Christopher asked
> What evidence is there that the Belgae and the Picts were originally
non-IE?
>
> This seems to go way too far. First of all, Pictish is almost
non-existant in
> any record - but what remains we do have show it to be nothing more
than a
> P-Celtic dialect closely related to Welsh which was Gaelicized after
the
> Irish inroads into Scotland. Most of the more fantastical claims to
Pictish
> linguistic origins seem to rest on misreadings of Ogam stones. The
Pictish
> inscriptions seem to use a different orthography than traditional
Irish Ogam,
> as might be expected by P-Celts adopting the alphabet to their own
language.
> In any case, the tribes of the Pictish area seem fully Celtic in form
and
> etymology.
>
> Belgic seems likewise to be fully Celtic - I havn't noticed any grand
> divergeneces or substrate survivals which might indicate a non-Celtic
origin > to the language.
Regarding Belgae, I quote the Times Atlas of World History which states
p.83 "Prelude to Germanic Expansion. Place names between the Aller and
the Somme show remnants of a language neither Celtic nor German - the
last traces of a pre-historic people squeezed between expanding Celtic
and Germanic groups. Even this people had already adopted many
features of Celtic culture"
This is precisely the area from which the Belgae came. Once having
adopted a La Tene culture, they became "more Gallic than the Gauls".
Even Ceasar recognised the difference in his three way division between
Aquitainia (Vasconne derived), Gallia and Belgicia.
This is true of the Picts were probaly P Celtic moving to Q Celtic, but
there are also another ethnic group that was incorporated into the
Pictish people after Drust's great raids at the close of the Roman
Empire. They were referred to under another name related to Iardomnan
in early records, but then disappear. There are some inscriptions in
this area that seem non-P-Celtic, in fact are like nothing seen
anywhere else. There are also a number of place names in North Western
Scotland that show a non-Celtic etymology. Also some of the Ogham
inscriptions show non Indo-Europeanised forms.
> There don't seem to be any survivals of pre-Celtic languages in
Ireland >whatsoever. The use of Alba for Scotland is simply a
Gaelicization of Albion - >which is Elfydd in Modern Welsh - and means
"visible world."
It has also been linked to names of mountainous places from the Elburz
Mountains in Iran, through various Albania's in the Caucasas and the
Balkans, through the Alps and even the Appenines. "Alb" has a long
Indo-European name applied to cultural refuges (mountainous areas
undesirable to others).
Your derivation of "the visible world" seems like a Celtic dialogue
about the "invisible world" - Tir na Og, the land of the faeries.
Warmest regards
John