GREEK PREHISTORY AND IE (EVIDENCE?)

[Stefan Georg]

>Depends on the circumstances.
>I suggest to take a look at well-known examples. They should make clear
>that  there are different ways for the spread of languages:

>1) Lang's can be taken over without any migration, merely by way of
>    economical dependence or cultural difference. Examples: The Wedda in S-
>    India, some Pygmy-tribes, the Jakutes in N-Siberia (originally Evenks,
>    who switched to the Turcic Dialect). There is no archeological evidence.

The case of the Yakuts is mere speculation, I'm afraid. It is next to
impossible that the spread of Turkic to the lower Lena was not at least,
say, accompanied by some movement in space of some people, to put it
mildly. To put it less mildly, the assumption in the paragraph above is
simply wrong. Yakut oral traditions have never forgotten about their
earlier more southerly homes, and that their adventure in the North was not
even a smooth and peaceful one is equally well-recorded by Yakut
reminiscences of wars with the Ewenks. The very distance of Yakut to the
their Turkic next-of-kin in Southern Siberia with no trace of the missing
links between Lake Bajkal and the Upper Lena bespeaks the migratory nature
of their northward movement. It is equally  mere conjecture that the Yakuts
are "originally Ewenks". Yakut and Ewenk do show clear signs of areal
convergence, but nothing which would make the assumption of language-switch
Ew. ---> Yak. necessary or even likely. This does of course not preclude
that some Yakut clans were originally Ewenki (or, more likely, Yukaghir)
clans who *have* actually switched their language. If I miss something, I'd
like to learn about it.

Of course, it is correct that language switch does not necessarily involve
large-scale migration, but the gradual shift of economical, political,
cultural and finally linguistic balance you seem to have in mind
presupposes that the populations in question have been neighbours for a
long time, participating in essentially the same (or two mostly
overlapping) social networks. However, the Yakut migration to the north,
beginning roughly in the 12th/13th centuries, was a rather sudden event.
The Wedda and Pygmy-examples are more interesting, but here also I find it
hard to operate without some kind of movement of people. It seems hard to
imagine how the Indo-Aryan language reached the island of beautiful Lanka
without at least some speakers accompanying it and settling down on the
island. Of course, one doesn't have to have in mind the rather naive
picture of a "migration" which consists of "the people" following Moses in
ordered columns. But the renfrewian alternative, the
"wave-of-advance-model" (which is very interesting and should not be thrown
out with the washwater, just because the whole of the Renfrew theory meets
with considerable difficulties; it is more than likely that it may provide
explanations for *some* dislocations of people/cultures/languages in the
Old World. Only which ones is the question), this renfrewian alternative,
though different in detail, *does* involve a movement of concrete people in
space and time, n'est-ce pas ?

>2) Language switching can be caused by a relativlely small class of
>    military rulers. Examples: The Hungrians switching from Getic/Slavic
>    /Ants/Dialects to an Ob-Ugrian lang. But where is the archeological or
>    racial evidence?

The residents of Pannonia switched to a *Ugric* language, the Ob'-Ugric
languages being those the people of Pannonia had no opportunity to switch
to, because the ancestors of today's Khants and Mansis decided to try their
luck further east (which is why the world missed the chance to have an
Austrian empress talking in Ostyak to her servants).

>3) Of cause migrations can be found: Nobody claims the Indo-Aryans to be
>    the original inhabitants of India.

Oh yes, some people do. There is a linguistic/cultural historical school in
India, which, following the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, does exactly say
that. And that Indo-Aryans and Dravidians are the same.

St. G.

PS: I'm not one of them.

Dr. Stefan Georg
home:
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work:
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