Brian M. Scott wrote:
> They are derived from the name of the Volcae, a Celtic
> tribe. Piotr gave a very detailed discussion in Message
> 1167.
The Etruscan toponym Vulcii (Volcii, too?) a mere co-
incidence?
> See also Message 15982, and Miguel's discussion in
> the Usenet group sci.lang, which is archived at
> <http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=q7rd2to06f0fqloqflkovp511gjgl12p5b%404ax.
> com>.
In addition it's worth mentioning that in German, the
older, medieval, variants are Walch (die Walchen; see topo-
nyms with Walch-, and hydronyms Walchensee, in the Ger-
man-Austrian Alps), and Bloch. The latter was also used
by the German-Flemish-Wallonic settlers who were colonized
in South-Eastern Transylvania starting toward the end of
the 13th c.
Otherwise in German also Wa(a)l(i)s etc., and mostly the
more recent Welsch- ["der+die Welsche" any Romance-language
speaker, but chiefly French, Italian and Rheto-Roman;
also note the discrepancy in these old exclamations of
anger/annoyance, reminiscent of medieval events/affairs:
(1) "Ungar, Welsche und Zigeuner!", (2) "Kruzitürken und
Walachen!"; today, no average native-speaker of German
is be able to establish a semantical link betw. "Welsche"
and "Walachen", neither is s/he able to locate "Walachei"
or "Wolochei" out of the saying "aus der Walachei/Wolochei
kommen" -> in the figurative sense "from Ruritania".]
> Brian
George