--- In cybalist@..., "Christopher Gwinn" <sonno3@...> wrote:
> Joseph wrote:
> I don't think it is at all certain what language the people in you
> Istvaeonic group spoke. The Nemetes and Triboci may have been
Celtic -
> but the others are very likely to have been Germanic speakers with
a
> Celticized elite (just as the later omano-Britons were Celtic
> speaking with a Romanized elite that took Latin names and created
> monuments with Latin inscriptions on them, etc). You need to
actually
> cite some evidence when making grand statements like this.
>
> - Chris Gwinn
Re: who is Celtic and who Germanic:
From the little I know of Celtic languages, with respect to "style"
they fit the stereotypical description of things Celtic: Extravagant,
when not downright suppletive then extremely complicated paradigms, a
typical elite language, that it would take a lifetime to learn
properly (and I am pretty sure a good deal of the decade-long
education of druids included Pan.nini-like rules learnt by heart),
the kind of language students flee from at school, if they have any
other interest than language for language's sake. And also
diversified - each Celtic tribe would have a linguistic axe to grind
with the neighbor tribe. Compare that to early Germanic which
compared to some rival IE languages looks like a simplified trade
language - a creole. The result is that if Celtic tribes are
displaced and in contact with as yet unknown to them other Celtic
tribes, they will try Germanic, much as Europeans today will use
English on vacation, no matter where.
If this were the case, it would be difficult for Roman writers to
distinguish which tribe was Celtic and which Germanic, and so it was.
Just a thought.
Torsten