Re: The Classical Tradition.

From: John Croft
Message: 1706
Date: 2000-02-27

Mark Odegard wrote
> Caesar, I think it was, said Gaullic (or at least, certain dialects
of it)
> was very very easy to learn if you spoke Latin (tho', the converse
seems to
> have not been true, and Gauls had difficulty learning Latin).
Actually what Caesar said was the Gauls had a great deal of ease understanding his Latin dispatches, and for this reason he wrote them in Greek. Whether this was due to the Gauls, from a fair exposure to Latin Masaillot traders and were bilingual, or because of similarity between Gallic and Latin is never explained.
> We know Latin and Celtic are as different as Latin and > Greek, but 2000 years ago, the time span was not that great, and yes,
it
> seems a native Latin-speaker could have probably figured out Celtic
very
> quickly.
Latin and Celtic seem to have been closer than many other Indo-European languages certainly. The divergence seems to have been about the time of the Urnfield Cultures of about 15-1100 BCE. Regards John