Re: Celtic/Germanic

No.

It was Romance that replaced Celtic in Gaul and Iberia. Only in
Britain did Germanic take over.

For the success of Germanic in what is now Germany, I think Gaius
Julius Caesar bears some responsibilty; he rearranged the linguistic
furniture, so to say, in Gaul. His body counts, exaggerated or not,
were awesome.

The Celts were active east of the Rhine as well, but the docilation of
the western Celts left a power vacuum. Since Rome kept itself west of
the Rhine, the Germans expanded into the Danube valley.

At a certain point, the east-west Celtic Continuum followed the
Seine-Danube axis. This was broken by Roman power, in Spain, and in
Gaul.

--- In cybalist@..., "Joseph S Crary" <pva@...> wrote:
> > 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
>
> This is about the way I see it too
>
> thats one reason Celt was replaced by German in Germany
>
>
> JS Crary