> Presumably from the (South) Slavs. There is no wl- in German, so vlax >
> wal(l)ach.
Is this term in your opinion different from the Walch- in the
Alpine region? (I myself don't see any difference between Alpine
Walch- and East-European Walch- in *German*, namely in older phases
of the language, when Welsch- was not yet widespread in
composed substantives as it is today (e.g. no one would imagine
a Walchriesling as alternative to Welschriesling :-). NB: the
Nibelungenlied variants fixed in written in the 13th c. il-
lustrate that the [vl-] variant of the ethnonym was already
usual, so no matter whether Walch-, Walach- or Wlach-, unlike in
previous times from where such names as Walchensee and Walchsee
(I leave aside anthroponyms) have been preserved as such up today,
despite the parallel existence of the meanwhile much wider
spreading of Welsch-, Wallis, Wa(a)ls-.)
> Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
George