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22-708: The Fenni were an ancient people of northeastern Europe , first described by Cornelius Tacitus in Germania in AD 98. The Fenni are first mentioned by Cornelius Tacitus in Germania in 98 A.D. Their location is uncertain, due to the vagueness of Tacitus' account: "The Venedi overrun in their predatory excursions all the woody and mountainous tracts between the Peucini and the Fenni" . The Greco-Roman geographer Ptolemy , who produced his Geographia in ca. 150 AD, mentions

44-518: A people called the Phinnoi (Φιννοι), generally believed to be synonymous with the Fenni. He locates them in two different areas: a northern group in northern Scandia ( Scandinavia ), then believed to be an island; and a southern group, apparently dwelling to the East of the upper Vistula river (SE Poland). It remains unclear what was the relationship between the two groups. The next ancient mention of

66-689: A plausible identification for the Phinnoi of northern Scandinavia, it is dubious for Tacitus' Fenni. Tacitus' Fenni (and Ptolemy's southern Phinnoi) were clearly based in continental Europe, not in the Scandinavian peninsula, and were thus outside the modern range of the Sámi. Against this, there is some archaeological evidence that the Sámi range may have been wider in antiquity. Sámi toponyms are found as far as Southern Finland and Karelia The uncertainties have led some scholars to conclude that Tacitus' Fenni

88-509: Is a meaningless label, impossible to ascribe to any particular region or ethnic group. But Tacitus appears to relate the Fenni geographically to the Peucini and the Venedi , albeit imprecisely, stating that the latter habitually raided the "forests and mountains" between the other two. He also gives a relatively detailed description of the Fenni's lifestyle. Fenni seems to have been a form of

110-681: Is a useful overview of existing etymologies, and it well complements his A Concise Historical Grammar of Albanian (2000). The monograph Phrygian Language (1997) summarizes the old/neo-Phrygian epigraphy, interpretation of all the known inscriptions until the 1990s and the corresponding grammatical comments. Orel also dealt with the Indo-European languages , especially the Balto-Slavic , Germanic , Albanian , and Celtic branches. He also took interest in Semitic languages , Hebrew in

132-654: Is the fact that Tacitus distinguishes the Fenni from other probably non-Germanic peoples of the region, such as the Aestii and the Veneti . It has also been suggested that Tacitus' Fenni could be the ancestors of the modern Finnish people . Juha Pentikäinen writes that Tacitus may well have been describing the Sámi or the proto-Finns when referring to the Fenni, noting some archeologists have identified these people as indigenous to Fennoscandia. The context of Fenni has also included

154-616: The Baltic Rim countries (or simply the Baltic Rim ), and the Baltic Sea countries/states , refers to the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea , including parts of Northern , Central and Eastern Europe . Unlike the " Baltic states ", the Baltic region includes all countries that border the sea. The first to name it the Baltic Sea ( Latin : Mare Balticum ) was 11th century German chronicler Adam of Bremen . Depending on

176-579: The Finnveden of southern Sweden. It is unclear who the mitissimi Finni was. Tacitus was unsure whether to classify the Fenni as Germanic or Sarmatian . The vagueness of his account has left the identification of the Fenni open to a variety of theories. It has been suggested that the Romans may have used Fenni as a generic name, to denote the various non-Germanic (i.e. Balto-Slavic and Finno-Ugric ) tribes of north-eastern Europe. Against this argument

198-716: The Princeton University in New Jersey (2001–02), where he worked in the department of testing services, he started to work at the universities in Alberta , Canada, specifically Athabasca University (since 2003), Mount Royal College (since 2003), University of Calgary (since 2004), University of Lethbridge (2004–05). There, he lectured on comparative linguistics , biblical studies , as well as on business English , English literature , and creative writing , among other topics. From 2005 until his death, he ran

220-678: The Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he dedicated himself to biblical studies, and the following two years acting as a visiting scholar at Wolfson College, Oxford . The last two years in Israel (1997–99) he spent at Bar-Ilan University . Afterward, he went to Calgary in Canada , where he started to work at Zi Corporation as a director of research and language teaching between 2001 and 2002. After brief activity at

242-623: The Fenni/Finni is in the Getica of 6th-century chronicler Jordanes . In his description of the island of Scandza (Scandinavia), he mentions three groups with names similar to Ptolemy's Phinnoi, the Screrefennae , Finnaithae and mitissimi Finni ("softest Finns"). The Screrefennae is believed to mean the "skiing Finns" and are generally identified with Ptolemy's northern Phinnoi and today's Finns. The Finnaithae have been identified with

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264-630: The Finnic Estonians throughout different interpretations. Nevertheless, according to some linguists, certain linguistic evidence may be interpreted supporting the idea of an archaic Indo-European dialect and unknown Paleo-European languages existing in north-eastern Baltic Sea region before the spread of Finno-Ugric languages like Proto-Sámi and Proto-Finnic in the early Bronze Age around 1800 BC. However, in Tacitus's time (1st century AD) Finno-Ugric languages (Proto-Sámi and Proto-Finnic) were

286-547: The Gods, they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them nothing remains even to be wished. This description is of a lifestyle much more primitive than that of the medieval Sámi, who were pastoralists living off herds of reindeer and inhabiting sophisticated tents of deer hide. But the archaeological evidence suggests that the proto-Sámi and Proto-Finns had a lifestyle more akin to Tacitus' description. Baltic region The Baltic Sea Region , alternatively

308-622: The Translation Center at the Calgary Regional Health Authority . He worked three decades as a professional research linguist. Orel's work encompassed extraordinary variety of interests: from Slavic via modern Balkan languages to Paleo-Balkan languages (most notably Phrygian ), from Proto-Indo-European roots and its Nostratic context on the one hand, to the analysis of Biblical Hebrew and Old Testament texts and Proto-Afroasiatic language on

330-406: The branches of trees twisted together; this a reception for the old men, and hither resort the young. Such a condition they judge happier than the painful occupation of cultivating the ground, than the labour of rearing houses than the agitations of hope and fear attending the defense of their own property or the seizing that of others. Secure against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of

352-416: The common herbs; their apparel, skins; their bed, the earth; their only hope in their arrows, which for want of iron they point with bones. Their common support they have from the chase, women as well as men; for with these the former wander up and down, and crave a portion of the prey. Nor other shelter have they even for their babes, against the violence of tempests and ravening beasts, than to cover them with

374-886: The context the Baltic Sea Region might stand for: Vladimir Orel At the Moscow State University he studied theoretical linguistics (1971) and structural linguistics (1973). He defended his Ph.D. thesis in 1981, Sostav i charakteristika balkanoslavjanskich jazykov , a comparative analysis of Slavic languages in the Balkans . From then until 1990, he worked at the Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies in Moscow , where he completed his second doctoral thesis in 1989 ( Sravniteľno-istoričeskaja grammatika albanskogo jazyka: fonetika i morfologija ), on

396-619: The first place, and more broadly in Afroasiatic languages as a whole, where lie his most controversial results. Through collaboration with Olga Stolbova he published Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary (1995) which on one hand brought a number of new sub-lexical comparisons, especially Semitic-Chadic. On the other hand, the value of the benefits of reduced transcriptions used and inaccurate translations, absence of primary sources for non-written languages, and especially countless pseudo-reconstructions formulated ad hoc often on two or even

418-609: The historical grammar of Albanian . Between 1989 and 1990, he also taught historical linguistics at Moscow State University . After his emigration to Israel , he continued to teach at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem between 1991 and 1992. Later, he relocated to Tel Aviv University , where he taught in the Department of Classical Studies between 1992 and 1997, focusing on comparative linguistics, mythology and folklore, history, and philosophy. In 1994, he worked at

440-414: The main languages in northern Fennoscandia. Another theory is that Tacitus' Fenni and Ptolemy's northern Phinnoi were the same people and constituted the original Sámi people of northern Fennoscandia , making Tacitus' description the first historical record of them, and the mention of two different "Phinnoi" groups may suggest that there was already a division between Finns and Sámi. But while this may seem

462-476: The other hand. He has left behind about 200 articles and over two dozen reviews. Above all, however, are 6 monographs , four of which are etymological dictionaries (with the unassuming titles such as Handbook of Germanic Etymology actually hiding a full etymological dictionary). Finally, the third part of his Russian etymological dictionary (which was already termed as "new Vasmer ") was unfinished due to his death. His Albanian Etymological Dictionary (1998)

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484-407: The proto-Germanic word *fanþian- , denoting "wanderers" or "hunting folk", although Vladimir Orel viewed its etymology as unclear and listed a couple of alternative proposals (i.e. a derivation from Proto-Celtic *þenn- "hill"). Tacitus describes the Fenni as follows: In wonderful savageness live the nation of the Fenni, and in beastly poverty, destitute of arms, of horses, and of homes; their food,

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