[aristeides]

I knew that Wagner uses "welsch" (the cognate in German to our "Welsh") in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg to refer to what is French, so I looked "welsch" up in a German etymological dictionary. Seems the original Germanic noun referred to Celts, and in particular to the Gallic tribe called "Volcae" in Latin. Because of the Roman occupation of the Gallic areas in France, Northern Italy, etc., some Germanic peoples applied the term to Romance peoples like the French and Italians. The Anglo-Saxons invading Britain applied the term to the Welsh, who were both Celtic and semi-Romanized.

[muawiyah]

The Britons were not "semi-Romanized". In the end, some of them went to Byzantium and became emperors thereby demonstrating they were "fully-Romanized" - although some experts in the field make a case for the "Galicization" of the Romans!