Dear John,
Your letters are very kind and your questions are
interesting. I can only say that I'm not able to answer them - they are far
beyond me as I am neither a linguist nor a historian. I'm just on this list
because I'm interested in learning about language
history. I would like to hear the answers to these questions myself.
If I understand your last question correctly,
you're asking if Gotland was populated independently from Sweden and later was
conquered by Swedes and its population assimilated by Swedish-speaking
people. I don't know if that has happened, but that doesn't mean it didn't
happen. All I know is that there are archaeological traces of people living here
long before there was anything that could be called Germanic languages. Some of
them have left beautiful rock carvings (1000 BC) on the Swedish west coast. They
must have belonged to some other, possibly extinct, language family, but who
they were and what they spoke is unknown. Nobody knows (as far as I'm able to
tell) what happened when the Germanic tribes arrived here - if the original
population was conquered or assimilated peacefully. If you find any answers to
your questions, please post them on the list!
All the best,
Hakan
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 11:26
PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Affects of immigrant
communities in language change
Dear Hakan,
Thanks for enhancing my
understanding. One last question about the
Baltic islands and I will
leave you in peace for now. Is there evidence that
Gotland was occupied
independently and had a language or dialect
significantly different from
their contemporaries on the mainland and that
they were eventually
conquered and assimilated after a long period of
independence?
Best regards, John Piscopo
http://www.johnpiscoposwords.com
PO Box 137
Western Springs, IL
60558-0137
(708)246-7111
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