View source for Social:Etymology of Wales

{{Short description|Origin of the name Wales}}
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This article describes the '''etymology of Wales''', a country of the {{wipe|United Kingdom}}.

==Origins==
The English words "Wales" and "Welsh" derive from the same [[Social:Old English|Old English]] root (singular {{lang|ang|Wealh}}, plural {{lang|ang|Wēalas}}), a descendant of Proto-Germanic ''*Walhaz'', which was itself derived from the name of the Gaulish people known to the Romans as Volcae and which came to refer indiscriminately to inhabitants of the [[Place:Western Roman Empire|Western Roman Empire]].<ref>{{cite web|last= Miller |first= Katherine L. |date= 2014 |title= The Semantic Field of Slavery in Old English: Wealh, Esne, Þræl |type= Doctoral dissertation |publisher= University of Leeds |url= http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/8031/1/Katherine%20Miller%20Semantic%20Field%20of%20Slavery%20in%20Old%20English%20v%203.pdf |access-date= August 8, 2019}}</ref> The [[Social:Old English|Old English]]-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term to refer to the Britons in particular; the plural form {{lang|ang|Wēalas}} evolved into the name for their territory, Wales.<ref name="Wales Hist 71" /> The modern names for various Romance-speaking people in [[Earth:Continental Europe|Continental Europe]] (e.g. Wallonia, Wallachia, {{lang|fr|Valais}}, Vlachs, the German {{lang|de|Welsch}}, and {{lang|pl|Włochy}}, the [[Social:Polish language|Polish]] name for Italy) have a similar etymology.<ref name="Wales Hist 71">Davies (1994) p. 71</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Albert Henry, {{lang|fr|''Histoire des mots Wallons et Wallonie'', Institut Jules Destrée, Coll. "Notre histoire", Mont-sur-Marchienne|italic=unset}}, 1990, 3rd ed. (1st ed. 1965), footnote 13 p. 86. Henry wrote the same about Wallachia.</ref><ref name="Tolkien 1">{{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |title=Angles and Britons: O'Donnell Lectures |publisher=University of Wales Press |year=1963 |location=Cardiff |pages=English and Welsh, an O'Donnell Lecture delivered at Oxford on 21 October 1955 |no-pp=true }}</ref><ref name="Gilleland">{{cite web |last=Gilleland |first=Michael |title=Laudator Temporis Acti: More on the Etymology of Walden |website=Laudator Temporis Acti website |date=12 December 2007 |url=http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2007/12/more-on-etymology-of-walden.html |access-date=29 October 2008 }}</ref>

Historically in Britain, the words were not restricted to modern Wales or to the Welsh but were used to refer to anything that the Anglo-Saxons associated with the Britons, including other non-Germanic territories in Britain (e.g. Cornwall) and places in Anglo-Saxon territory associated with Britons (e.g. Walworth in County Durham and Walton in West Yorkshire).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rollason |first=David |year=2003 |contribution=Origins of a People |title=Northumbria, 500–1100 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |publication-date=2003 |location=Cambridge |page=60 |isbn=978-0-521-04102-7 }}</ref>

The modern Welsh name for themselves is {{lang|cy|Cymry}}, and {{lang|cy|Cymru}} is the Welsh name for Wales. These words (both of which are pronounced {{IPA-cy|ˈkəm.rɨ|}}) are descended from the Brythonic word ''combrogi'', meaning "fellow-countrymen".<ref name="Hist Wales 69">Davies (1994) p. 69</ref> The use of the word {{lang|cy|Cymry}} as a self-designation derives from the location in the [[History:Sub-Roman Britain|post-Roman Era]] (after the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons) of the Welsh (Brythonic-speaking) people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland ({{lang|cy|Yr Hen Ogledd}}) ({{lang-en|The Old North}}). It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the {{lang|cy|Hen Ogledd}} were one people, different from other peoples.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lloyd |first=John Edward |year=1911 |title=A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest (Note to Chapter VI, the Name "Cymry") |volume=I |edition=Second |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co. |publication-date=1912 |location=London |pages=191–192 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYwNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA191 }}</ref> In particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Phillimore |first=Egerton |year=1891 |editor-last=Phillimore |editor-first=Egerton |contribution=Note (a) to The Settlement of Brittany |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M35QO0vor-EC&pg=PA97 |title=Y Cymmrodor |volume=XI |publisher=[[Organization:Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion|Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion]] |publication-date=1892 |location=London |pages=97–101 }}</ref>
It is attested in a praise poem to {{lang|cy|Cadwallon ap Cadfan|italic=no}} ({{lang|cy|Moliant Cadwallon}}, by {{lang|cy|Afan Ferddig|italic=no}}) {{circa|633}}.<ref>Davies (1994) p. 71; the poem contains the line: 'Ar wynep Kymry Cadwallawn was'.</ref> In Welsh literature, the word {{lang|cy|Cymry}} was used throughout the [[History:Middle Ages|Middle Ages]] to describe the Welsh, though the older, more generic term {{lang|cy|Brythoniaid}} continued to be used to describe any of the Britonnic peoples (including the Welsh) and was the more common literary term until {{circa|1200}}. Thereafter {{lang|cy|Cymry}} prevailed as a reference to the Welsh. Until {{circa|1560}} the word was spelt {{lang|wlm|Kymry}} or {{lang|wlm|Cymry}}, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland.<ref name="Hist Wales 69"/>

The Latinised forms of these names, ''Cambrian'', ''Cambric'' and ''[[Earth:Cambria|Cambria]]'', survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh and the Welsh people. Examples include the Cambrian Mountains (which cover much of Wales and gave their name to the [[Earth:Cambrian|Cambrian]] [[Earth:Geological period|geological period]]), the newspaper ''Cambrian News'', and the organisations Cambrian Airways, Cambrian Railways, Cambrian Archaeological Association and the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Chambers 21st Century Dictionary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z7Ymjw1o9a0C&pg=PA203 |website=Chambers Dictionary |publisher=Allied Publishers |edition=Revised |year=2008 |isbn=978-81-8424-329-1 |location=New Delhi |page=203 }}</ref> Outside Wales, a related form survives as the name Cumbria in North West England, which was once a part of {{lang|cy|Yr Hen Ogledd}}. The Cumbric language, which is thought to have been closely related to Welsh, was spoken in this area until [[Social:Language death|becoming extinct]] around the 12th century.<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Cambria}}</ref>

==References==
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[[Category:Etymology]]

{{Sourceattribution|Etymology of Wales|1}}