15-09-03 06:17, Michael J Smith wrote:
> What do think of the proposed Nordwestgruppen Indo-European,
Depends on the chronological frame. Non-Celtic and non-Germanic groups
must have existed here and there before the spread of these two.
Actually, Italic is an example of a major group that must have had
ancestors somewhere in Central Europe. Toponymic evidence suggests that
the Germani arrived in some areas surprisingly late, when Grimm's Law
was no longer a productive process, (i.e., approximately in Roman
times), and that the original source of the toponyms was not Celtic
(i.e. if they have IE etymologies for their initial *p). The area you're
talking about is claimed to have had non-Celtic toponymy, but this may
simply mean that the Celts came there relatively late, so that common
Celtic sound changes did not affect the old toponyms adopted by the
newcomers (speakers of P-Celtic were surely able to adopt them!). This
may have happened well before the Romans, or even the Belgae, came along.
> but non-Celtic and non-Germanic language thought to have been spoken
> by the Belgae before they became Gallicised, and based on place names
> between the Aller and Somme. This is covered in the Times Historical
> Atlas. And maybe this could be supported by Caesar's statement that
> the Gauls, Belgae and Aquitanians all spoke different languages.
I see no real foundation for any such claims about the Belgae. The
question has been discussed on the Continental Celtic list, and I fully
agree with Chris Gwinn's reservations.
Piotr