Re: Hercynian (again)

From: Brian M. Scott
Message: 68789
Date: 2012-03-06

At 10:00:49 AM on Sunday, March 4, 2012, Trond Engen wrote:

> Brian M. Scott:

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

>>> 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.

> He isn't that different from Mallory before him. The
> spread to the Balkans and Bactria came as
> (archaeologically well documented) disruptive intrusions
> of pastoral nomads into the realms of already strained
> city cultures, while the spread to northern and western
> Europe mainly was a "franchise" -- a gradual adoption of
> the cultural package by indigenus populations after their
> leaders joined the IE client system.

Thanks; that's pretty much what I'd understood, but I still
haven't actually seen the book.

Brian