Re: [tied] Re: Non-IE elements in Scandinavian

Could these "Pre-Nordic" and "Pre-Laponic" be related to Dene-Caucasian
group? Does the genetical evidence tell us something about these peoples?

Joao SL
Rio

----- Original Message -----
From: John Croft <jdcroft@...>
To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2000 1:30 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Non-IE elements in Scandinavian


>
> Hi Thomas
>
> You wrote
> > As a speaker of Norwegian, German and English, I have noticed that
> > Norwegian (and the other north-germanic languages) have a wealth of
> > words which don't exist in other languages. Certainly any language
> > will have unique words, but there are just too many to be a
> > coincidence.
> >
> > My theory is that when IE settlers came to Scandinavia, they had to
> > live in peace and harmony with the aboriginal population because of
> > the harsh climate here. To survive, they had to learn new skills
> > from the natives. For a long period of time they lived side by
> side,
> > and the Indo-europeans took up a large number of native words.
> Since
> > very few words in modern Norwegian bear any resemblance to Uralic
> > words, I doubt the pre-IE language was Uralic.
> >
> > What kind of language did they have? Would it be possible to get a
> > glimpse of this (or these) ancient language(s) by searching modern
> > Scandinavian languages and Icelandic for non-IE elements?
> >
> > Examples of unique Sc. words: fjell = mountain, jente = girl, hav =
> > ocean, furu = pine, ekorn = squirrel, ørret = trout, tjern =
> pond,
> > rar = strange/funny, nes = tiny peninsula, skog = forest
>
> Interesting observation.
>
> I have seen a paper on the net drawing attention to the interesting
> fact that aparently the Saami also have a high proportion of words
> that are not Uralic, in origin suggesting s substrate language. Some
> have suggested that the language of the Ertebolle culture of Denmark
> and North Germany (Derived from the late Ice Age Swidderian groups)
> was the language of the first farmers of Scandinavia. There is a
> spread of coastal fisherfolk stretching north with the warming of
> climates in the Sub-Atlantic phase, leading to eventual settlement in
> the arctic as Sammi people.
>
> Regards
>
> John
>
>
>
>