Re: was The Finnic issue

I prefer to consider NWB as a late dialect of Continental Belgic. At this point I have no criteria for distinguishing Insular from Continental Belgic, or internal dialectal differences, so I am just covering bases here. There may well be too little surviving information to draw any plausible inferences. As for the position of Belgic within Indo-European, my working hypothesis is that it belongs with Illyrian (sensu lato), so the closest well-attested language to it would be Messapic. We do have an apa-Name down there, <Salapia> (not 'salt-water', but 'involving tide-water or overflowing water') as well as <Messapia> itself, perhaps 'place in the midst of water'.

DGK

Does Salamanca fit into this anyway?