Are the names "Gaelic", "Gaulish" and "Galicia" all from the same root?

**~~Sikeliot~~** · 03-08-2014, 06:28 AM

Galicia is in northern Spain, a traditional Celtic land.
France was known by the Romans as Gaul, and the Gauls were Celts.
Scottish and Irish people historically spoke Gaelic, a Celtic language.

Are these names all related?

**~~Armando Esteban Quito~~** · 03-08-2014, 06:30 AM

I'm guessing they're all Latin based?

**Anglojew** · 03-08-2014, 07:23 AM

The Greek and Latin names Galatia (first attested by Timaeus of Tauromenion in the 4th century BC), and Gallia are ultimately derived from a Celtic ethnic or tribal Gal(a)-to-.[1] The Galli of Gallia Celtica were reported to refer to themselves as Celtae by Caesar. This name, from a stem *Kel-to has been suggested as ultimately derived from a common origin with the names in Gal- by certain linguists.[who?] Hellenistic etymology connected the name of the Galatians (Γαλάται, Galatai) to the supposedly "milk-white" skin (γάλα, gala, "milk") of the Gauls.[citation needed]
The English Gaul is from French Gaule and is unrelated to Latin Gallia, despite superficial similarity (Latin Gallia would have regularly been turned to *Jaille in French). As adjectives, English has the two variants Gaulish and Gallic. The two adjectives are used synonymously, as "pertaining to Gaul or the Gauls", although the Celtic language or languages spoken in Gaul is predominantly known as Gaulish.
The name Gaul is derived from the Germanic term walha, "foreigner, Romanized person", an exonym applied by Germanic speakers to Celts, likely via a Latinization of Frankish *Walholant "Gaul", literally "Land of the Foreigners/Romans", making it partially cognate with the names Wales and Wallachia), the usual word for the non-Germanic-speaking peoples (Celtic-speaking and Latin-speaking indiscriminately).[2] The Germanic w- is regularly rendered as gu- / g- in French (cf. guerre = war, garder = ward), and the diphthong au is the regular outcome of al before a following consonant (cf. cheval ~ chevaux). Gaule or Gaulle can hardly be derived from Latin Gallia, since g would become j before a (cf. gamba > jambe), and the diphthong au would be unexplained; the regular outcome of Latin Gallia is Jaille in French which is found in several western placenames.[3][4]
Also unrelated in spite of superficial similarity, are the nams Galli and Gael.[5] The Irish word gall did originally mean "a Gaul" i.e. an inhabitant of Gaul, but its meaning was later widened to "foreigner", to describe the Vikings, and later still the Normans.[6] The words gael and gall are sometimes used together for contrast, for instance in the 12th-century book Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaul