Germanic placenames
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[edit] Wal/Gal
Many region names (and some place names) in Europe derive from the original Germanic word for stranger or foreigner, rendered as "wal" or "gal" (and variations). Germanic w became gu when borrowed into Old French. (Contrast guardian, guerre and Guillaume with the English forms warden, war and William).
"Gal/Wal" especially came to mean "strangers at the edge of (our) region". Examples of place/region names possibly deriving this way include:-
- Wales
- Wallonia (Belgium)
- Galway (Ireland)
- Galloway (Scotland)
- Wallachia (Romania)
- Cornwall (England)
- Wallis (Valais) (Swiss Canton)
- Walsall (England)
- Walsden (England)
- Galicia (Spain)
- Galicia (Turkey)
- Galicia (Ukraine)
Some non-Germanic languages adopted this Germanic root. The Scottish Gaelic term for the Outer Hebrides is Innse-Gall.
- See also
- German placename etymology
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