Renfrew's Celtic Scenario

[petegray]

> the verbal morphology of Mycenaean and Sanskrit are much closer than
> English and German.

I think you are underestimating the similarity of German and English.

(a) the overall pattern of the verb is remarkably similar:  present, simple
past (with strong & weak forms); past participle (strong and weak forms);
future formed by modal verb + infinitive etc.

(b) largely, strong verbs in English are also strong verbs in German, with
similar patterns.
      come, came, come
  kommen, kam, gekommen  etc etc

(c) Even where the patterns for particular verbs are different, they are
mostly recognisably present in English:  eg the -en ending on strong
participles: begotten etc.

(d) subjunctive formed similarly, even if much more restricted in English:
If I were ... (ich waere)

(d) English of a slightly earlier time (still intelligible today) shows good
similarities in person endings, eg:
Thou hast, thou makest;  she hath, she maketh
du hast,  du machst,   sie hat,  sie macht

Peter