The Neolithic Hypothesis

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

"Eduard Selleslagh" <edsel at glo.be> wrote:

>On the other hand: I am not so sure the migration started only after the
>collapse of Roman power.

This is true.  Or we can say that the collapse itself was a
gradual thing (especially in that part of the world, with the
Franks accepted into Roman territory as "foederatii" as early as
AD 358).

>>>As to 'northwestern Germanic', I am very, very skeptical about that idea.

>>If you say Anglian was "in between Danish and Low German", I
>>don't see how you can be that skeptical.

>[ES]

>I was referring to the graphically rather confusing diagram of McCallister,
>that seems to suggest 'NW Germanic' to be a common child of NE and W
>Germanic, before the split of NE into N and E Germanic.  Probably, that
>interpretation of the diagram was wrong. In that case : sorry.

The diagram was mine. Here it is again:

           Proto-Germanic
          /              \
     West Germanic       North-East Germanic
                  \     /                   \
            ("North-West Germanic")       East Germanic
                  /     \
     West Germanic      North Germanic

I tried (by using both quotes and parentheses) to indicate that
"North-West Germanic" is not in the same category,
Stammbaum-wise, as North-East Germanic (see Larry's message on
Dixon/Ross/convergence/divergence, etc.)

Maybe without labeling...

           Proto-Germanic
          /              \
     West Germanic       North-East Germanic
                  \     /                   \
                   \   /                     \
                    ) (                     East Germanic
                   /   \
                  /     \
     West Germanic      North Germanic

Compare Malcolm Ross' diagram for Fijian-Polynesian, where he
uses ==== to denote a dialect continuum or "linkage":

              Central Pacific linkage
 ===========================================
         |                         |
         |                         |
 West Fijian linkage    Tokelau-Polynesian linkage
 ===================    ==========================
         |                  |                  |
         |                  |                  |
         |       Tokelau-Fijian linkage   Proto-Polynesian
         |       ======================
         |                  |
         |                  |
         |  Fijian linkage  |
 ======================================

As in the case of Germanic, this explains the shared innovations
between East Fijian (Tokelau means "East") and Polynesian [when
both were on East Fiji, relatively separated from West Fiji], as
well as those between West and East Fijian to the exclusion of
Polynesian [due to renewed contact between West and East Fiji
after Proto-Polynesian had left].

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl
Amsterdam