[gothic-l] Re: The Scandinavian Origin of the Goths and Other Germanic Peoples

[Anthony Appleyard]

From: dirk at smra.co.uk wrote:-
> ... but it is more likely that proto-Germans moved to
> Scandinavia (before Gothic and other tribal identities were formed). ...

Or the speakers of the ancestor of the Common Germanic language did so.
Likeliest, a branch of the speakers of the Common Indo-European language,
spreading gradually from their original home on the steppes of south Russia,
invaded the south of Scandinavia and became its ruling class, very many
centuries BC. Over a few centuries they imposed their language and suppressed
whatever language the natives spoke before.

Those natives would themselves have had to come in from outside, a long time
before that, when or after the first Homo sapiens came to the area. The
characteristic features of Nordic peoples would have evolved in the area:-
  I saw an experiment on TV once that showed that blue eyes see better in
faint light and brown eyes see better in glare.
  People need Vitamin D to avoid rickets. The body can make its own, but one
stage needs ultraviolet light. Thus the skin had to evolve as pale as possible
to let enough sun through it despite clouds and clothes and dull weather.
In hotter sunnier lands further south, such things did not keep the sun off
the skin so much.


-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
Get free updates on your stocks from any phone with Tellme!
Click here and you can even personalize these quotes!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9536/8/_/3398/_/970223098/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>.
Homepage: http://www.stormloader.com/carver/gothicl/index.html