Re: [tied] Affects of immigrant communities in language change

There was obviously something going on in Scandinavia early on.

I am rather murky on the details, but there were fine supplies of
easily recovered flint in Jutland which seem to have been widely
traded. With flint being cheaper, more easily obtained, and for most
purposes, just as good as copper or bronze, there is good economic
reason for the bronze age to be delayed. Superficially, it's as if
Scandinavia/North Germany went from the Eneolithic straight to the
Iron Age.

The origins of Germanic are obscure and controversial. The picture I
get is of a language community in deep isolation; it picks up a good
number of borrowings from an adjacent non-IE language, and perhaps
even absorbs these people, but otherwise maintains itself remarkably
well. The usual picture is to put Germanic in Jutland and Southern
Sweden/Norway: this certainly would allow Germanic a long period of
linguistic isolation.

--- In cybalist@..., jpisc98357@... wrote:
> In a message dated 8/5/01 5:01:55 AM Central Daylight Time, h5@...
> > 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.
> >
> > Dear Hakan,
> >
> > I suspect these pre-Germanic peoples were those intrepid flint
knappers
> > of the Danish and Swedish Neolithic who produced fine axes and
daggers well
> > into the period when the rest of Europe was well into the Bronze
Age. My
> > suspicion is that some pockets of this more ancient culture
survived and
> > thrived on islands like Gotland that were large enough to support
an
> > independent economy, probably based on fishing.
> >
> > I would assume that they would have slowly adopted the metals
> > technology of their new neighbors.
> >
> > An interesting question to pose might be whether the oldest
German
> > tribes were already Bronze Age when they colonized Scandanavia?
Did they
> > simply infiltrate the existing Late Neolithic areas peacefully or
did they
> > conquer the area and displace the local residents? Did a small
band of
> > warriors intrude into the area and simply become overlords of the
> > indiginous population? I am copying friends with extensive
knowledge of the
> > Neolithic weapons and hope they will find these questions
interesting and
> > be able to shed some light on the questions.
> >
> > I am a historian looking at these questions from a differing
perspective
> > than our linguist friends. Perhaps they can find some language
clues that
> >
>
> Best regards, John Piscopo
> http://www.johnpiscoposwords.com
> PO Box 137
> Western Springs, IL 60558-0137
> (708)246-7111