*Walhaz

Proto-Germanic word for Roman or Romanised peoples September 2015 June 2026 200px|thumb|The Tjurkö bracteate showing the word ᚹᚨᛚᚺᚨᚲᚢᚱᚾᛖ walhakurne ('Roman grain', i.e. gold coin) 200px|thumb|Map of Walhaz-derived exonym variants for Romance speakers *Walhaz is a reconstructed Proto-Germanic word meaning 'foreigner',Ringe Don Germanic Languages Pack https://archive.org/details/anglosaxondictionary_202001/From%20Proto-Indo-European%20to%20Proto-Germanic/page/296/mode/1up?q=Walhaz Oxford University Press 2006 296 or more specifically 'Roman', 'Romance-speaker' or '(romanised) Celt', and survives in the English words of 'Wales/Welsh'Schrijver Peter http://archive.org/details/schrijver-peter-language-contact-and-the-origins-of-the-germanic Language Contact And The Origins Of The Germanic Languages 20 and 'Cornwall'.6 August 2009 Overview of Cornish History http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=8994 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20140311164902/http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=8994 11 March 2014 12 September 2013 Cornwall Council The term was used by the ancient Germanic peoples to describe inhabitants of the former Roman Empire, who were largely romanised and spoke Latin languages (cf. compare with onr Valland in Old Norse). The adjectival form is attested in Old Norse non valskr, meaning 'French'; Old High German goh walhisc, meaning 'Romance'; New High German de walsch, used in Switzerland and South Tyrol (Walisch) for Romance speakers; Dutch nl Waals 'Walloon'; Old English ang welisċ, ang wælisċ, ang wilisċ, meaning 'Brythonic'. The forms of these words imply that they are descended from a Proto-Germanic form *walhiska-.Arend Quak 2005 Van Ad Welschen naar Ad Waalsen of toch maar niet? http://cf.hum.uva.nl/dsp/nederlandsetaalkunde/NTKonderzoek-quak.pdf 7 January 2015 nl dead https://web.archive.org/web/20120206215140/http://cf.hum.uva.nl/dsp/nederlandsetaalkunde/NTKonderzoek-quak.pdf 6 February 2012 dmy-all From *Walhaz to welsch mis *Walhaz is a loanword derived from the name of the Celtic tribe which was known to the Romans as Volcae (in the writings of Julius Caesar) and to the Greeks as grc Οὐόλκαι grc-latn Ouólkai (Strabo and Ptolemy).Ringe, Don. "Inheritance versus lexical borrowing: a case with decisive sound-change evidence." Language Log, January 2009. The Volcae tribe occupied territory neighbouring that of the Germanic people and seem to have been referred to by the proto-Germanic name mis *Walhaz (plural mis *Walhōz, adjectival form mis *walhiska-). It is assumed that this term specifically referred to the Volcae, because application of Grimm's law to that word produces the form mis *Walh-. Subsequently, this term mis *Walhōz was applied rather indiscriminately to the southern neighbours of the Germanic people, as evidenced in geographic names such as Walchgau and Walchensee in Bavaria or Walensee in Switzerland. Place names containing the element *walhaz denote communities or enclaves in the Germanic-speaking world where Romance was spoken. In Old English, *walhaz developed into wealh, retaining the inherited meaning 'a foreigner, more particularly a pre-Anglo-Saxon inhabitant of Britain who spoke Celtic or Latin or both'. Because of the social position of the British natives, in the West Saxon dialect of Old English it came to mean '(British) slave'. The old feminine derivative of *walhaz, Old English wiln < *wielen < * wealh-in-, even exclusively means 'a female slave' and is likewise concentrated in the Saxon south of England. From *Walhaz to Vlach Vlachs Vlach In Eastern Europe, *Walhaz became Vlach/Wallachian (and other variants such as Vlah, Valah, Valach, Voloh, Blac, Oláh, Vlas, Ilac, Ulah, etc.). Via Latin, in Gothic, as *walhs, the ethnonym took on the meaning 'foreigner' or 'Romance-speaker' and later "shepherd', 'nomad'. The term was adopted into Greek as Vláhoi or Blachoi (Βλάχοι), Albanian vllah, Slavic as Vlah (pl. Vlasi) or Voloh, Hungarian as oláh and olasz, etc.The Vlach Connection and Further Reflections on Roman History https://friesian.com/decdenc2.htm 2025-11-24 friesian.comhttps://books.google.com/books?id=FGmJqMflYgoC&pg=PA42 Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies 2013-07-15 BRILL 978-90-04-25076-5 en The root word was notably adopted in Germanic for Wales and Walloon, and in Switzerland for Romansh-speakers (German: Welsch), and in Poland Włoch or in Hungary olasz became an exonym for Italians. The Slovenian term Lahi has also been used to designate Italians.Wilson Thomas M. https://books.google.com/books?id=MS25xxY2LKQC&pg=PA122 Culture and Power at the Edges of the State: National Support and Subversion in European Border Regions Donnan Hastings 2005 LIT Verlag Münster 978-3-8258-7569-5 en The same name is still used in PolishWłochy – Informacje o kraju UE Unia Europejska https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/eu-countries/italy_pl 2025-11-24 european-union.europa.eu plredazione Dlaczego mówimy "Włochy", a nie "Italia"? http://www.naszswiat.net/magazyn/magazyn/cos-wam-powiem/dlaczego-mowimy-wlochy-a-nie-italia.html https://web.archive.org/web/20220521230211/http://www.naszswiat.net/magazyn/magazyn/cos-wam-powiem/dlaczego-mowimy-wlochy-a-nie-italia.html 2022-05-21 2025-11-24 Nasz Swiat pl-pl (Włochy, Włosi, włoskie) and HungarianNyelvek, többnyelvűség, nyelvhasználati szabályok Európai Unió https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/languages_hu 2025-11-24 european-union.europa.eu huOlaszország – Az uniós tagország bemutatása Európai Unió https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/eu-countries/italy_hu 2025-11-24 european-union.europa.eu hu (Olasz, Olaszország) as an exonym for Italy, while in SlovakSlovenské slovníky https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk/?w=Vlach&s=exact&c=W1b8&cs=&d=peciar# 2025-11-24 slovnik.juls.savba.sk (Vlach - pl. Vlasi, Valach - pl. Valasi), Czech (Vlachy) and SlovenianFran/iskanje/laški https://fran.si/iskanje?View=1&Query=la%C5%A1ki&hs=12 2025-11-24 Fran sl (Laško, Láh, Láhinja, laško) it was replaced with the endonym Italia. Other forms which were recognised by linguists to designate the "Vlachs" are: Blaci, Blauen, Blachi found in Western medieval sources, Balachi, Walati found in Western sources derived from medieval German, while the Germanic population from Transylvania used also the variants Woloch, Blôch. French sources used mostly Valaques while the medieval Song of Roland used Blos. In English and in modern German the forms Wallachians, Walachen appear, respectively. In the Balkan Peninsula various names such as Rumer, Tzintzars, Morlachs, Maurovlachs, Armâns, Cincars, Koutzovlachs were used, while Muslim sources speak of Ulak, Ilak, Iflak. See also Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/walhaz *walhaz Vlachs, also known as Wallachs Theodiscus Names of the Celts History of the term Wallon References Category:Ethnonyms Category:Germanic words and phrases Category:Germania Category:Culture of ancient Rome Category:Wallonia Category:History of Wales Category:Wallachia Category:Reconstructed words Category:Exonyms