Petusek wrote:
> Valach means generally a "herdsman" in Slavic languages, but also a
> castrated horse, a gelding, since Valachs were thought to be the first
> people to geld.
>
> There are several hypothesis concerning the origin of the people and
> their name:
>
> 1) Some consider them successors of the Danubian Celtic tribe of Volcae
> (Germ. *walch- > Slav. *Volch-, Czech Vlach, Russ. Voloch, Rom. Valach)
> [Holub-Lyer]
Actually, the characteristically East Slavic (Ukrainian/Rusyn) pleophony
in the word rules out any such fantastic story. Like Polish <Wol/och>,
the name must have been originally applied to immigrant communities
speaking Romanian. Of course <Vlach>, with the normal Czech treatment of
the Germanic loan (cf. Polish Wl/och), referred to whatever
Romance-speakers the early Germans and Slavs in these parts were likely
to have some knowledge of just before they learnt to metathesise their
liquids :), which in the case of the western Slavs (unlike the eastern
and southern ones) meant Italians rather than Romanians. The fact that
in the centuries that followed their German neighbours continued to use
the terms <Walch> and <welsch> with reference to Italians only
reinforced the identification.
Piotr