Re: Celts & Cimmerians

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "wtsdv" <liberty@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>

wrote:

> >
> > I have yet to hear two Europeans of the same "folk" using any
> > other language but their own in ordinary conversation. There's
> > a distinction between "being able to speak" and "speak".
>
> Glen has already mentioned the American aboriginals,

It struck me when I travelled in the USA and Canada in 1979 that the
various 'nations' fell into two categories: Either they'd given up
their language and their society was in shambles as they were
themselves (Crows), or they were well-organised in an almost Chinese
or Japanese fashion (Navahos).

> and the Australian aboriginals could be included as
> well. I also have a friend who moved to Canada from
> Ossetia only a few years ago, and he insists that there
> are "at least 100-150 thousands" of the sort of younger
> Ossete who can speak only Russian, and that their numbers
> are growing fast. This is in Ossetia itself, not just
> among the diaspora.
>
> > As for those Cimbri changing language: They even changed their
> > bosses' names to Celtic: Teutobodus, Boiorix etc. Finds in Denark
> > from that time are also Celtic. Odd.
>
> I don't know anything about that. I was only making
> a point to Alex about what is not only possible, but
> also very common.
>

And you're probably right too. The Cimbri and Teutones picked up all
kinds of other 'folks' on the way, among them the Helvetians, so
there was probably a Celtic 'camp language' spoken among them. Note
that Sertorius is able to pass himself off as one of them, as in a
bad English or American WWII spy movie; obviously the members of the
Cimbric host must have been accustomed to all kinds of odd accents
(or versions of their language). So the incidence of Plutarch's
biography of Sertorius can't be used alone to prove that the Cimbri
in their homeland weren't Germanic-speaking. On the other hand not
much speaks for it either.

Torsten