2315: Italy, Włochy, and Olaszország—How Are These Related? Apr 19, 2021

Many names for Italy follow a similar format: Italien, Italia etc. Some clear exceptions to this exist however in the Polish Włochy and Hungarian Olaszország. In the case of Polish, this word actually has an old Germanic root, despite Germanic languages by and large not using this anymore for 'Italy' from *walhaz meaning 'Roman; Romance', and having the same root as 'Wales' and 'Wallonia'. Similarly, 'Olaszország' is also ultimately of this same proto-Germanic, and proto-Slavic root, possibly related to the Latin 'Volcae', the name of a Celtic tribe. At any rate, only the first half of this comes from the 'Vlasi' root, and the rest is a suffix, as can be seen in Hungarian's related word 'Oláh' for a Romanian.