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Wal/Gal

Wal/Gal

Many region names (and some place names) in Europe derive from the original Germanic word for stranger or foreigner, rendered as "wal" or "gal" (and variations). Germanic ''w'' became ''gu'' when borrowed into Old French. (Contrast ''guardian'', ''guerre'' and ''Guillaume'' with the Anglo-Saxon forms ''warden'', ''war'' and ''William'').
"Gal/Wal" especially came to mean "strangers at the edge of (our) region". Examples of place/region names possibly deriving this way include:-

★ Wales

★ Wallonia (Belgium)

★ Galway (Ireland)

★ Galloway (Scotland)

★ Wallachia (Romania)

★ Cornwall (England)

★ Wallis (Valais) (Swiss Canton)

★ Walsall (England)
Some non-Germanic languages adopted this Germanic root. The Scottish Gaelic term for the Outer Hebrides is ''Innse-Gall''.
;See also: German placename etymology