Reference on Numbers of Saxons

[Tristan Jones]

This message was originally submitted by Tristan at MAIL.SCM-RPG.COM.AU to the
INDO-EUROPEAN list at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG.

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>In Britain not only did the local Celtic and Romance speeches disappear,
>but the Anglo-Saxon that emerged after the conversion to Christianity was
>singularly lacking in both Romance and Celtic vocabulary.  About 14 Celtic
>loan-words in all, and no more Latin loans than the continental Germanic of
>the period.

That is it in itself is suprising, we must ask this question, Was Latin or a
dialect of it spoken by the common people (not just the elite) in Britain
around 5th century, like in Gaul, where a similar although might be smaller
mirgation of Germanic speakers arrived around fall of Roman Empire. I think
Latin was an language of elite only in Britain, would things be different if
a Brito-Romance language was spoken by the common people instead of Celtic
languages.

>Yet there's less Celtic influence on Old English than there is Algonquian
>Indian influence on the English of New England!  Indian place-names and
>loan-words are more common there, despite what we know was an extremely
>brusque dispossession of the previous population and very limited contact
>between the incomers and the indigenous people.

Same here in Australia, there are many Aboriginal words from many languages
that have influenced Australian English and many Aboriginal place names as
well.

>We also know that there was a very substantial drop in the population of
>post-Roman Britain.  Estimates for Britannia in the late Roman period --
>4th century CE -- range as high as 3.5 million or more.

>By the time of the Norman conquest (a period for which we have unusually
>good historical-demographic documentation) England had about 1.5 million
>people; and that was after several centuries of what's generally agreed
>upon to be steady expansion.

Means Britian's population in that era could have dropped from around 2.5
million people (most likely estimate) to about 1 million and possibly a very
low Celtic speaking population if we want the Anglo-Saxons to be about
30-50% the population order to compeltely wipe out the Celtic language and
replace it with West Germanic. We must ask the question how could a large
population decline that far? what were the causes of it?

I know I hate asking this sort of question, however I must ask it
Did the Anglo-Saxon arrivals slaughter and do genocide on Celtic peoples of
Britanna before settleing in new areas.