Chronology of the breakup of Common Romance [long]

X99Lynx at aol.com X99Lynx at aol.com
Sat Jul 17 07:39:22 UTC 1999


In a message dated 7/13/99 6:16:38 PM, rmccalli at sunmuw1.MUW.Edu wrote:
<<Some popular writers have also proposed Volcae as the source of English
"folk" but I've never seen this proposal from professional linguists.>>

In a message dated 7/16/99 2:53:27 AM, edsel at glo.be replied:
<<Even less likely : the peoples that used the word had probably never heard
of the Volcae, not even second-hand.>>

Actually, of the few things we hear of the Volcae Tectosages (versus the
Volcae Arecomici, a more southwestern federation of Celts) one of them is
that they moved into "Germania" and were becoming assimilated.   And we know
this from one of the most credible sources in antiquity (among others of the
same period):

<<And there was formerly a time when the Gauls excelled the Germans in
prowess, and waged war on them offensively, and, on account of the great
number of their people and the insufficiency of their land, sent colonies
over the Rhine.

Accordingly, the Volcae Tectosages, seized on those parts of Germany which
are the most fruitful [and lie] around the Hercynian forest, (which, I
perceive, was known by report to Eratosthenes and some other Greeks, and
which they call Orcynia), and settled there. Which nation to this time
retains its position in those settlements, and has a very high character for
justice and military merit; now also they continue in the same scarcity,
indigence, hardihood, as the Germans, and use the same food and dress; but
their proximity to the Province and knowledge of commodities from countries
beyond the sea supplies to the Gauls many things tending to luxury as well as
civilization.   Accustomed by degrees to be overmatched and worsted in many
engagements, they do not now even compare themselves to the Germans in
prowess.>>

- Caesar, Gallic War, 6.24 (Loeb)

It may be significant that about 150 years later, these Volcae have
completely disappeared in the descriptions of the same territories by Tacitus
and Ptolemy.  If the Volcae could have been assimilated, so could their
self-name.

Currently, the origins of the terms I use to describe my nationality and
other affilations include, first, the name of a 15th Century Italian sailor
(no, not 'Vespucian'). Then there's a Latin name compounding what looks to be
a Celtic one ('Pennsylvanian').  Others have included an anglicizing of a
Delaware name for an even earlier group of Native Americans, names from the
Greek alphabet, a sports team name borrowed from a rather unpleasant African
fauna and something in a Dutch place name that ended up being rendered as
"Brooklynite' - a term of no small pride and self-identification, as
mysterious as that may seem to the outsider.  If 'folk' moved around anything
like any of these other self-names, then I'm sure we should not be surprised
where it came from.

In a message dated 7/13/99 6:16:38 PM, rmccalli at sunmuw1.MUW.Edu wrote:
<<Isn't the term Vlakh anachronistic in this sense? Vlakh is first
documented in the middle ages, isn't it?>>

In a message dated 7/16/99 2:53:27 AM, edsel at glo.be replied:
<<Indeed. The medieval use of 'Vlach' probably referred to the 'Latin'
Rumanians, cf. Wallachia. In modern Greece, the word is also used to refer to
the local nomads/gypsies of unclear (i.e. to me) ethnic origin (maybe
Rumanian Gypsies, 'Roma', or from Pannonia? Maybe Albanians?).>>

But in fact the form 'vlach' appears very late in medieval times - one of the
arguments that the migration into Romania was relatively recent.  There are
even indications that at one point there was a diachronic presence with
'woloch' (Celt, Roman, Frank) still existing alongside of 'vlach' outside of
South and East Slavic.  In fact, before 'vlach' first enters English, it is
preceded by a century by 'Woloch" refering to Vlachs.  See also the Hungarian
form 'olasi' mentioned in my earlier post.  [And I see also that in Western
Slavic, "walska" (Old Bo. and something like it in Pol) is "war."]

I don't think anyone seriously argues with the idea that 'vlach' is derived
from the name applied to Romance-types, particularly Romanized Celts - and
not orginally a Rumanian-speaking group.  (BTW, what is 'balkan' from?)

With regard to the vallum/Volcae connection, edsel at glo.be replied:

<<That excludes a Roman origin of the word.  All this sounds like a typical
19th century invention by Latin-worshippers>>

As opposed to 19th Century Wagnerian Teutonists or Pan-Slavists, who weren't
above some invention of their own.  I got a post that corrects me about the
'wall' theory - apparently a British scholar named Lewis suggested in a RS
paper in the twenties that both vallum ('vallus stake') and waldh, etc.
derived from the  early proto-european [sic] "fala", which the Romans applied
to wall-building and seige scaffling, and created heights in general, fully
aware that it was a borrowed word "quod apud Etruscos significat caelum"; cf.
fulcio, fulsi, fultum: to strenghten, particularly by walls town-places ."

Regards,
S. Long



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