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Re: Hell(en)ish oddities

From:John Cowan <cowan@...>
Date:Friday, November 24, 2000, 19:21
On Thu, 23 Nov 2000, Elliott Lash wrote:

> And speaking of the Welsh, I'm sure most of you know that > the Anglo-Saxons didn't bother with their real name (Cymri) and just called > them the foreigners or "Wealas" (singular Wealh). Just a little tidbit.
Except that "wealas" does not mean "foreigners" generally; it was never applied to people from other Germanic countries. Outside Britain, it was applied to Romance-speakers, and in Britain it was extended to those of British/Brythonic/Welsh speech. -- John Cowan cowan@ccil.org One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore --Douglas Hofstadter