Re: [tied] Re: Check out Origin of Ancient Languages

--- tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
is it possible that there was once a

> dialect
> > > continuum on the
> > > South shore of the Baltic between the Baltic
> (Old
> > > Prussian) languages
> > > in (East) Prussia and the (Old) Germanic
> languages
> > > of Denmark and
> > > Sweden, a continuum that was breached by a
> Celtic
> > > colonization of the
> > > South shore (cf. Tacitus' remark that the Aestii
> > > spoke a language
> > > similar to that of the Britons)?
> >
> > (GK:) I think we should be careful in not
> reading
> > too much into Tacitus' remark that the "Aestii"
> spoke
> > a language like that of the Britons. This is a
> > statement of the same category, it seems to me as
> > Strabo's (if I remember correctly) comment that
> the
> > Romans called the Germans "Germani" because the
> latter
> > were "genuine Celts". The only thing I could think
> off
> > to explain Tacitus was the possibility that some
> form
> > of Celtic could have played the role of lingua
> franca
> > along the Amber road as late as the 1rst c.
> AD.
> > >
>
> In at least Caesar's time, archaeologically there is
> the same culture
> on both sides of the Rhine, I believe I read
> somewhere. That means
> Strabo's remark would make sense (although it
> wouldn't be true),
> since the Celts on the right bank of the Rhine would
> be free Celts.

*****GK: Cf. below. Strabo is not comparing free and
unfree Celts but Celts and Germans.*****

> It all mixes beautifully with a Germanic
> colonization of the area of
> Germania at that time. Which I'm not the first to
> suggest.

******GK: Here is the passage from Strabo (VII.1.2):

"Now the parts beyond the Rhenus, immediately after
the country of the Celti, slope towards the east and
are occupied by the Germans, who, though they vary
slightly from the Celtic stock in that they are
wilder, taller, and have yellower hair, are in all
other respects similar, for in build, habits, and
modes of life they are such as I have said the Celti
are. And I also think that it was for this reason that
the Romans assigned to them the name �Germani,� as
though they wished to indicate thereby that they were
�genuine� Galatae, for in the language of the Romans
�germani� means �genuine.�" ******



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