BRITISH COLUMBIA, Canada - The recently published book "Veneti: First Builders of European Community" by Jožko [Joz'ko] Šavli, Matej Bor and Ivan Tomažič [Tomaz'ic'] is considered one of the most comprehensive works on the early history of Slovenes.
It presents the Proto-Slavic Veneti as the first known nation of central Europe and the Slovenes as their most direct descendants.
The Veneti (not to be confused with Venetians) settled in the Alpine area in Slovenia, northern Italy, eastern Switzerland and Austria during the Bronze Age around 1200 BC. In their original settlement area there are to this day countless Slovene place-names.
These facts are not new. They have already been studied and reported by earlier researchers; however, they are treated here more professionally and in much greater detail.
Slovene authors who contributed to this cause were, among others: Adam Bohorič [Bohoric'] (16th century), historian Martin Baucer and Janez V. Valvasor (a member of the British Royal Society), Dr. Janko Grampovčan [Grampovc'an], Davorin Žunkovič [Z'unkovic'], Henrih Tuma, Davorin Trstenjak, Anton Berlot and Ivan Rebec. We also include the Italian researcher Giuseppe Sergi who, like the above authors, considered the Slovenes to be indigenous inhabitants since prehistoric times and descendants of the Veneti.
In part one we find, besides important historical studies, an almost inexhaustible number of Slovene toponyms in the Alpine region and farther to the west and to the north where the Veneti once resided. Dr. Šavli has shown us through his invaluable research the true image of our distant past.
In part two Matej Bor reveals the beauty of the Venetic language and its similarity to Slovene. Years of Bor's research of the Venetic inscriptions proved not only that the ancient Venetic language was (contrary to official linguistics) Proto-Slavic, but also that in the Slovene language is its continuation.
[Much of] Part three i[n] the English edition, [is] new and much enlarged. Here Ivan Tomažič [Tomaz'ic'] brings together all components of the so-called Venetic Theory: the first known nation of central Europe were the Proto-Slavic Veneti; the Slovenes are West Slavs, descendants of Veneti; the original language of central Europe before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans was Slavic.
He includes the important study of similarities between the Sanskrit and Slovene languages. These similarities are considerable and could have originated only around 2000 BC when the indigenous Slavic language of central Europe and language of the newly-arrived Indo-Europeans merged. These findings seem to change the image of history and language of Europe.
"Veneti: First Builders of European Community" gives us hope that gradually the distorted history written for us by foreigners will be rejected and that we will ourselves at last write the true story of our history and language.
The authors have gathered an astonishing amount of historical material and we hope the importance of their work will be recognized by every friend of history, and particularly, every person of Slovene descent.
For more information on this interesting new publication write to Anton Škerbinc, Site 1, Box 17, R.R. 1, Boswell, B.C. V0B 1A0, Canada.