Re: Mapping the Origins and Expansion of the Indo-European Language

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham" <richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

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> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "shivkhokra" <shivkhokra@> wrote:
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> > a) German is attested in runic inscriptions from 2nd century A.D. Is it true that nobody knew or interacted with German speakers prior to 2nd century A.D?
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> No. Caligula had a German bodyguard, and Tacitus's Germania was completed at the end of the 1st century A.D. Caesar wrote a bit about them in the 1st Century A.D.
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Ok. So Germanic was in an interacting sphere with the Romans.

> > b) We hear of Proto Germanic being the ancestor of Germanic. Won't it be a better possibility that Germanic descended from an existing language prior to 2nd century A.D rather than being a branch in itself?
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> There was plenty of room for unattested languages, especially as the Greeks and Romans weren't interested in foreign languages.
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> > c) How is it determined that a language is a separate branch?
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> By observing that it doesn't fit. This can be tricky - Slavic may turn out to be a branch of Baltic!
>

Can you please explain what do you mean by "fit"?
What would be a few salient features of Germanic which does not make it "fit"?

-Shivraj