Europa Vasconica-Europa Semitica: Theo Vennemann, Gen. Nierfeld, in:
Patrizia Noel Aziz Hanna (Ed.), Trends in Linguistics, Studies and
Monographs 138, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, 2003, pp. xxii + 977.
Authors: Baldi, Philip1
phb@...
Page, B. Richard2
Source: Lingua; Dec2006, Vol. 116 Issue 12, p2183-2220, 38p
Document Type: Article
Subject Terms: *AFROASIATIC languages
*BASQUE language
*GEOLOGY, Stratigraphic -- Pleistocene
*HYDRONYMY
*INDO-Europeans
*LANGUAGE & languages
*METHODOLOGY
*THEORY
Geographic Terms: EUROPE
Author-Supplied Keywords: The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED )
The Oxford Latin Dictionary ( OLD )
Abstract: Abstract: In this review article we evaluate Theo
Vennemann's provocative theories on the role of Afroasiatic and
Vasconic (e.g. Basque) languages in the pre-historic development of
Indo-European languages in Europe as presented in the volume Europa
Vasconica-Europa Semitica, a collection of 27 of Vennemann''s essays.
First, Vennemann argues that after the last ice age most of Central
and Western Europe was inhabited by speakers of Vasconic languages,
the only survivor of which is Basque. These speakers formed a
substrate to the later-arriving Indo-Europeans. The primary evidence
for the presence of Vasconic throughout much of Europe is drawn from
the Old European hydronyms originally identified by Hans Krahe as
Indo-European and reanalyzed by Vennemann as Vasconic. Second,
Vennemann maintains that Afroasiatic speakers colonized coastal
regions of Western and Northern Europe beginning in the fifth
millennium BCE. According to his theory, these speakers formed a
superstrate or adstrate in Northern Europe and had a profound impact
on the lexical and structural development of Germanic. In the British
Isles the language of these colonizers, which Vennemann calls
"Semitidic" (also "Atlantic"), had a strong substratal influence on
the structural development of Insular Celtic. In this essay we examine
the evidence for and against Vennemann's theories and his methodology.
[ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR; Copyright 2006 Elsevier]
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean
Studies, 108 Weaver Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA
2Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, 311
Burrowes Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA
ISSN: 0024-3841
DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2005.03.011
Accession Number: 22797837
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