Re: Why did Proto-Germanic break up?

Given the Norse influence on Scottish Gaelic toponymy and lexis in the
historical era, how would you detect prehistoric Germanic presence in
the Hebrides? When you weed out the loans that are obviously from a
later distinctively Norse era, what's left that looks unmistakably
Germanic?

Jim Rader

> But then, I seem to recall that the names of geographical features in
> the Western Isles of Scotland (a) have non-Gaelic(/non-Celtic) names,
> which (b) appear to suggest a NW Germanic speech presence there in the
> perhaps 200 years before the common era. Or is the date derived from
> a view of the splitting up of Germanic?
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
> Gordon
> <gordonselway@...>