Gaul, Gallic, Gaelic (and Celt)
A mostly tangential conversation on an email list I'm part of included the following exchange between two contributors (Carl and Kjell) which prompted me into thinking about (and looking up) the etymology of a trio of false cognates.
Carl: I am not sure that it would be correct to posit an etymological link between "Galloi" (etc.) and "Keltoi" (etc.).
Kjell: The names are definitely similar. Does not Caesar himself point out that?
Carl: Caesar seems to have been pretty knowledgeable in politics and military science; less so in anthropology and philology! ;)
Kjell (quoting): "quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur"
i.e. that [the third] are called Celtae in their own language, but Galli in ours [in the Roman language]
Carl: And those words do not suggest Caesar was imagining the terms were cognate.
Exactly. There are plenty of examples were a people call themselves one thing and are called something else entirely by foreigners. One my favourites is that the Germans call themselves "Deutch", the English call them "Germans", the French called them "Allemands", the Italians call them "Tedeschi", the Czechs call them "Němci", etc.
The interesting thing here are the etymologies. Both the German word (Deutch) and the Italian word (Tedeschi) share a common root, from an older Germanic term "Theodiscus" (meaning "of the people") being Latinized and then re-venacularized. The French "Allemand" comes from the name assigned to a particular Germanic tribe (but from a term that meant "all people") being applied to the whole group. Meanwhile both the English "German" and the Czech "Němci" come from terms that were originally, well, less than complimentary: "German" being derived from a Celtic term meaning "noisy" and "Němci" being derived from a Slavic term meaning "unintelligible".
As for "Galli" and "Celtae", the G and the C aren't really interchangeable. In fact, in French, Latin names that begin with a G are often resolved with a J. The letters don't look similar the way G and C look similar, but the sound is similar. Witness also the variant spelling within English of "gaol" and "jail" for the same word. The parallel terms "Celtae" and "Galli" also exists in Greek where the names are "Keltoi" and "Galatai" (i.e. the Galatians). It seems that both name were Celtic tribal names (possibly meaning "forward/first rank" and "strong/powerful" respectively) and whereas the Greeks took to applying "Keltoi" the lot of them and "Galatai" to a sub-set, the Romans (for whatever reason) did the opposite, applying "Galli" ("Galatai") to the lot and then re-encountering "Celtae" ("Keltoi") later on.
Since we're on the topic, "Gaul" and "Galli" look similar, but are in fact, completely unrelated. "Gaul" derives from a Proto-Germanic word, "wahla" or "wahlaz" meaning originally "a foreigner, an outlander", which was applied to the Romans and later more generally to a Romanized person or tribe. The name "Wales" actually shares the same etymology as "Gaul" and the related term in Old Norse [the list this conversation was on is ostensibly to discuss Old Norse literature] was "Valskr"/"Valir". Interestingly, this term (Gaul, not Galli) is possibly related to "volk"/"folk", again, through Proto-Germanic.
Also interestingly, "Gael" is unrelated (etymologically) to either "Gaul" or "Gallic" although, again, there is a superficial resemblance. "Gael" (and "Gaelic") come from the Irish "Goidel" which is a rather recent (only 7th century) borrowing from the Welsh term for "Irishman" which is an old word, believed to have been formed from a proto-IE term for "forest dwellers" The use of the term "Gaelic" to designated the ethno-linguistic group is completely modern.
Carl: I am not sure that it would be correct to posit an etymological link between "Galloi" (etc.) and "Keltoi" (etc.).
Kjell: The names are definitely similar. Does not Caesar himself point out that?
Carl: Caesar seems to have been pretty knowledgeable in politics and military science; less so in anthropology and philology! ;)
Kjell (quoting): "quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur"
i.e. that [the third] are called Celtae in their own language, but Galli in ours [in the Roman language]
Carl: And those words do not suggest Caesar was imagining the terms were cognate.
Exactly. There are plenty of examples were a people call themselves one thing and are called something else entirely by foreigners. One my favourites is that the Germans call themselves "Deutch", the English call them "Germans", the French called them "Allemands", the Italians call them "Tedeschi", the Czechs call them "Němci", etc.
The interesting thing here are the etymologies. Both the German word (Deutch) and the Italian word (Tedeschi) share a common root, from an older Germanic term "Theodiscus" (meaning "of the people") being Latinized and then re-venacularized. The French "Allemand" comes from the name assigned to a particular Germanic tribe (but from a term that meant "all people") being applied to the whole group. Meanwhile both the English "German" and the Czech "Němci" come from terms that were originally, well, less than complimentary: "German" being derived from a Celtic term meaning "noisy" and "Němci" being derived from a Slavic term meaning "unintelligible".
As for "Galli" and "Celtae", the G and the C aren't really interchangeable. In fact, in French, Latin names that begin with a G are often resolved with a J. The letters don't look similar the way G and C look similar, but the sound is similar. Witness also the variant spelling within English of "gaol" and "jail" for the same word. The parallel terms "Celtae" and "Galli" also exists in Greek where the names are "Keltoi" and "Galatai" (i.e. the Galatians). It seems that both name were Celtic tribal names (possibly meaning "forward/first rank" and "strong/powerful" respectively) and whereas the Greeks took to applying "Keltoi" the lot of them and "Galatai" to a sub-set, the Romans (for whatever reason) did the opposite, applying "Galli" ("Galatai") to the lot and then re-encountering "Celtae" ("Keltoi") later on.
Since we're on the topic, "Gaul" and "Galli" look similar, but are in fact, completely unrelated. "Gaul" derives from a Proto-Germanic word, "wahla" or "wahlaz" meaning originally "a foreigner, an outlander", which was applied to the Romans and later more generally to a Romanized person or tribe. The name "Wales" actually shares the same etymology as "Gaul" and the related term in Old Norse [the list this conversation was on is ostensibly to discuss Old Norse literature] was "Valskr"/"Valir". Interestingly, this term (Gaul, not Galli) is possibly related to "volk"/"folk", again, through Proto-Germanic.
Also interestingly, "Gael" is unrelated (etymologically) to either "Gaul" or "Gallic" although, again, there is a superficial resemblance. "Gael" (and "Gaelic") come from the Irish "Goidel" which is a rather recent (only 7th century) borrowing from the Welsh term for "Irishman" which is an old word, believed to have been formed from a proto-IE term for "forest dwellers" The use of the term "Gaelic" to designated the ethno-linguistic group is completely modern.