Translated from Greek, the ethnonym is literally "the name of the people." Since ancient times, the names of the tribes carried a certain meaning. The science of ethnonymy studies these names, finds their roots and explains their subtext.
Conqueror Names
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, a Turkic-speaking horde of Bulgarians invaded the Balkan Peninsula. The Khan of the aliens began to rule the South Slavic state. Gradually small Turks disappeared among the local population.
The Slavs did not disappear anywhere, but they adopted the name of their conquerors, becoming the namesake of the Volga Bulgarians, as well as the Caucasian Balkars. This example illustrates that an ethnonym is a mutable phenomenon, and its content can evolve.
Just like the Bulgarians, events in Central Asia developed in the 13th century. 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 exclusively of Turkic origin. According to one version of linguists, this word is akin to the word "Cossacks" (both translated as "free, free people").
In the case of the conquerors and the conquered, there is a reverse example. Sometimes the conquered peoples themselves give names to their conquerors. An example is the history of the Hutts. These people lived in Anatolia at the turn of the third and second millennia BC. e. Later, the Indo-Europeans, who became known as the Hittites, came to the place of the Hutts.
Territories and peoples
Each ethnonym is a kind of chronicle. It concerns not only the people, but also the country in which he lives. Ethnonymic studies show that in some cases, the name of the territory gave a name to the newly arrived people.
The legendary commander Alexander of Macedon was originally from Macedonia, a country north of Ancient Greece. In the Middle Ages, southern Slavs settled in this region. They had nothing to do with ancient civilization and did not even conquer it, since it had long disappeared. But the name Macedonia continued to exist. It left an imprint on the southern Slavs. The case with the Baltic people of the Prussians is similar. In the XIII century, their land was conquered by the Germans. Subsequently, the German state in this territory was called Prussia, and its German inhabitants were called Prussians.
Tribal Unions
Often an ethnonym is the legacy of one tribe, the former head of a union or confederation. Until the IX century, the Czechs did not occupy the largest territory. Around them were many other West Slavic tribes. However, the Czechs gradually rallied their neighbors around themselves.
The Union of the Slavic Slavic Bodriches received a name from one of the tribes of this union. Otherwise, the situation was with their neighbors Lutich. Those acquired a new common name, not associated with any of the tribes. The ethnographic groups of the Tungus have a tradition of being called from the main genus in the group.
Converse examples are also known. Ethnic community may break up, and the separate parts that have arisen may retain their former name. However, it will no longer be equivalent to the past (more general). So the name of the Turks (descended from the Turks), Slovenes, Slovaks and Ilmen Slovenes (descended from the Slavs) appeared.
Erroneous 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, Moldavians were called Greeks and Gypsies. In pre-revolutionary Russia, the ethnonym “Kyrgyz” did not extend to the Kyrgyz (they were called Karakirgiz), but to the Turkmen and Kazakhs.
The name of one nation may extend to neighbors if knowledge of 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 spread to Western Europe. So the Tatar Strait (separating the mainland from Sakhalin) appeared on the maps, although not only Tatars, but even Mongols never lived next to it. Also in Russia until the XVIII century the Germans could call the Danes or the Dutch. For some African nationalities, “frange” is not only the French, but all Europeans in general.
Title Evolution
Having become an ethnonym, the word begins a new life independent of previous ties. Ukrainians are not marginal, even if this name was invested in that very meaning. Thus, the names of peoples can have three levels of meanings. The first is a concept prior to the formation of the ethnonym itself, the second is the ethnonym itself, and the third is arose from the ethnonym. Example: in pre-revolutionary Russia, any stray and swarthy person could be called a gypsy.
Among ethnonyms, self-names make up a smaller part. The name of the Germans was initially used not 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 Native American tribes were adopted from their neighbors. Giving a name that is not like their own, the natives opposed themselves to others. Therefore, many tribes became known by names that they themselves never recognized. For example, the Navajo Indians themselves consider themselves “dinah” - that is, “people”. Papuans do not have their own names. These disparate tribes became known to Europeans in 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." And although this version is far from the main one, it demonstrates one of the types of origin of ethnic names. The ethnonym base can be not only a phrase indicating 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. The mass of such examples is established. The Cheyenne Indian tribe bears the name of the snake totem. Also appeared the names of the peoples of Africa and the natives of Australia.
Widespread territorial ethnonyms. Buryats - "forest" (this name they gave the steppe neighbors). “Bushmen” were called Bushmen. The name of the Slavic union of Dregovich is translated as “union of swamps” (Dregva - quagmire, swamp). The speaking name of the 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 the shirts, light eyes or hair affected. Most of the color ethnonyms in the Turkic languages: yellow Uyghurs, white legs, black legs. There is a version that the Kyrgyz are “red Oguzes”.
Secondary ethnonyms, in addition to the already mentioned Macedonians and Prussians, are also vitals that gave the name to Italy and modern Italians. Before the Bavarian people arose, ancient Bavars settled in their region, who expelled the Celts of battle from there. So the ethnonym of the former population becomes the ethnonym of the country, and then the new population. Also known are examples of Angles - England - English, and Franks - France - French.
Appearance and Occupation Names
The basis of the ethnonym may be external signs. The Indonesians gave the name to the Papuans ("curly"). Ethiopians are “people with scorched faces,” the Lombards are “tall.” The Britons had a custom of body painting. Perhaps this is why they were called "motley".
An ethnonym also appears as a reference to customs and traditions. The ancient inhabitants of Sicily Sicily - "farmers" or "reapers", Koryak - "reindeer herders." The Arabian tribes Dafir and Mantefik are “intertwined” or “united” (a reference to the integration process).
Ethnonym Russian
There are several theories in the scientific community about the origin of the ethnonym Rus. The Varangian version says that this word is Scandinavian and translates as “rowers”. There is also an Indo-Iranian theory (translated as "bright") and the Pre-Slavic. One way or another, but in the Middle Ages the word "Rus" meant both the people and the state. From it 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 1917 revolution, the word “Russians” could mean 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 by a collective form (chud) or by a plural (Germans). As a rule, words are formed using suffixes. For example, –at and –ichi denote descendants of the same genus. In the Russian language, even borrowed ethnonyms received multiple endings: Italians, Germans, Estonians, English, Estonians, Egyptians. Suffixes such as -ovtsy and -intsy are an example of building one suffix on another.
Word formation may have a geographical character. Ethnonyms of peoples to the south-east of the eastern Slavs ended in –ary: Avars, Tatars, Bulgarians, Khazars, etc. This phenomenon has Turkic or Indo-Iranian roots. Finnish tribes to the north of the Slavs, on the contrary, received collective names: chud, vod, all, pit, self-eating, kors. These examples are not the only ones. Other collective ethnonyms: Erzya, Meria, Izhora, Meshchera, Mordvinians, Lithuania.
Distortions
When transmitting a word from language to language, it often unrecognizably changes its phonetics. In the Turkic languages, the ethnonym "Russians" sounds like "Urus" or "Oros", since the use of the sound "p" at the beginning of a word is alien to the Turkic group. Hungarians call themselves Magyars. Their distant relatives are from Siberia - the Finno-Ugric people of Mansi. There is a widespread version that both ethnonyms are one and the same word, which has changed phonetically (Meshra, Mishars, and Mazhars belong to the same group).
Many of the 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 Cossack explorers, having met the Buryats for the first time, mistakenly generalized the name of strangers with the word “brother”. Because of this, a whole tradition has arisen. Buryats have long been called brothers (hence the name of the city of Bratsk). To determine the origin of the ethnonym, experts “take off” all historical changes and try to find its original form.