<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L  -  05 July 2007 - Volume 04</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">sassisch@yahoo.com
</a><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: Language politics</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">It seems to me that in many contexts this French use of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">patois 
</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">is similar to that of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">welsch</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">, </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
walsch</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">, </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">wals</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">, </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
wels</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> etc. in older German (Old German </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">walha</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> < 
</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">walhisk</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">). Originally it denoted the (Celticized) Romance language varieties of the Romanized peoples with which German speakers had contacts, before that a Germanic name specifically for the Celtic Volcae of Southern France (today's Occitan-speaking area).  
</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Welsch</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> is still used in Swiss Alemannic for "romance-speaking (of Switzerland)." Then it took on the meaning of "stranger" in general and spread to other areas, such as Wales, Cornwall, Wallachia (Vlach) and Wallonia
</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> German then developed it to mean "gibberish" or "babble," as in the name Rotwelsch (a now extinct thieves' cant, the name containing native 
</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">rot</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> = German </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Rotte</span>
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> 'mob') and </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Kauderwelsch</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> (from *</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
kudern</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> 'to coo' > 'to babble') 'gibberish', 'babble'.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Similarly, the Irish word for "English (language)" is </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Béarla</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
 (< Old Irish </span><i style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">bélre</i><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">) > Scottish Gaelic </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Beurla
</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">, Manx </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Baarle</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">, originally meaning something like 'gibberish' or 'babble' (literally probably "mouthing":
</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">bél+re</i><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">).  There's also the Slavonic word</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
 </span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">for "German": *</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">němec </span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">(originally something like "someone who can't communicate").  However, these names don't seem to have been generalized.
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">