diction and contradiction

[Kreso Megyeral]

Anton S. wrote:

>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.)

The name is compound from olasz (Italian), and orszag (land, country). The
word olasz itself comes from Valachus (cf. also olah "Romanian Valachian").
Similar thing occurs in Polish, where they use the word W3och for Italian,
and W3ochy for Italy. The reason is probably that language of Valachians
seemed close to that of Italians. Moreover, in Croatia, the former Romance
(or late Latin) speaking population of Dalmatia is called Vlasi (sg. Vlah).
Actually, it seems that all the speakers of the east Romance languages bear
that common name.