Re: NEuropean IE for apple

Petusek wrote:

>> For those who are interested, I live in a place where three
>> I'm interested. Why does the population of a corner of Moravia,
>>as Slavic as any of its neighbors, so far as I know, have a name
>>suggesting a Romance-speaking people?
>>Dan Milton
>
>This is a controversial matter. The term "Vallachian" or better
>"Vlachian") is of unsure origin.

Why? AFAIK, there is enough Czech and Polish bibliography
pertaining to (chiefly) Transylvanian Romanian migrations to
Moravia and Southern Poland approx. in the 15th-17th centuries.
(In the 19th c., some Romanians payed visits to some Vala$ske
communities in Moravia, and they reported that those local
people still had some terms of Romanian origin.)

>Valach means generally a "herdsman" in Slavic languages,

Because of Romanian shepherds who migrated thither either
from Transylvania (i.e. the Hungarian kingdom) or from
among the Aromanians (Macedonian Romanians). One of
their words "brenze" (actually brânza) is protected by
EU copyright laws for the benefit of... Slovaks (while
Romanians and Aromanians have kept sleeping :-)).

>but also a castrated horse, a gelding, since Valachs
>were thought to be the first people to geld.

This meaning is also covered by the German word
<Wallach>.

>(Germ. *walch- >

Walch- (cf. Walchensee), Wlach-, Walach-, but also Bloch(er), Walser,
Walliser and of course Welsch-. All referring to Italians, French and
Rheto-Romans. Only the German-speaking population of Transylvania used
Walch-/Wlach-/Bloch for the Romanian population living there and the
neighboring Romanian population of Moldova and Walachia.

>Slav. *Volch-, Czech Vlach, Russ. Voloch, Rom. Valach) [Holub-Lyer]

Hungarian: oláh "Vlakh/Romanian," olasz "Italian."

> Traces of foreign origin can bee seen in several lexical items, such
>as <ogar> "a boy". All PS /g/ > /h/ in Czech, so it's clear that
>"ogar" must be a loan.

In Romanian, ogar "(grey)hound;" cf. Serbian ogar, Hungarian agár
['Oga:r]

>Pet'usek

George