Names of the Serbs and Serbia

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For other uses, see Serbian names.

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The Serbs (Serbian: Срби/Srbi, pronounced [sr̩̂biː]) have been referred to with several names by other peoples, although the autonym is and has always been Srbi.

Autonym (Serbs - Срби/Srbi)

The earliest found mention of the Serbs is from Einhard's Royal Frankish Annals, written in 822, when Ljudevit went from his seat at Sisak to the Serbs (believed to have been somewhere in western Bosnia),[1] with Einhard mentioning "the Serbs, who control the greater part of Dalmatia" (ad Sorabos, quae natio magnam Dalmatiae partem obtinere dicitur[2]).[1] De Administrando Imperio, written by Constantine VII in the mid-10th century, tells of the early history of the Serbs, whose polity he called "Serblia" (Σερβλία), and whose ruler he called "Prince of the Serbs" (ἄρχων Σερβλίας). He mentions White Serbia (or Boiki). Furthermore, he says that the town of Servia received its name from the Serbs who once lived there. [3]

According to the Tale of Bygone Years, the first Russian chronicle, Serbs are among the first five Slav peoples who were enumerated by their names.[4]

Al-Masudi (896–956) called them Sarabin.[5]

Theories

Etymological origin
  • Sorbian scholar H. Schuster-Šewc suggested a connection with Proto-Slavic verb for "to slurp" *sьrb-, with cognates such as сербать (Russian, Ukrainian), сербаць (Belarusian), srbati (Slovak), сърбам(Bulgarian) and серебати (Old Russian).[6]
Antique origin

Some scholars argue that the Serb ethnonym is antique.[7] According to this theory, Serbs are thought to have been first mentioned by Tacitus in 50 AD, Pliny the Elder in 77 AD (Naturalis Historia) and Ptolemy in his Geography 2nd century AD, associated with the Sarmatian tribe of Serboi of the North Caucasus and Lower Volga.[7] One theory is that it is of ultimately Iranian origin.[8][9]

Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (325-391) referred to the Carpathians as "Montes Serrorum" in his works, according to some, connected to the Serbs.[citation needed] In 1878, Henry Hoyle Howorth connected Ptolemy's mention of the town of Serbinum (Σέρβινον), modern Gradiška, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the Serbs, and also found the Serb ethnonym in the works of Vibius Sequester.[11]

Sporoi
  • In De Bello Gothico Procopius (500-565) uses the name Sporoi as an umbrella term for the Slavic tribes of Antes and Sclaveni, it is however not known whether the Slavs used this designation for themselves or he himself coined the term, it has been theorized[by whom?] however that the name is corruption of the ethnonym Serbs. A large number of linguists agree that 'Sporoi' (Spores) is another name for the Serbs.[12]

History

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"...Sorabos, quae natio magnam Dalmatiae partem obtinere dicitur..."
transl. "Serbs, who inhabit the greater part of Dalmatia"[13][14][15]

-Royal Frankish Annals, 822

Exonyms

Rascia

The term "Rascia" (sr. Рашка/Raška) was used as an exonym for Serbia in Western sources since the late 12th century, along with other names such as Servia, Dalmatia and Slavonia. It was derived from the town of Ras, a royal estate, and seat of an eparchy. The first attestation is in a charter from Kotor dated to 1186, in which Stefan Nemanja, the Grand Prince (1166–1196), is mentioned as "župan of Rascia". It was one of the common names for Serbia in western sources (Papacy, German, Italian, French, etc.), often in conjunction with Serbia (Servia et Rascia). "Rascia" was never used in Byzantine works.

The term is often used in modern historiography to refer to the medieval "Serbian hinterland", that is, the inland territories in relation to the maritime principalities at the Adriatic (the "Pomorje"). The early medieval Serbian Principality is erranously (as anachronistical) known in historiography as Raška.[16] In DAI, the Serbian hinterland is called "baptized Serbia", while Ras is only mentioned as a border town.[16] The misconceptions arose from the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja.[16]

Between the 15th and 18th centuries, the term (Latin: Rascia, Hungarian: Ráczság) was used to designate the southern Pannonian Plain inhabited by Serbs, or "Rascians" (Latin: Rasciani, Natio Rasciana, Hungarian: Rác(ok)), who had settled there following the Ottoman conquests and Great Serb migrations.

Other

Medieval
  • The Serbs were often called "Triballi" in Byzantine works.[17] The Triballi was an ancient Thracian tribe that inhabited the area of the Morava Valley in southern Serbia. They were last mentioned in the 3rd century. The educated Byzantine authors sought an ancient name for the Serbs, and adopted it as the most likely.[18] It was in use between the 11th and 15th century.
  • In the Byzantine chronicle Alexiad, covering the 11th century (written in 1148), Anna Komnene mentions the Serbs by the names Sklaveni and Dalmati (Δαλμάται, Dalmatai), with Dalmatia starting from Kosovo and Metohija.[19] John Kinnamos, in his work covering 1118–76, wrote: "the Serbs, a Dalmatic (Dalmatian) tribe" (Σέρβιοι, ε-8-νος Δαλματικών), thus using "Dalmat(ian)s" or "Dalmatic (Dalmatian) people" in the context of the Serbs, and "Dalmatia" in the context of Serbia. There are numerous other, less prominent, instances, poetic for example — Theodore Prodromus, Michael Italicus and the typikon of the Pantokrator monastery, among others.
Early modern
  • Vlachs, referring to pastoralists, was a common exonym for Serbs in the Ottoman Empire and later.[12] In Bosnia, Orthodox Christians were called "Vlachs", actually used as a synonym of "Serbs".[20] It was used as a derogatory term, and as a common name for Orthodox Serbs in Catholic lands, and lesser in the Ottoman Empire. Tihomir Đorđević (1868–1944), as did other academics, stressed that the name "Vlach" did not only refer to genuine Vlachs (Romance-speaking people), but also to cattle breeders in general.[12] In a letter of Emperor Ferdinand sent on 6 November 6 1538 to Croatian ban Petar Keglević, he wrote "Captains and dukes of the Rasians, or the Serbs, or the Vlachs, who are commonly called the Serbs".[12] Serbs that took refuge in the Habsburg Military Frontier were called "Vlachs" by the Croats.[12] In the work About the Vlachs (1806), Metropolitan Stevan Stratimirović stated that Roman Catholics from Croatia and Slavonia scornfully used the name "Vlach" for "the Slovenians (Slavs) and Serbs, who are of our, Eastern [Orthodox] confession", and that "the Turks (Muslims) in Bosnia and Serbia also call every Bosnian or Serbian Christian a Vlach".[21] That the name "Vlach" used to signify the Serbs is testified by Vuk Karadžić in his many recorded proverbs.[12] The term may have originated from Stari Vlah, from where refugees arrived in what was then the Holy Roman Empire.[22]

Misnaming

Because of a confusion of ethnicity/nationality with religious affiliation, many authors from historic times referred to and recorded Serbs by the following names:

Pejorative

Anthroponymy

Male given names

Srba, Srbislav, Srbivoje, Srbko, Srboje, Srbomir, Srborad, Srbomil, Srboljub, Srbobran.

Female given names

Srbijanka, Srbinka, and others.

Surnames

Srbinac, Srbinić, Srbinov, Srbinovac, Srbinović, Srbinovski, Srbić, Srbović, Srbljanović, Srbljanin, Srbljak, Srpčić, Serban, and others.

Toponomy

Connected to Serbs

Balkans
West Slavic

Connected to Raška, Raci

Historical

Renderings in other languages

Historical renderings in other languages:

  • Servii, Latin rendering.[24]
    • Serviani/Servians, medieval French and English rendering of the Serbs.

Modern renderings in other languages:

  • Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Macedonian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovene: Srbi (Срби)
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See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Moravcsik 1967, p. 153, 155
  4. ↑ Povest vremennih let (Moscow, Leningrad: Akademiya nauk SSSR, 1990), pp. 11, 207.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Ćirković (2004), p. 13, xii
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found., p. 14; The Croats and Serbs were probably originally Iranians. At least linguists have concluded that both their tribal names as well as the preserved names of their leaders were Iranian.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found., pp. 404-406
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Howorth (1878), pp. 66-68
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 Elements of Ethnic Identification of the Serbs. By Danijela Gavrilović. Facta Universitatis. Series: Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology Vol. 2, n° 10, 2003, pp. 717 - 730.
  13. ↑ p. 35
  14. ↑ Serbian studies, Volumes 2–3, p. 29
  15. ↑ Eginhartus de vita et gestis Caroli Magni, p. 192: footnote J10
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Anne Comnene, Alexiade (Regne de L'Empereur Alexis I Comnene 1081-1118) II, pp. l57:3-l6; 1.66: 25-169. Texte etabli er traduit par B. Leib t. I-III (Paris, 1937-1945).
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ T. Đorđević, 1984:110
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ p. 608

Sources

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