Re: Spread of Early Germanic

Piotr wrote:
<<What we know for sure is that Gothic differs from NW Germanic, and the
taxonomic position of the undocumented dead languages is inevitably
conjectural. The geographical configuration of the linguistically enigmatic
Germanic peoples plus, occasionally, linguistic features fossilised in tribal
and personal names suggest that at least some of them were non-NWG. As I
said, the whole thing was not so much a split as the emergence of the NWG
cluster against the background of dialects that we call collectively "East
Germanic" for the sake of convenience.>>

But Gothic did some development of its own, am I right? I mean that it is
not Proto-Germanic. So one might see a splitting in that sense, especially
if we leave other East Germanic languages off for now as conjectural.

And, if I understand you correctly, you are saying there was a continuum of
dialects that spread geographically to the point that NW characteristics
could not extend as far as those outlying Germanic dialects that would become
"East" or non-NW.

Let me ask then, given that Germanic "appears" to reach the eastern Danube or
Black Sea about the 2d Century BC, is it possible that the reach of the NW
core was not limited by simple distance, but rather by separation?

I understand that the conjectural non-NW status of intervening tribes might
provide a continuum of dialects all the way to the Black Sea or at least to
Gothic. But if early Gothic is not on the Black Sea at this point (the NW
emergence - 200BC?), where would it have been along that continuum?

The reason I'm asking this is because I'm looking for a hard separation
between NW and East, rather than a dialectical continuum where NW's influence
simply tapered off geographically. More like the situation between, say, the
break in Slavic between northern and southern Europe. If a geographical
break could account for the difference between Gothic and NW, then doesn't
that also match the historical distribution of the languages when they are
finally are attested?

So the basic question is, I guess, how sure is it that the "background" of
dialects that would become "non-NW" had to exist in say 200 BC? Could there
simply have been a distinct geographical separation between the two branches?
Especially because NW and Gothic are all we are really left with for sure
when the languages become historical?

Remember that what I'm originally asking about is what one would be allowed
to think, given what we don't and do know (...entertaining possibilities)
about whether Gothic could have originated in south Europe before the time of
the historical "Goths."

Also, why do you call Bastarnae and Skiri "para-Germanic?"

Thanks,
Steve Long