Stefan Pascu: A History of Transylvania

1. There is no evidence of any Latin influence on Gothic having been exerted in Dacia. On the other hand, chronological, formal, and semantic traits exclude the origin from Dacia of most of this influence. The assumption of Gothic elements in Rumanian is based on false etymologies.

2. There is nothing to indicate that the Hungarians borrowed the word "walah" from Germanic populations before they settled in the Carpathian basin. The corresponding Hungarian word was in documents first written "Blaccus, Blacci," and after the mid-13th century in its later form: Olacis, Olachys; corresponding to Hungarian oláh. This is in accord with other circumstances which indicate that the Vlachs started to come to Transylvania in the early 13th century. The Hungarians learned their name (vlach) most probably from Slavs, and adapted it during the first half of the 13th century to their own language, i.e., to oláh.

The sense of "serf" of the word rumân developed in the Rumanian voivodates, where the peasants were for centuries exposed to severe exploitation. Rumanian batrân "old", from Latin veteranus "soldier who served his time" has no value in determining the territories of the ancient Rumanians, the change of sense could occur anywhere in the Roman Empire.

3. The Rumanian popular name Ardeal "Transylvania" was borrowed from Hungarian: Erdély. (The Indo-European root ard- in toponyms has nothing to do with Ardeal.) The first written attestation extant of Erdély is from the end of the 12th century: Erdeuelu (Erdoelve); its sense is "beyond the forest". Its Latin translation appeared already in 1075: Ultra silvam; from the 12th century on, Transilvania is used. The German translation (Überwald) appeared in the 13th century. The Rumanians borrowed Erdély; the first known mentioning being in 1432: Ardeliu.

4. Only one of those four religious terms assumed by Stefanescu-Draganesti to have been borrowed by the Hungarians before 1001 was really borrowed from Rumanian (colinda, a popular custom) but much later than assumed by S.D. The rest derive from Slavic. Two of these words (craciun and colinda) are not inherited Latin words in Rumanian but were borrowed from Slavic.

Thus, contacts between Latin and Gothic (Old Germanic) existed in several areas of Europe, but in spite of what Virgiliu Stefanescu-Draganesti contends, linguistic evidence indicates that Dacia north of the Danube did not belong to these areas. Remains in Latin and the Germanic languages of these contacts are therefore no proof of Roman-Rumanian continuity north of the lower Danube.

Stefan Pascu: A History of Transylvania