Etymology

Cognates include Lithuanian vókietis. There are different theories about the origin of this word. Some suggest that it comes from a place name, Latvian Vāca, Lithuanian Vókia, which would originally have referred to some region in Sweden, from which the word was borrowed, probably before the 12th century, since it underwent palatalization (*vākyā > vāca). A 6th-century source mentions a Southeastern Swedish tribe called Vagoth, perhaps from *vāki(ā) + -goth. There are, however, no Swedish language sources that support the existence of a region of Sweden named Vakya or something similar. For this reason, others have suggested that the word vāca was originally a collective or ethnic term, later reinterpreted as a place name (and from which vāci, and later vācietis, could be derived). Its source would be Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- ‎(“to speak”), whence Old Prussian wackis ‎([vakis], “shout, war cry”), Sanskrit वक्ति ‎(vákti, “to speak, to say”), Ancient Greek ἔπος ‎(épos, “word, talk, song”) (< *wépos), Latin vox ‎(“voice, sound, talk”). This stem might have been used to form a word (perhaps *vākyā-) to designate foreigners, meaning originally something like “those who speak loud, shout (unintelligibly)” — cf. Ancient Greek βάρβαρος ‎(bárbaros, “Barbarian, foreigner (who says bar-bar)”), or Russian немец ‎(némets, “German”), from Old East Slavic нҍмьць ‎(němĭcĭ, “foreigner, one who does not speak clearly”), from нҍмь ‎(němĭ, “mute”).^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [vāːtsi]