September 16, 2004

Catalan, Galician, whatever

Trevor at kaleboel offers evidence that the high-end concept restaurant biz has openings for linguists. Or ought to, anyhow.

Just to add to the confusion, there's the Galicia in Spain that Trevor writes about, and then there's the Galicia now split between Poland and Ukraine. The etymology of the two names is quite different: apparently

"Halicz (certainly from [Ukrainian] halka = 'jackdaw'), [was] formerly the capital of the Russian [Rusyn] land and the seat of the Halicz duchy, from which today's Galicia (Halicia) received its name."

while the Galicia in Spain is from Latin Gallaecia, which apparently has to do with the Gallaeci (also Callaeci, Callaici, Kallaikoi) "a people in western Hispania Tarraconensis". They were Celts (which I gather is what the various forms of their Latin names mean), allies of Hannibal, and finally defeated by Rome in 25 B.C.

Posted by Mark Liberman at September 16, 2004 03:57 PM