[rich_sasha]

Dunno. A nice parallel fact is that the word for "Germans" in at least a few Slavic languages literally means "mutes" - the ones who don't speak.

So you'd have the Slavs - the people of word - and the Germans - the mutes.

[weezing]

Exactly. In Polish "Niemcy" (Germans) comes straight from the mutes due to language barrier.