In translation from Greek, an ethnonym is literally “the name of the people”. Since ancient times, the names of tribes have carried a certain meaning. The science of ethnonymy studies these names, finds their roots and explains their subtext.
Names given by conquerors
Historically, the origin of ethnonyms can be very different. The names of some peoples were adopted from the conquerors of their country. For example, in the 7th century, the Turkic-speaking horde of Bulgarians invaded the Balkan Peninsula. Khan of the aliens began to rule the South Slavic state. Gradually, the small number of Turks disappeared among the local population.
The Slavs did not disappear anywhere, but they adopted the name of their own conquerors, becoming the namesakes of the Volga Bulgarians, as well as the Caucasian Balkars. This example clearly illustrates that an ethnonym is a changeable phenomenon, and its content can evolve.
Just like the Bulgarians, in the XIII century, events unfolded in Central Asia. The Mongols invaded the territory of modern Uzbekistan. The names of their tribes and clans were reflected in the names of local population groups (this is how the Manguts, Barlases, etc. appeared). At the same time, the neighboring ethnonym "Kazakhs" is of exclusively Turkic origin. According to one versionlinguists, this word is related to the word "Cossacks" (both are translated as "free, free people").
In the case of the conquerors and the conquered, there is also an opposite example. Sometimes conquered peoples themselves give names to their conquerors. An example is the history of the Hutts. This people lived in Anatolia at the turn of the third and second millennia BC. e. Later, the Indo-Europeans took the place of the Hattians, who became known as the Hittites.
Territories and peoples
Each ethnonym is a kind of chronicle. It concerns not only the people, but also the country in which they live. Ethnonymic studies show that in some cases the name of the territory gave the name to the newly arrived people.
The legendary commander Alexander the Great was from Macedonia, a country north of Ancient Greece. In the Middle Ages, the southern Slavs settled in this region. They had nothing to do with ancient civilization and did not even conquer it, since it had long since disappeared. But the name Macedonia continued to exist. It left an imprint on the southern Slavs. The case with the B altic people of the Prussians is similar. In the XIII century, their region was conquered by the Germans. Subsequently, the German state on this territory was called Prussia, and its German inhabitants were called Prussians.
Tribal alliances
Often an ethnonym is the heritage of one tribe, the former head of a union or confederation. Until the 9th century, the Czechs did not occupy the largest territory. There were many other West Slavic tribes around them. Howevergradually it was the Czechs who rallied their neighbors around them.
The Union of Polabian Slavs of the Bodrichi got its name from one of the tribes of this union. The situation was different with their neighbors, the Lyutichs. Those acquired a new common name, not associated with any of the tribes. The ethnographic groups of the Tungus have a tradition of being named after the main clan in the group.
Reverse examples are also known. An ethnic community may disintegrate, and the isolated parts that have arisen may retain their former name. However, it will no longer be equivalent to the former (more general). This is how the name of the Turks (descended from the Turks), Slovenes, Slovaks and Ilmen Slovenes (descended from the Slavs) appeared.
Wrong ethnonyms
If the ethnonym "Slavs" always had one meaning, then other ethnonyms could change their content, even if their object remained the same. In the 19th century, Moldovans were called Greeks and Gypsies. In pre-revolutionary Russia, the ethnonym "Kyrgyz" did not apply to the Kyrgyz (they were called Kara-Kyrgyz), but to the Turkmens and Kazakhs.
The name of one people can be extended to neighbors if knowledge about these communities is fragmentary and insufficient. For example, the ethnonym "Tatars" has long been used by Russians in relation to any peoples of the East. This tradition has also spread to Western Europe. So the Tatar Strait (separating the mainland from Sakhalin) appeared on the maps, although not only the Tatars, but even the Mongols never lived near it. Also in Russia, until the 18th century, Danes or Dutch could be called Germans. For some African peoples "french" -these are not only French, but in general all Europeans.
Evolution of names
Becoming an ethnonym, the word begins a new life, independent of previous connections. Ukrainians are not marginal, even if this name was invested in such a meaning when it appeared. Thus, names of peoples can have three levels of meaning. The first is the concept before the formation of the ethnonym itself, the second is the ethnonym itself, and the third is the concept that arose from the ethnonym. Example: in pre-revolutionary Russia, any wandering and swarthy person could be called a gypsy.
Among the ethnonyms, self-names make up a smaller part. The name of the Germans at first was not used by them, but by the Celts. The tribes themselves, which in the future laid the foundation for the German nation, opposed themselves to each other. They were not a single entity and did not have a common name. For the Celts, the Germans were an abstract mass, the internal division of which did not play any role.
The European names of most Indian tribes were adopted from their neighbors. By giving a name that was not like their own, the natives opposed themselves to those around them. Therefore, many tribes became known by names that they themselves never recognized. For example, the Navajo Indians themselves consider themselves "Dine" - that is, "the people." The Papuans do not have their own names. These scattered tribes became known to Europeans from the surrounding rivers, mountains, islands, villages.
Territorial and totem names
One of the theories about the name of the Bashkir people says that the ethnonym "Bashkort" is translated as "beekeeper". Although this versionfar from being the main one, it demonstrates one of the types of origin of ethnic names. The base of an ethnonym can be not only a phrase denoting the nature of the activity, but also a reference to religion. A significant number of ancient peoples got their name in honor of their own totem. Numerous such examples have been established. The Cheyenne Indian tribe is named after the snake totem. The names of the peoples of Africa and the natives of Australia also appeared.
Territorial ethnonyms are widespread. Buryats are “forest” (this name was given to them by their steppe neighbors). The Bushmen were called "People of the bushes". The name of the Slavic union of the Dregovichi is translated as "union of swamps" (dregva - quagmire, swamp). A talking name for Balkan Montenegrins.
Color and secondary ethnonyms
Color ethnonyms are found in all parts of the world. It is not known exactly how the word "Belarusians" appeared. There are several interpretations: the color of shirts, light eyes or hair influenced. Most color ethnonyms are in the Turkic languages: yellow Uighurs, white nogai, black nogai. There is a version that the Kyrgyz are “Red Oghuz”.
Secondary ethnonyms, in addition to the already mentioned Macedonians and Prussians, are also vitals, who gave the name to Italy and modern Italians. Before the emergence of the Bavarian people, the ancient Bavarians settled in their region, who expelled the Boii Celts from there. So the ethnonym of the former population becomes the ethnonym of the country, and then of the new population. There are also known examples of Angles - England - English, and Franks - France - French.
Names by appearance and occupations
The basis of the ethnonym can beexternal signs. The Indonesians gave the name to the Papuans ("curly"). Ethiopians - "people with scorched faces", Lombards - "high". The Britons had a custom of body painting. Perhaps that is why they were called "variegated".
Also, the ethnonym appears as a reference to customs and traditions. The ancient inhabitants of Sicily, the Siculs, are "farmers" or "reapers", the Koryaks are "reindeer herders". The Arabian tribes Dafir and Muntefik - "intertwined" or "united" (a reference to the integration process).
Ethnonym of Russians
In the scientific community, there are several theories about the origin of the ethnonym "Rus". The Varangian version says that this word is Scandinavian, and is translated as "rowers". There is also an Indo-Iranian theory (translated as "bright") and Proto-Slavic. One way or another, but in the Middle Ages the word "Rus" meant both the people and the state. From him came the modern name of the East Slavic people.
The ethnonym "Russians" was first used as "Russian people". At the turn of the XVIII and XIX centuries. with the advent of the modern literary language, the adjective began to be used separately and evolved into a noun. Before the revolution of 1917, the word “Russians” could refer to all three East Slavic peoples (the division into Great Russians and Little Russians was also common).
Collective names
Ethnonyms in Russian denote a set either in a collective form (chud) or in the plural (Germans). As a rule, wordsformed with suffixes. For example -yata and -ichi denote descendants of the same clan. In Russian, even borrowed ethnonyms received multiple endings: Italians, Germans, Estonians, Englishmen, Estonians, Egyptians. Suffixes such as -ovtsy and -intsy are an example of building one suffix onto another.
Derivation can be geographic. The ethnonyms of the peoples southeast of the Eastern Slavs ended in -ars: Avars, Tatars, Bulgarians, Khazars, etc. This phenomenon has Turkic or Indo-Iranian roots. Finnish tribes north of the Slavs, on the contrary, received collective names: Chud, Vod, All, Yam, Samoyed, Kors. These examples are not the only ones. Other collective ethnonyms: Erzya, Merya, Izhora, Meshchera, Mordva, Lithuania.
Distortion
When a word is transferred from language to language, it often changes its phonetics beyond recognition. In the Turkic languages, the ethnonym "Russians" sounds like "Urus" or "Oros", since the use of the sound "r" at the beginning of a word is alien to the Turkic group. The Hungarians call themselves Magyars. Their distant relatives from Siberia are the Finno-Ugric people of the Mansi. There is a widespread version that both ethnonyms are the same word, which has changed a lot phonetically (Meshchera, Mishari, Mazhars belong to the same group).
Many names of the peoples of Africa were distorted by the European colonialists and already in this form appeared in the Russian language (Togolese, Congolese). The explorers-Cossacks, having met the Buryats for the first time, erroneously generalized the name of the strangers with the word "brother". Because of this, a whole tradition arose. The Buryats were called brothers for a long time (hence the name of the city of Bratsk). To determine the origin of an ethnonym, experts "remove" all historical changes and try to find its original form.
