Re: [tied] Re: LIGURIAN AND PICTISH

Well, wouldn't it be smart to say that Celtic speech may have appeared in
the British Isles at a pretty early date, since no non-Celtic languages
have come down to us?

-Michael

On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 18:48:12 -0000 "CG" <sonno3@...> writes:

> > I understand that the so-called "Pictish" and "Ligurian" languages
> > are already classified as Celtic, mind what dialectal form it is,
> > but are you suggesting that the pre-Celtic peoples of Britain and
> > Ireland (before 600 BCE) didn't speak a pre-IE language?
>
> I don't know why you would pick out a random year like 600 AD - but
> personally, I believe that Celtic speech was introduced into Britain
>
> during the late Bronze Age - we don't know what language was spoken
> in Britain before this, but it is entirely possible that the pre-
> Celtic Britons were already speaking a form of Proto-Indo European.
> in the Bronze Age.
>
>
> > The Pictish
> > and Ligurian I was referring to were the pre-IE languages of
> Britain
> > and NW Italy (probably related to Basque), never mind what they
> > should be called. From what I've read (forgive me if I've been
> > misinformed), most of the customs of the Picts weren't anything
> > original Indo-European or "steppish", or even "Tyrrhenian". I'd
> > suggest that the "painted face" and "matrilineal" customs would be
>
> a
> > pre-IE hunter-gatherer substrate rather than a Celtic innovation.
> I
> > don't think steppe peoples would do so. But anyway, that's just
> what
> > I think...
>
> Well, a lot of BS is written about the Picts, so you are excused for
>
> being misinformed - it's hard to find real facts on them. There is
> no
> genuine evidence for matrilineal customs among the Picts, and
> certainly many different IE peoples tatooed themselves at some point
>
> (I have heard of Scandinavians and Scythians tatooing, for example,
> and the mummies of the Tarim Basin, likely ancestors of the
> Tocharians, show evidence of tatooing/face painting). As I have
> already stated, the most recent research on the Pictish and Ligurian
>
> languages suggests that both are Celtic dialects, and not non-IE
> languages.
>
> - Chris Gwinn
>
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