I don't dispute that most books claim that Poland comes from "pole", field, but i was offering a counter theory not in vogue. I have heard of the Polanie, something I will have to look up further. My developing theory, though makess me want to ask, "So where's "Lanie," anyway?" My hypothesis could be wrong, but if I can learn somethign in the process, I'd be happy.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sig/message/2685
Bohemian titles
Descriptive terms:
<s^lechtic>/<s^lechtic^na> : nobleman/woman, aristocrat
<s^lechta> : the nobility/aristocracy/peerage.
<ni'z^s^i' s^lechta> : the minor/lesser nobility
It is possible that the Polanie from Poland were earlier called "Le,dzice" (cf. Hungarian Lengyel, Lengyelorszag, = Pole, Poland and Lithuanian - Lenkasz = Pole) Since "la,d" means "land" in Polish the older name would have the same meaning as the later one.
Most Slavic scholars, however, argue against this, citing numerous similarities between Slavic and Iranian languages. The number of important Iranian loan words in common Slavonic argues for a "prolonged period of very close inter-ethnic relations." This would place the original Slavic homeland further east, between the Bug and middle Dneiper rivers. The point at which the Slavic languages would have emerged as distinct from the older Indo-European koine would have been around 500 BC, quite late when compared with other European languages. The homeland would correspond roughly to modern eastern Poland and Belarus, with the Carpathian mountains as the southern border.
http://www.facstaff.oglethorpe.edu/
Kusi następująca hipoteza: Bałtowie (a wśród nich językowi przodkowie Słowian) są ta częścią Indoeuropejczyków Satem, którzy żyli nie na Stepie, lecz w Lasach. Ci Stepowi poszli dalej na południe i zasiedlili Iran, Azję Środkową i Indie.
http://www.taraka.most.org.pl/slow/tajeslow.htm
The earliest verifiable historical reference to a Slavic people comes from Pliny, who describes a group of people called Spali or Spori in this same region. The name Spori is clearly related to the names of two later Slavic groups, the Sorbs of Lusatia and the Serbs. In his Deeds of the Goths, the sixth century Gothic historian Jordanes states that during the second century AD, during their migration from the Baltic to the Black Sea, the Goths encountered and defeated the Spali after crossing the Vistula. Our next notice is from the Byzantine historian Procopius, who describes two Slavic peoples along the Balkan frontiers. The first of these are called Sklaveni and lived along the lower Danube in modern day Romania. The Antes lived further to the east, on the Pontic Steppes. These three groups might well represent the core of the three branches of the Slavic family, identifying the Spali/Spori with the Western Slavs, the Sklaveni with the Balkan Slavs, and the Antes with the Russians and Ukrainians.
The Sklaveni and Antes began raiding into the Balkans during the reign of Justin I, but it was under Justinian that their attacks became a serious problem. The Slavs tended to act in concert with Turkic peoples of the steps, in the first place the Kutirgurs. A Slavic and Kutirgur force raided deep into the Balkans in 540, destroying thirty-two fortresses in Illyricum and plundering up to the walls of Constantinople. For the next twelve years, there was relative calm, but between 552 and 558 their attacks became a regular occurrence. In 559 came a massive assault and a siege of Constantinople, but the Byzantine fleet was able to cut off the barbarian's retreat, and they sued for peace.
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The third century A.D. witnessed the beginning of the great migrations of the Eurasian Steppes that lasted for almost a thousand years. People from the Far East moved to the west, pushing those living there and were in their way further to the west. The Sarmatians, or as they were known by the Greeks, the Sauromatae, left their homeland between the Aral Sea and the Volga river arund the third century, as other nomadic tribes, such as the Huns pushed them from the east. They came onto the land of the Scythians, who, weakened and less organized, succumbed to their fierce attacks and gave up their land. The occupation of the Pontic region marks the beginning of a relatively short, but nevertheless very significant era on the steppes, the ruling of the Sarmatians.
utexas.edu/students/husa/origins
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sig/message/2677
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sig/messages/2655?threaded=1&expand=1
During the 6th century the area between the Merovingian Empire and the Avar Khaganate became ill-structured in terms of power... The Slavs were not only new arrivals, but were an entirely new ethnos, which for reasons not clearly understood had formed rapidly and unexpectedly in the 4th-5th centuries somewhere between forest and steppe on the edge of the civilisational sphere of the Chernyakov culture in the Ukraine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sig/message/2219
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sig/messagesearch/1986?query=Polanie&dir=1
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