Walhaz

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Brass replica of the Tjurkö bracteate showing the word ᚹᚨᛚᚺᚨᚲᚢᚱᚾᛖ walhakurne ('Roman grain', i.e. gold coin)

Map of Walhaz-derived exonym variants for Romance speakers

*Walhaz is a reconstructed Proto-Germanic word meaning 'foreigner', or more specifically 'Roman', 'Romance-speaker' or '(romanized) Celt', and survives in the English words of 'Wales/Welsh' and 'Cornwall'. The term was used by the ancient Germanic peoples to describe inhabitants of the former Roman Empire, who were largely romanised and spoke Latin languages (Template:Abbr Template:Lang in Old Norse). The adjectival form is attested in Old Norse Template:Lang, meaning 'French'; Old High German Template:Lang, meaning 'Romance'; New High German Template:Lang, used in Switzerland and South Tyrol (Walisch) for Romance speakers; Dutch Template:Lang 'Walloon'; Old English Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, meaning 'Brythonic'. The forms of these words imply that they are descended from a Proto-Germanic form *walhiska-.

From *Walhaz to welsch

Template:Lang is a loanword derived from the name of the Celtic tribe which was known to the Romans as Volcae (in the writings of Julius Caesar) and to the Greeks as Template:Lang Template:Lang (Strabo and Ptolemy). The Volcae tribe occupied territory neighbouring that of the Germanic people and seem to have been referred to by the proto-Germanic name Template:Lang (plural Template:Lang, adjectival form Template:Lang). It is assumed that this term specifically referred to the Volcae, because application of Grimm's law to that word produces the form Template:Lang. Subsequently, this term Template:Lang was applied rather indiscriminately to the southern neighbours of the Germanic people, as evidenced in geographic names such as Walchgau and Walchensee in Bavaria or Walensee in Switzerland. Place names containing the element *walhaz denote communities or enclaves in the Germanic-speaking world where Romance was spoken.

In Old English, *:walhaz developed into wealh, retaining the inherited meaning 'a foreigner, more particularly a pre-Anglo-Saxon inhabitant of Britain who spoke Celtic or Latin or both'. Because of the social position of the British natives, in the West Saxon dialect of Old English it came to mean '(British) slave'. The old feminine derivative of *walhaz, Old English wiln < *wielen < * wealh-in-, even exclusively means 'a female slave' and is likewise concentrated in the Saxon south of England.

From *Walhaz to Vlach

Template:Main Template:Wiktionary From the Germanic and Slavic peoples the term passed to other groups, such as the Hungarians (Template:Lang, referring to Vlachs, generally used for Romanians; Template:Lang, referring to Italians), Turks (Template:Lang) and Byzantines (Template:Lang Template:Lang) and was used for all Latin people of the Balkans.

See also

• Vlachs, also known as Wallachs
• Theodiscus
• Names of the Celts
• History of the term Wallon