22-10-03 13:09, tgpedersen wrote:
> As far as I know, most agree that Proto-Germanic broke up into West,
> East and North Germanic around the beginning of our era (between 1
> BCE and 1 CE). Of course I have my own scenario of how that happened,
> but I would like know what in the "standard version" is the cause or
> occasion why this should happen (migration? war? communication
> breakdown? common agreement that this would be a good idea?) after
> such a long time of common develæopment?
Pre-Germanic may have broken up any number of times before the breakup
we're discussing. To my knowledge, nobody claims that the ancestors of
the Germani spent all the time between PIE and the breakup of PGmc. just
sitting there and waiting for the right moment to split. It's quite
possible that earlier splits had produced languages that did not survive
to be documented, related more closely to Germanic than to any other
extant branch -- I call such hypothetical groups "para-Germanic". The
historically known expansion of the Germani was like the earlier
expansion of the Celts or the later expansion of the Slavs. It was
perhaps made possible by a combination of external opportunities (the
weakening of the Celtic domination of Central Europe?) and the
development of efficient socio-political structures among the Germani
themselves.
Piotr