Re: Uralic Continuity Theory ; Paleo-Germanic lexical borrowings in

But that is not a fact, it is a convention. The null hypothesis, so to
speak, that lkanguages don't move unless we can prove orherwise. I'm
not basing this on Snorri alone, there are other things:

1) Why do Caesar and Tacitus state that the Germani had never been
heard of before?

2) Why do earlier Greek and Roman writers never mention anything
recognizably Germanic from the areas where Caesar and Tacitus know
them and where they live today?

3) Why would the Germanic language family that was supposedly stable
for thousands of years suddenly break up 2000 years ago?

4) Is it not more likely that such a breakup would occur if there had
been a rapid expansion of its original area at that time?

In short, I think the Germanic language is a product of the Przeworsk
or Oder-Warthe group. Whatever contact existed between Germanic and
Finnish pre-Grimm, ie loans with substitutions 'Gmc.' -> Finn., must
have taken place there or further east. And given that one can argue
for a Fennic substrate for all of Balto-Slavic, not just for Russian,
perhaps that's not so impossible.

Torsten

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Another possible "homeland" for proto-Germanic
is the Petchura Valley North-East of the Volga.

In this scenario, Germanic speakers were pushed
westward by the expansion of Proto-Fenno-Permic
from the Ob downstream Valley to the West

Germanic and Fenno-Permic shifted to the west.
Fenno-PErmic occupies the former place of Germanic
and Germanic erased the substrate.
And Germanic entered Scandinavia from the North.
Before it "over-spilled" into Danemark. ETc

Arnaud

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