The Venetic theory ( sl, venetska teorija) is a

pseudohistorical Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseudohi ...

interpretation of the origin of the

Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Slovenci ), are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia, and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovene as their na ...

that denies the

Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps The settlement of the Eastern Alps region by early Slavs took place during the 6th to 8th centuries. It is part of the southward expansion of the early Slavs which would result in the characterization of the South Slavic group, and would ultimate ...

in the 6th century, claiming that proto-Slovenes (also regarded as the Veneti people by the proponents of the Venetic theory) have inhabited the region since ancient times. During the 1980s and 1990s, it gained wide attention in

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

and the

former Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

. The Venetic theory has been rejected by scholars.Rado Lencek. 1990. "The Linguistic Premises of Matej Bor's Slovene-Venetic Theory." ''Slovene Studies'' 12(1): 75-86;Tom Priestly. 1997. "Vandals, Veneti, Windischer: The Pitfalls of Amateur Historical Linguistics." ''Slovene Studies'' 12(1/2): 3-41 A version of the Venetic theory states that most of Central Europe and portions of today's northern Turkey were originally inhabited by a single people—the Veneti—a people that were subsequently dispersed by several invasion from the North in the form of Celtic and Germanic migrations and by the push northwards of the Roman Empire. According to this variant, the Armorican Veneti, the Adriatic Veneti, the Vistula Veneti as well as portion of the Illyrians and the Veneti of northern Turkey were all related people who spoke the same or similar language. The Venetic theory also counts among the Veneti several peoples of northern Spain and northern coastal France, as well as portions of Denmark, Wales, and Ireland. In this version, most of the northern Slavs as well as the Slovenes and some Croats are the last remnant of the original European Veneti.

Background

The Venetic theory was advanced in the mid-1980s by a group of

n authors, notably

Jožko Šavli Jožko Šavli (March 22, 1943March 11, 2011) was a Slovene author, self-declared historian and high school teacher in economic sciences from Italy. Šavli was born in Tolmin, then part of the Kingdom of Italy (now in Slovenia). He obtained a degr ...

Matej Bor Matej Bor was the pen name of Vladimir Pavšič (14 April 1913 – 29 September 1993), who was a Slovene poet, translator, playwright, journalist, and Partisan. Biography Matej Bor was born as Vladimir Pavšič in the village of Grgar near Gor ...

and

Ivan Tomažič Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was Bulgari ...

. In a book published in 1984, the three authors proposed an alternative view on the ethnogenesis of the Slovene people: they rejected the notion that the Slovenes were descended from Slavs that settled the area in the 6th century, claiming that the ancestors of the modern Slovenes were in fact a pre-Roman people they call Veneti (which would include the

Adriatic Veneti The Veneti (also Heneti) were an Indo-European people who inhabited northeastern Italy, in an area corresponding to the modern-day region of Veneto.Baltic Veneti, the

Pannonians This is a list of ancient tribes in the ancient territory of Illyria ( grc-gre, Ἰλλυρία; la, Illyria). The name ''Illyrians'' seems to be the name of a single Illyrian tribe that was the first to come into contact with the ancient Greeks ...

, the Noricans and some other peoples that traditional historiography identified either as

Celts The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...

Illyrians The Illyrians ( grc, Ἰλλυριοί, ''Illyrioi''; la, Illyrii) were a group of Indo-European-speaking peoples who inhabited the western Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. They constituted one of the three main Paleo-Balkan populations, a ...

). According to the Venetic theory, the ancient Veneti spoke a

proto-Slavic Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately from the 2nd millennium B.C. through the 6th ...

language from which modern Slovene and

West Slavic languages The West Slavic languages are a subdivision of the Slavic language group. They include Polish, Czech, Slovak, Kashubian, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian. The languages have traditionally been spoken across a mostly continuous region encom ...

emerged. There were several similar antecedents to the Venetic theory. The priest Davorin Trstenjak (1817–1890) claimed that the Slovenes were ancient indigenous inhabitants of Slovenia and that Slavs had ruled Europe, Africa, and Asia in antiquity; however, he gave up these claims after he found they were scientifically untenable. The lawyer Henrik Tuma (1858–1935) declared that the Slovenes had been the first humans to settle Europe. The writer and journalist Franc Jeza (1916–1984) asserted that the Slovenes had Swedish origins.Skrbiš, Zlatko. 2008. "'The First Europeans' Fantasy of Slovenian Venetologists." In: Maruška Svašek (ed.), ''Postsocialism: Politics and Emotion in Central and Eastern Europe,'' pp. 138–158. New York: Berghahn Books.

Premises

The Venetic theory is based on several different arguments. One is the traditional Germanic denomination of several Slavic peoples as

Wends Wends ( ang, Winedas ; non, Vindar; german: Wenden , ; da, vendere; sv, vender; pl, Wendowie, cz, Wendové) is a historical name for Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It refers not to a homogeneous people, but to various people ...

( goh, Winida > german: Wenden, Winden, goh, windisc > german: windisch, generally accepted to be a loan from la, Veneti); this tradition has remained in the archaic German name for the

Sorbs Sorbs ( hsb, Serbja, dsb, Serby, german: Sorben; also known as Lusatians, Lusatian Serbs and Wends) are a indigenous West Slavic ethnic group predominantly inhabiting the parts of Lusatia located in the German states of Saxony and Branden ...

(''Wenden'') and Slovenes (''Windischen'' or ''Winden''). Some medieval chroniclers also equated ancient Veneti with Slavs. The second argument on which the Venetic theory is based are supposed Slavic (proto-Slovene)

toponyms Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

found throughout

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...

and Northern Italy; these toponyms have been studied by Šavli. The third argument is based on the ancient Venetic inscriptions found in North-Eastern Italy and in the Slovenian Littoral, which Bor interpreted as being Slavic.

Reception

The Venetic theory created a great controversy in the Slovenian and Yugoslav public in the late 1980s. Several of the most prominent Slovenian historians, such as

Bogo Grafenauer Bogo Grafenauer (16 March 1916 – 12 May 1995) was a Slovenian historian, who mostly wrote about medieval history in the Slovene Lands. Together with Milko Kos, Fran Zwitter, and Vasilij Melik, he was one of the founders of the so-called ...

and Peter Štih, entered into open polemics with the creators of the Venetic theory. On the other hand, many prominent public figures publicly supported the claims advanced by the Venetic theory, among them the designer

Oskar Kogoj Oskar Andrej Kogoj (born 23 November 1942) is a Slovenes, Slovene industrial designer. Biography Oskar Kogoj was born in Miren, then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He went to a high school that specialises in design in Ljubljana and studied ...

, the poet Zorko Simčič, the mechanical engineer Lucijan Vuga, and the nationalist politician

Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti Zmago Jelinčič "Plemeniti" (born January 7, 1948) is a Slovenian politician and author. He is the head of the Slovenian National Party ( sl, Slovenska Nacionalna Stranka, SNS). Jelinčič was born in the eastern Slovenian city of Maribor in w ...

. In the 1990s, the Venetic theory gained institutional support of the so-called World Slovenian Congress, publishing much of the literature advocating the Venetic theory and organizing international symposiums. The Venetic theory has also gained support in some nationalist circles. However, the Venetic theory has been challenged by certain writers, and it has been rejected by both mainstream linguists and historians.Plut-Pregelj, Leopoldina, & Carole Rogel. 2010. ''The A to Z of Slovenia''. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, p. 481.

References

*Jožko Šavli, Matej Bor and Ivan Tomažič ''Veneti: naši davni predniki'' (English edition "Veneti: First Builders of European Community: Tracing the History and Language of the Early Ancestors of Slovenes"), Ljubljana, Vienna, Maribor, 1989. ; *Bogo Grafenauer, "Ob tisočtristoletnici slovanske naselitve na današnje slovensko narodnostno ozemlje" in

Paulus Diaconus Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes suffixed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk, s ...

, ''Zgodovina Langobardov - Historia Langobardorum'' (Maribor: Obzorja, 1988); *Bogo Grafenauer, "Rojstna ura slovenskega naroda pred tisoč štiristo leti" ''Arheo'' 10 (1990), 11-17; *Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič, ''The Dissolution of the Slavic Identity of the Slovenes in the 1980s : The Case of the Venetic Theory'' (Budapest : Central European University, 2008); *Milko Matičetov, "Slovenetska sprava – blizu ali daleč?," ''

Sodobnost ''Sodobnost'' ( Slovene for ''Modernity'' or ''Contemporary Time'') is a Slovenian literary and cultural magazine, established in 1933. It is considered the oldest of currently existing literary magazines in Slovenia. Although ''Sodobnost'' has tr ...

'' 46, no. 5 (1998), 438-440; *Zlatko Skrbiš, "The Emotional Historiography of Venetologists: Slovene Diaspora, Memory and Nationalism", Focaal: ''European Journal of Anthropology'' 39, 2002, 41-56; *Zlatko Skrbiš, "'The First Europeans' Fantasy of Slovenian Venetologists: Emotions and Nationalist Imaginings", in ''Postsocialism: Politics and Emotions'', Maruska Svasek, ed., (Oxford, New York : Blackwell Publishing, 2008); *Marjeta Šašel Kos, "Ethnic Manipulations with Ancient Veneti and Illyrians", in ''Le Identità Difficili'', Stefano Magnani and Carlo Marcaccini, eds. (Florence : Volo, 2007); *Peter Štih, "O avtohtonističnih in podobnih teorijah pri Slovencih in na Slovenskem," ''Zgodovina za vse'' 3, no. 2 (1996), 66-80. {{DEFAULTSORT:Venetic Theory Slovenian nationalism Origin hypotheses of ethnic groups

Background

Premises

Reception

See also

References