Talk:Wallachia

Black Wallachia

Both names could come from a confusion : Kara Iflak, the Turkish name of Vallachia, means ”land of Vallachians” ; but later kara ”land” was mistranslated as kara - black. Later, the Turks renamed Moldavia and Vallachia as Kara-Iflak (Moldavia) and Ak Iflak (Vallachia) according to the Turkish cardinal points symbolism : north is symbolized by black, and west is symbolized by white.

This "color assignment" comes in direct contradiction with 3rd footnote in (in Romanian) Description of Moldavia by Dimitrie Cantemir.

P.S.: I dropped the idea of citing properly a wikisource resource in another language (if it can be done at all) as it was a real pain for someone who's trying to do it for the first time.

Greek name

"it was already there a long time" is not a strong argument if it's the only one. Virtually no-one of the population spoke Greek. The lead and the top of the infobox should be reserved for names in relevant languages. Greek was used by Phanariot Wallachian rulers and I presume their courts for a century. Wallachia existed for over five. Even Church Slavonic, another language only spoken by a small fraction of the population, was more relevant. Super Ψ Dro 16:01, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Ok so then we delete Church Slavonic as well 213.233.110.226 (talk) 17:10, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

The Church Slavonic name of Wallachia is currently not included. I put it as an example because it was a language with a (not completely) similar situation to Greek in the country and because Moldavia used to include it as well as Greek. Super Ψ Dro 18:03, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Ok whatever then we wait for other people to share their opinions on this matter 213.233.110.226 (talk) 22:10, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

"Valla hia"

A user has been promoting the idea that "Wallachia" derives from the supposed Latin phrase "Valla hia." The only reasonably sourced claims made are that valla means "walls" and that there were notable walls in Dacia. The rest of the contribution appears to be complete nonsense.

First: the Latin word for "here" is not hia but hic. So could Vallahia come from valla-hic? No. The -ia at the end is a toponymic suffix; a word like Vallahia can only mean "land of vallah," whatever vallah is. And it almost certainly is the Germanic root walh ("foreigners, Romans"), just as the accepted etymology states.

Second: alright, but could vallah come from valla-hic instead of from walh? Also no. The H at the beginning of hic is not a phonetically important sound; it would not stick around while the rest of the word disappeared. This is about as plausible as an English speaker saying "There are walls here in this town, so let's call it Walls-here-town, or Wallertown for short." A Latin speaker would just call it "Vallia" or "Vallonia" or something, as an English speaker would call it "Walltown" or "Wallton."

Third: the Romans loved building walls almost as much as they loved building roads. It would be stupid to name your province "the one with the walls" because literally everywhere has walls. Come on. --Jtle515 (talk) 00:09, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

This fringe theory below is not backed by sufficent WP:RS to be pushed at the top of this article.

Aerial imagery, declassified Cold War imagery, as well as onsite reconnaissance point to a Latin colloquial etymological origin. Wallahia likely comes from Latin, Vallahia, ‘here by the walls’, which merges two Latin words, Valla-Hia the Latin Vallum, pl. Valla, and 'here' hia Between the 1st and 9th C AD, the Dacian Limes traversed and severed modern day Romania across hundreds of kilometers. The Dacian Limes were originally intended as border control, lines of communication, line of sight and main supply routes. They evolved, were maintained, abandoned or modernized relative to changing regional security, and to Roman or Byzantine administrative policies. The impression they made on eyewitnesses cannot be overstated. Functional, fortified, endless, repetitive, tall and featuring ditches meters deep, they dominated the landscape for centuries until forgotten as other vestiges, such as Constantine's Bridge. During the Second World War, aerial reconnaissance assumed the limes as modern anti-tank ditches and the surviving sections remain impressive in the 21st Century.

The Limes Transalutanus, Trajan’s Wall, Antharic and Constantine’s Limes likely morphed as a geographic reference, from the Latin Vallum, pl. Valla For centuries, Vallum recurs in Roman texts as a reference to walls, and Moesia and Dacia would be no different as colonized regions. For nearly nine centuries, any outside witness, whether civilians or soldiers, warriors, would have been deeply impressed by the functional, seemingly endless, layered deep walls that the Latin locals referred to as Valla or “Here to the Walls.” The Latin/geographic and functional etymological denomination of the region and, of its populations, is the most plausible hypothesis, and is congruent with Latin and Romanian etymological habit of designating names and locations as a function of geographic or physical features, not the least Transylvania, Oltenia, Dacia Superior, Dacia Inferior. In comparison, the etymology of Istanbul was assessed as the colloquial alteration of "to the City." Similarly, Cologne traces its name to Colonia Agrippina, and Venice from Venetia. The Romanian language contains numerous of geographic etymology, such as Valea Albă, Câmpulung. Wallahia became lost through the ages, changed ownership as populations moved or migrated, and was likely forgotten and as buried as Roman vestiges north of the Danube that are recently being rediscovered. Jingiby (talk) 04:19, 7 January 2025 (UTC)