Venetic theory

The Venetic theory (Slovene: venetska teorija) is a pseudohistorical interpretation of the origin of the Slovenes that denies the Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps in the 6th century, claiming that proto-Slovenes (also regarded as the Veneti people by the proponents of the Venetic theory) have inhabited the region since ancient times. During the 1980s and 1990s, it gained wide attention in Slovenia and the former Yugoslavia. The Venetic theory has been rejected by scholars.

A version of the Venetic theory states that most of Central Europe and portions of today's northern Turkey were originally inhabited by a single people—the Veneti—a people that were subsequently dispersed by several invasions from the North in the form of Celtic and Germanic migrations and by the push northwards of the Roman Empire. According to this variant, the Armorican Veneti, the Adriatic Veneti, the Vistula Veneti as well as portion of the Illyrians and the Veneti of northern Turkey were all related people who spoke the same or similar language. The Venetic theory also counts among the Veneti several peoples of northern Spain and northern coastal France, as well as portions of Denmark, Wales, and Ireland. In this version, most of the northern Slavs as well as the Slovenes and some Croats are the last remnant of the original European Veneti.