From: celteuskara@...
Message: 9070
Date: 2001-09-05
>Just for the record, that's different from my view.And so our Odin becomes something of an analogue to the Celtic Brennus/Bran who pops up in chronologically impossible places whenever Celtic spreads somewhere. This is an interesting parallel phenomenon, eh?
>I think proto-Germanic was first used by some traders on the Russian
>rivers when trading at the European watershed around the Tanew river,
>as I think Piotr suggested. This is the area where according to
>classical Greek writers Celtic and Scythic clash. (Celto-Scythic
>bastardisation). In my view it was at first a pidgin language, but
>possibly became a creole as people settled permanently in the
>transshipment area. It was one of the twelve languages Snorri
>mentions. When Odin (or whoever he was) left with his followers
>(from the city of Tanais?) around 70 BCE to avoid the invasion of
>Pompey he left behind what was to become the East Germanic speakers.
>He arrived in Thuringia and set up a kingdom and distributed land to
>his followers. They used there the creole that they used to use in
>the area closest to their new home, ie. Germanic. This was the
>beginning of West Germanic languages.Odin then moved on to Odense,
>set up a kingdom and distributed land there and sent an expedition to
>Sweden. This was the beginning of the North Germanic languages.
>Snorri in the Prolog says that the language of the invaders became
>the language of the land. The fragmentation and elitism of the Celtic
>languages favored the spread of the new creole (even today, no matter
>how fervently nationalist a Welshman and Irishman are, when they
>communicate, it is in English). Also, the Celtic tribes were weakened
>and scattered by the Cimbric invasions. In short, the story of
>England was just a repeat performance.
>This, I think would match Caesar's first being aware of distinction
>between the Galli and the Germani (true Galli) around 59 BCE.
>
>Torsten
>
>Vae victis.Email just got more fun @ another.com