Re: Renfrew's theory renamed as Vasco-Caucasian

> > As a koine, Runic was hardly older than the the use of
> > runes.
>
> If the early runic inscriptions do represent a NWGmc.
> written koine, as suggested by Makaev, then the spoken
> dialects had obviously already at least begun to diverge,
> and the written koine very likely *was* more conservative.

Runic would be an elite language, and the masses spoke creolized
versions of it, if at all. One way or another we have to explain why
the four-case, three-gender, person-and-number-inflecting OE, ON, OS
were replaced by languages with one/two cases, two/one genders and
reduced person and number inflexion.

> >>> and Grimm hasn't yet happened in some locales in Western
> >>> Germania in Caesar's time, so much later, eg. 50 BCE.
>
> >> Geographic spread alone is a good indication that
> >> noticeable dialect differentiation must have begun
> >> earlier than that.
>
> > Obviously you must have some idea of dispersion speed of
> > your own.
>
> The maps that I've seen of Gmc. peoples ca. 300-250 BCE show
> them covering a large enough area to imply a certain amount
> of dialect differentiation.

That would be Jastorf. That culture disappears appr. 50 BCE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jastorf_culture


Torsten