Venetian Slovenia - Name

Name

The English denomination "Venetian Slovenia" is a translation of the traditional Slovene name for the region. The adjective "Venetian" refers to the Republic of Venice, which held the area when the name was coined. In the 15th century, the Venetian authorities dubbed this border region of their Republic as Schiavonia Veneta, meaning "Venetian Slav-land". The Venetian words Schiavoni and Schiavonia were general terms used for all South Slavic peoples with which they came in direct contact, Slovenes as well as for Croats and Serbs from Dalmatia. In the local Slovene dialects, the term has been literally translated as Beneška Slovenija 'Venetian Slovenia'. This name has been in use for almost six centuries, but it has no connection to the modern concept of Slovenia as a polity of the Slovenes, which emerged only with Romantic nationalism in the 1840s.

In modern Italian, the region is most commonly known as Slavia Veneta. In the late 19th and early 20th century the term Slavia Italiana was also used. In recent decades, there is a tendency to replace the name Slavia Veneta with Slavia Friuliana, emphasizing its belonging to the traditional Friuli region. Many locals prefer to simply call it Benecìa, which is also used by most of the local media. The latter denomination comes from the Slovene word Benečija, a very common alternative name for Venetian Slovenia, but avoided in written and official use in order to avoid confusion because it is also the Slovene name for the Italian Veneto region.