diction and contradiction

[Stefan Georg]

>Slightly closer to topic, why is Italy called <Olaszorsza:g> in
>Hungarian?  (I was in Urbana yesterday, popped in to the Slavic & East
>European department of the university library, where I once had a job;
>and happened to see there a Hungarian map of Europe.)

-/orsz:ag/ is "country, state", purely Hungarian; /olasz/ is
immediately from Slavic, derived from the etymon behind forms like
/Vlach/ othl. (also found in W/Valachia, and the earlier German
designation for everything Romance (a/o Celtic), /Welsch/, OHG
/wal(a)hisc/, also engl. /Welsh/;). The ultimate origine may be the
Celtic (?) ethnonym given in Latin sources as /Volcae/. StG
--
Dr. Stefan Georg
Heerstrasse 7
D-53111 Bonn