From: george knysh
Message: 49701
Date: 2007-08-30
>****GK: Only for minds who identify "political" with
> My own view is that the Somme-Marne boundary of
> "Gallia Belgica" (DBG 1:1) was basically political
> rather than ethnic or linguistic.
>
> A.F
>
> this notion of a "political" boundary is a
> complete projection of modern times' Nation-States
> after the French Revolution of 1789.
>****GK: As did "Gallo-Romans". One needs to study the
>
> Immediately north of
> it resided tribal groups just as "Celtic" or
> "Gallic"
> (if you will) as those of Gallia Celtica, but
> politically associated to, and frequently
> subordinate
> to the northern "invaders" (which explains to me
> Caesar's wording in DBG 1:1). At least half and
> perhaps more than half of the population of Gallia
> Belgica was Gaulish, from the Bellovaci, Remi, and
> Suessiones to the Viromandui and Atrebates.
>
> My view
> (which Torsten is welcome not to share) is that
> everything north and east of the
> Atrebates/Viromandui
> was Germanic-speaking in Caesar's time.
>
> ===================
>
> A.F :
>
> Such an hypothesis crashes on the hard fact that
> many toponyms in this supposed "Germanic" speaking
> area share the same lexical roots and same
> gallo-roman-epoch mould as the typonyms south of
> this place. "Germanic" people arrived later.
>****GK: Were there already clearly distinct Germanic
> And to suppose "Germanic" requires to identify
> which "Germanic" language is involved (ter
> repetitas) ?