Re: Hercynian (again)

At 6:35:55 AM on Friday, March 2, 2012, Tavi wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> <bm.brian@...> wrote:

>>> There's a strong tendence to forget about minority
>>> languages in atlases and text books. Too often the
>>> winners make active efforts to erase the traces of
>>> "loser" language, for example, by translating
>>> alloglottic toponyms to their own language and even
>>> people names.

>> This can happen, yes. The degree to which it happens
>> varies greatly, however, and the winning language isn't
>> always that of the winning people.

> But you can't ignore IE languages have been and are still
> (see e.g. Anthony's book subtitle: "How Bronze-Age riders
> from the Eurasian Steppes shaped the Modern World") too
> often represented as being spoken by warfare aristocracies
> who imposed their language to non-IE speaking people by
> military conquest.

I frankly don't much care: I'm interested in the linguistics
first and the archaeology second. Moreover, not having read
Anthony's book, I have no idea whether it actually presents
the early spread of IE languages in the way that you suggest
on the basis of the subtitle; I certainly don't trust your
judgement on that score after what you've written here.

Brian