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The Extraordinary History of a Unique People, Part 1

Mila Deacon

(First published in the Summer 2012 edition of Glasilo magazine)

[Note: Throughout my article, I write most Wendish words as they are pronounced and not as they are spelled in the Slovene literary language, and I use English spelling for various Wendish sibilants for which English does not have specific letters. E.g., I write “sh” and not “š”, “ts” and not “c”, “ch” and not “č“, “j” (pronounced as “j” in journal) and not “ž”. For the same reason, I also use the English letter “w” instead of “v”, because, in Wendish, “v” is, in fact, pronounced as “w”. For example, I write “Slowends” and not “Slovenc”. I use italics to indicate a translation of a particular highlighted word or phrase. I also highlight certain words, or roots/stems of words, to help the reader - including those who speak English only - to more easily recognize a word's Wendish origin, and its linguistic connections.

I will use this kind of spelling in my text to indicate a word's origin and its actual pronunciation, and to make it easier to see the similarities and connections between words in modern Wendish and words based on Wendish in other languages. For instance, in future instalments, I will also give examples of Wendish words occurring in Canadian Micmaq and Cree languages in the form they are pronounced - not written.]

I have collected information on Wends, their language and history, since my childhood, to satisfy my own curiosity about the history of my people, Carinthian Wends, without any intention of publishing what I found. I have only recently changed my mind and decided to write this article, for the following reasons:

FIRSTLY, to give additional and necessary support to the research done by Dr. Šavli, Rev. Tomažič, Matej Bor and A. Ambrožič in the fields of the factual Wendish history and their language. Because, regrettably, the results of their scrupulous research continue to be ignored by all official institutions and most of the media. Governments and educational institutions still propagate their entirely fictional version of Wendish history, supported by no evidence. I have namely arrived myself at the same, or very similar conclusions, as have the above-mentioned Wendish scholars. I have done so independently and prior to their work having been published – while following different paths and exploring various other sources of information. I found their research to be objective, although, at times, I interpret certain facts differently.

SECONDLY, I wish to present to the public what I believe to be rather surprising and interesting additional insights, in the fields not yet explored by others. They are relevant to Wendish history and Wendish language.

My insights and conclusions are as follow:

• Wendish dialects - which include over 50 Wendish dialects spoken in the Republic of Slovenia alone, as well as dialects in the Austrian provinces of Carinthia and Styria, Northern Germany, Hungary and Northern Italy – are spoken by people who refer to themselves either as Slowends or as Slowinds. These two terms are reflected in German terms, “Windisch” and “Wendish”. The prefix “slo” in these names is derived from the original “Sol”, which is one of the names of the Wendish sun-god, used by Wends in pre-Christian times throughout central Europe, from Sweden to Sicily. Swedes still call themselves “Swensk”, a shortened version of Carinthian “Swowensk” and Slovene “Slowensk”. Italians still call the sun “sole”, and in English, there is the winter solstice, sun's shortest day.
  
  
• In western Europe, Northern Africa, Asia Minor, and parts of North America, the sun-god, called Sol, was referred to as the “white” god, god of light. He was known also as Belin, Bel, or Baal. His name is based on the Wendish word bel, meaning white. Mother earth goddess also had various Wendish names. For example, her name in ancient Greece was Semela/Zemela (zemla, earth, in Wendish). In Babylon she was known as Baba (woman) and her name turns up even in Japan. Their third most important deity was the lord of the lower realms, the god of darkness, in Europe called Tchrni Bog, the Black God.
  
  
• The terms Wi(n)ds and We(n)ds - referred to by Germans as “Windisch” and “Wendisch”, by Italians as Veneti, in Scandinavian sagas as Vani (retained in Solvani,/Slo-), in Hungarian as Vendek - may be connected to the two Wendish Druidical sects, the “wids”, i.e., priests, seers, prophets, and the weds, i.e., sages, scientists, scholars. Both these terms occur also in the Indian Sanskrit and Buddhist texts. The name of Buddha itself is obviously of Wendish origin, derived from budit, to wake up, to be awake, to be open to insights and knowledge. 
  
  
• The word Druid itself, as spelled by Romans, is doubtless a Wendish term, namely a trowid or a trowed. Druids studied and explored the various subjects, trinities, “troyitsas”, e.g., this world, the upper divine regions, the lower realms; sun-god, mother earth goddess, god of darkness; the past, the present, the future; body, soul, mind; matter/solids, liquids, gasses, etc.
  
  
• All the remaining Wendish dialects show characteristics of a truly ancient language. They are grammatically sophisticated, highly inclined, retaining - as the only European language – the ancient dual and various neuter forms. Some of these are still present in Sanskrit of ancient India, but are already much simplified in later Latin. Both these languages are based on Wendish. Wendish is, as a result of these many ancient linguistic characteristics and its complicated grammatical structure, an amazingly precise linguistic tool. Wendish, I discovered, is one of the oldest languages in existence, seemingly already existing in the Ice Age. This is evidenced in the substantial Wendish linguistic imprint in various parts of the globe - even in the far east and America. Moreover,
  
  
• Wends are what linguists and historians refer to today as Continental Celts. The Continental Celtic language is, in fact, what we know today as the Wendish language. Having observed a substantial Wendish vocabulary in all modern European languages, there is no doubt in my mind that modern Wends are the last remnants of Continental Celts and, as such, they are the last remaining speakers of their ancient Continental Celtic language.
  
  
• Until about 200 B.C., Wendish was spoken by a great majority of Europeans, particularly by farmers, Europe's first permanent settlers who had arrived in Europe from the Middle East and from Northern Africa after the last Ice Age. However, the first wave of Wendish settlers may have reached Europe already during the last warm period in the Ice Ages, around 42,000 years B.C. Because, up to the last century, farmers formed the overwhelmingly largest population in all western societies, Wendish was, in fact, the lingua franca of pre-Roman and pre-Christian Europe.
  
  
• The decline of the Wendish language in Europe – now surviving only in some 2 million Wendish speakers in five Central European states, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia - was caused by two historic phenomena: (a) the founding and the spread of the Roman Empire, which caused the formation of Romance languages in Southern and Western Europe and (b) the introduction of the new Bible-based religions into the formerly Wendish-speaking pagan territories of Northern and Central Europe and British Isles, which resulted in the evolution of all modern Germanic languages.
  
  
• Wends played major roles in both decisive historic events, i.e., the formation of the Roman Empire, as well as the introduction of Christianity to Europe by the Franks, with their Holy Roman Empire, the later Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Some Wendish tribes contributed to the creation Latin, as well as to the growth of the Roman Empire itself. Many other Wendish tribes became victims of Rome's expansion. Yet others remained its allies. Wends, who lived farther north, resisted the onslaught of Rome and managed to retain their independence and language much longer. However, one by one, even they eventually succumbed to the brutal force of proselytizing Franks.
  
  
• Wendish is actually what is now called the original Indo-European language - on which all modern and classical Indo-European languages, i.e., Romance, Slavic and Germanic languages, Sanskrit, as well as Ainu, Japanese and Algonquian languages, etc. - are based. Wendish is the only language which qualifies for this position, being the only language well represented in all Indo-European languages. It is not a proto- or pre-Indo-European language.
  
  
• The new Romance and Germanic languages of Western, Southern, Central and Northern Europe have evolved comparatively recently, on the basis of Wendish dialects, due to foreign occupations, namely that of Romans and Franks.
  
  
• The modern Slavic languages of Eastern Europe have not undergone an equally drastic change from the original Indo-European, i.e., Wendish, as did those in the West. The reason being that most of them have evolved without foreign invasions or prolonged occupations. In contrast to Western Europe, their conversion to the new religion had not been imposed by a foreign power introducing a foreign tongue. It had taken place much later and was due to their own rulers' voluntary conversion, and spread among their subjects in their own language. Nevertheless, modern Slavic languages differ greatly from each other, and from Wendish, in their vocabularies and in their simplified grammatical structure. As this difference is not due to foreign occupation, it allowed a considerably larger Wendish linguistic imprint in modern Slavic languages. They differ from the original Indo-European Wendish due to the intermarriage of Wendish farmers with various foreign speaking nomadic populations, who had eventually decided to settle and marry among them. There are some exceptions. For instance, Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian evolved under a protracted (500 years long) Ottoman occupation.
  
  
• This fact, namely that Slavic languages had remained linguistically comparatively closer to ancient Wendish, contributed to the confusion of European scholars - already brainwashed by Christian admirers of Roman and Germanic cultures and accomplishments – and further diminished their objectivity. As public servants, they had to follow their governments' policies when researching the early European history and the historic role of pagan Wends. Prejudices against, and demonization of pagans, built up during the millennium-long religious wars against them, followed by equally fanatic expansionist nationalist wars, have firmly established the presently universally accepted distorted and falsified versions of their histories. This was done to such an extent and over such a long period of time that today few, if any, scholars question its reliability. They copy from earlier historians and fail to do independent research.
  
  
• Not only West, but also East European scholars, led by Russians, continue to support and propagate this invented version of European history for the same nationalistic, empire-building reasons. Official histories have created in Europe a clear and deep division between the east and the west. They are a convenient excuse for aggression into each other's territories. They support the expansionist policies of Germans and allow Russia to widen its political influence over the Slavic speaking territories, including those belonging to Wends.
  
  
• The status quo in the prevalent historic perceptions is likely to be fanatically defended by Germans, Italians, and Russians alike. German governments have followed policies of settlement and annexation of Slavic territories in Eastern Europe ever since they had, in the 15th century, firmly established their Holy Christian Empire of the German Nation. They pursued these expansionist goals on the pretext that Slavs are not real Europeans, but primitive invaders into Germanic and Italic lands, arriving from Asia rather late in recorded history. They demonized Slavs to such an extent, that their pride will not allow them now to admit that they have the same blood running in their own veins, as have those whom they had been trying for centuries to remove from the map of Europe.
  
  
• As mentioned, it seems that Wendish was perfected already in the Ice Age. Its dialects were not only spoken by some Ice Age hunting and gathering tribes (e.g., the first population in Cornwall and Japan), but also by some of the earliest farming communities and advanced civilizations in Europe, as well as in Northern Africa, India and in Asia Minor (Akkadia, Babylon, Phrygia, Cilicia, Paphlagonia, etc.). Wendish Akkadian remained the lingua franca of the Middle East up to its invasion by Rome, and the later Arab occupation of Northern Africa. Arabic was spread throughout these regions, along with the Quran and their Muslim faith.
  
  
• A close relationship seems to have existed between Wendish-speaking societies and the expansion of the megalithic cultures, with their sun-god and mother-earth-goddess veneration – judging from the name Solwendi itself, and by their linguistic imprint found in languages spoken today wherever megalithic cultures, with their astronomic temples, had once flourished.
  
  
• Wendish has miraculously survived until today and continues to be spoken by over 2 million Wends in Central Europe – despite the creation of new languages due to Roman occupation and the introduction of Bible-based religions (Christian and Muslim) by Franks into formerly Wendish-speaking territories.
  
  
• Today's German, Austrian, Italian and Hungarian governments, assisted by the legislation of the European Union - and that of the Slovene government itself - continue the destruction of the ancient Wendish language. These policies are carried out willingly by Wends themselves, unaware of their true identity, under the false assumption that their fictitious official history is true and based on facts. 
  
  
• The Greek historian Polybius, and various Roman historians, may help to explain why there are more than 50 different Wendish dialects in the small area of the Slovene Republic alone.
  
  

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