Re: [tied] Re: Velesu/Volosu

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 08:17:05 +0000, g <george.st@...> wrote:

>> 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 :-).

There's a difference between native Wal(ch) and borrowed W(a)lach. The
term Wal(ch), walhisk > welsch was used for immediate neighbours of the
Germans, speaking Romance [or Celtic] languages. The name Wlach, Wallach
came to be used to denote the Balkan Romanians, once news about them
reached Germany (presumably through Slavic/Hungarian).


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...