Chronology and history of Germanic Consonant Shift

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/13/2001 9:18:17 PM, petegray at btinternet.com writes:

<< For the date of the 1st sound shift, we can use the word Hanf, which
comes from the Greek word kannabis.  This word is a loan word out of
Scythian, which did not enter Greek till the 5th century BC.  In Germanic we
meet the word in its shifted form *hanap-.  Since Germanic could not have
borrowed this word very early, we can assert that at this time the rules *k
> h and *b > p were still in force.  But it does not tell us how long this
rule had existed.  That it no longer was in force in the 3rd and 2nd
centuries before Christ can be concluded from loan words from Latin, >>

Two quick notes:  I think the word first appears in Herodotus and he treats
it as if his audience does not know hemp, comparing it to linen.  But he says
the Thracians know it and are expert at weaving with it.  In "Europe Before
History," Kristiansen describes the evidence for a powerful Scythian push
into central Europe, forcing Halstatt west of the Tisza, with a similar
westward withdrawal in the North.  At the same time, there is some serious
evidence of Scythian contact in Denmark, including a rich royal golden
Scythian necklace found in the bogs.  This happens I believe beginning around
the sixth century BC.

So, though I am inclined to find Greek influences early in northern places,
it appears that *hanap- could have found its way into German at an earlier
time, from Scythian or even Thracian.  As I don't think it is apparent how
Germanic would have borrowed the word from either of these two languages or
some intermediary, or when, the date of the borrowing and the mechanics given
above might be at best a conjecture.

Regards,
Steve Long