Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/slověninъ

Roman Jakobson insists the word is from from *slovo (“word”), with a link to Old East Slavic кличане (kličane, “hunters, who raise game by shout”) : кличь (kličʹ), and also insists on the opposition of *slověne vs. *němьci.

• Trubachev (Трубачёв) says Jakobson's etymology is promising, with the verb *slovǫ, *sluti (“to speak (understandably)”).

• Vasmer says it has nothing to do with *slava (“glory, fame”) which influenced it in terms of folk etymology later. *slověne can't be formed from *slovo because *-ěninъ, *-aninъ only occurs in derivations from place names, however local name *Slovy is not attested. Most likely it's derived from a hydronym.

Compare Old East Slavic Словутичь (Slovutičĭ) ― Dnepr epithet, Russian Слуя (Sluja) ― affluent of Вазуза (Vazuza), Polish river names Sława, Sławica, Serbo-Croatian Славница and others, which brings together with Ancient Greek κλύζω (klúzō, “I lave”), κλύζωει (klúzōei) · πλημμυρεῖ (plēmmureî), ῥέει (rhéei), βρύει (brúei), κλύδων (klúdōn, “surf”), Latin cluō (“I clean”), cloāca (“sewer pipe”). Other etymologies are less likely.

• Otrębski brings up an interesting parallel, the Lithuanian village name Šlavė́nai on the river Šlavė̃ which is identical to Proto-Slavic slověne.

• Bernstein repeats this etymology: from Proto-Indo-European *slawos (“people, nation, folk”).

• Maher agrees with Trubachev's connection of it to *sluti (“to be known”),[1] on the grounds that *slovo (“word”) is an s-stem, *sloves-, which would have led to an expected form *slovesěni (compare Russian слове́сность (slovésnostʹ)

*slověninъ m

1. Slav

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• *němьcь
• *volxъ

• *slověnьskъ

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: словѣнинъ (slověninŭ), словѣне pl (slověne)
    • Belarusian: славянін (slavjanin)
    • Russian: славяни́н (slavjanín)
    • Ukrainian: слов'яни́н (slovʺjanýn)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Old Church Slavonic: словѣне pl (slověne)

    ⱄⰾⱁⰲⱑⱀⰵ pl (slověne)

    • → Byzantine Greek: Σλαβῆνος (Slabênos), Σκλάβος (Sklábos) (probably; but see that entry for another theory)
      • → Greek: σκλάβος (sklávos), Σλάβος (Slávos)
      • → Medieval Latin: Sclavus, sclavus (see there for further descendants)
  • Bulgarian: слове́нин (slovénin)
  • Macedonian: Словен (Sloven)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic: Словен

    Latin: Slaven

  • Slovene: slovẹ́nski (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Czech: slované pl
  • Kashubian: słoviński
  • Polabian: slüövenskë
  • Polish: Słowianin
  • Slovak: Slovák, Slovien, Slovan

• Vasmer (Fasmer), Max (Maks) (1964–1973), “славянин”, in Etimologičeskij slovarʹ russkovo jazyka [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), translated from German and supplemented by Trubačóv Oleg, Moscow: Progress
• “Slav” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present. (etymology)
• Трубачев О. Н. Из исследований по праславянскому словообразованию: генезис модели на -ěninъ, -*janinъ // Этимология 1980. М.: «Наука», 1982. С.
• Sreznevskij, I. I. (1912), “словѣнинъ”, in Materialy dlja slovarja drevne-russkago jazyka po pisʹmennym pamjatnikam [Materials for the Dictionary of the Old Russian Language According to Written Monuments] (in Russian), volume 3, Saint Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, page 421
• Stanislav, Jan (1904-1977): Starosloviensky jazyk II: Morfológia, Bratislava 1987