Affects of immigrant communities in language change

From: Glen Gordon
Message: 8392
Date: 2001-08-08

First to Marc... Please do not confuse "IndoTyrrhenian", the
ancestor of IndoEuropean and Tyrrhenian languages combined, and
"Tyrrhenian", which is simply the language group of Etruscan,
Lemnian and Rhaetic. IndoTyrrhenian would be found c. 7000 BCE
in a region to the north of the Black Sea nearer the IE homeland.
Tyrrhenian would be centred in Eastern Europe by 5500-5000 BCE
with EtruscoLemnian to the south of this region (Balkans), and
Rhaetic to the north.

Now on to JS...

He writes:
>Anyhow indirectly i've noticed a major flaw in the
>Etruscan-Raetian language group theory. I think its
>insurmountable. The problem is all of the evidence from the Raetian region
>(inscriptions) date to the period after the period
>Etruscan and/or Gallic intrusion.

And this is an insurmountable flaw? The writing system for Rhaetic
is the same as that of Etruscan (because it was borrowed from them).
The Etruscan writing system itself, from which Latin's alphabet is
known to derive, has clear ties to the Eastern Mediterranean and the
Greek alphabet. Inscriptions tell us nothing except that Rhaetic was
present in Northern Italy at a certain time period. The reason why
Rhaetic should have been written at a late date is obvious - It took
a while for the Etruscan writing system to be adopted and adapted
for those writingless Rhaetic heathens :P

>Using the huff-beat, horses, not zebras logic, a more likely
>explanation would be these were the result of northern Etruscan
>influence, either associated with Etruscan expansion into the Po
>Basin, or their dispersal after the Celt intrusion.

Etruscan simply doesn't come from Northern Italy and there are
two classical Greek authors with seemingly opposite points of
view that can be reconciled in order to support my wonderfully
psychotic ideas on Rhaetic and Etruscan - Dionysus of
Halicarnassus and Herodotus.

In other words, Grandmaster Dio was really speaking of Rhaetic
origins while DJ Dotus was speaking of the Etruscan. Simple.
Problem solved. Now everyone can sleep with ease at nights knowing
that gLeNny gEe saved the day.

So I don't see what insurmountable problems you could be
possibly referring to. Perhaps you can elaborate further... or
you could surrender :)

-------------------------------------------------
gLeNny gEe
...wEbDeVEr gOne bEsErK!

home: http://glen_gordon.tripod.com
email: glengordon01@...
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