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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tarchon" data-source="post: 1910790" data-attributes="member: 5990">"Walachia" = Vlach-iaIts derogatory degree depends on who you're talking to.  The original sense is similar to the word that became "Welsh" in English and still exists in German as "Welsch."  German (and, by borrowing, several Slavic languages) has typically used the term and its cognates to describe Romance-speaking southern Europeans, i.e. non-Germans or "foreigners."  Different speakers in Germany seem to view it differently with regard to pejorativity. My sense is that in modern Romania (and elsewhere), it often has some connotation of "peasant" or "hick." It also is applied to Romany/Gypsies, and among Romany or at least Romany scholars "Vlach" is often used to describe one of the major Romany ethnic/linguistic divisions.  Romany are a fairly significant ethnic group in most of Eastern Europe.  One might also consider that the terms Romany and Romanian are strikingly similar, even though the conventional wisdom is that they're etymologically unrelated.</blockquote>