking ones", verbosi, veraces, 6^67X0x7-01. Dobrowsky maintained this ex- planation and Safafik inchned to it, consequently it has been the accepted theory up to the present time. Other elucidations of the name Slav, as tlovek (man), skala (rock), seld (colony), slali (to send), solovej (nightingale), scarcely merit mention. There is much more reason in another objection that Slavonic philol- ogists have made to the derivation of the word Slav from slovo (word). The ending f« or an of the form Slovinin indicates derivation from a topographical designation. Dobrowsky perceived this difficulty and therefore invented the topographical name Slovy, which was to be derived from slovo. With some res- ervation Safafik also gave a geographical interpreta- tion. He did not, however, accept the purely iinag- inar>^ localitv Slovy but connected the word Slovfnin with the Lithuanian Salava. Lettish Sala, from which is derived the Polish JiAii™, signifying island, a dry- spot in a swampy region. According to this inter- pretation the word Slavs woiild mean the inhabit.nints of an island, or inhabitants of :i marshy region. The Genn.an schohir (irimm iiKiinlaiiird tlic identity of the Slavs with the Suevi and derived the name from sloba,