So the top might have 10 - 25% might have spoken Germanic, the rest Venetic and Slavic?
****GK: The "top top" probably spoke as much Celtic as Germanic, and almost certainly (:=)) "Illyrian" when Bastarnia was constituted. In the period 200-50 BCE, this trilingualism may have been preserved for a time in group 1, depending on the linguistic nature of the Scordiscan influx after the Balkan wars (since the "local" group 1 substrate was already largely "Illyrian" (Venetic?). If the influx was not strongly Celtic, the "top top" situation in group 1 would have evolved into Germanic-"Illyrian" bilingualism. In group 2 the influence of the "locals" was probably larger, because of their historical and continuing strong economic ties to the southern Graeco-Iranic world. The likelihood of Celtic and "Illyrian" losing ground before Germanic and BaltoSlavic is fairly good here. In group 3 BaltoSlavic would have been quite significant and perhaps dominant among the "top top" from the very beginning, along with
Germanic. The situation after 50 BCE remains to be discussed.*****
>So there was an immigration-driven increase in Germanic-speakers in Bastarnia in the 1st cent. BCE.
****GK: That is not certain for northern Bastarnia at that time. What can be said is that the atmosphere was not unfriendly to immigration from more westerly areas, but there is no evidence of cultural retention. The evidence is very strong (including cultural retention) for the 1rst c. CE, esp. after the mid-century, and prior to the arrival of the Goths and Gepids. As shall see, this immigration affected the part of northern Bastarnia which functioned in the period 200-50 BCE. But boundaries began to shift and expand thereafter.*****