No Proto-Celtic?

[Ante Aikio]

[I originally wrote:]

> These claims would of course deserve no attention from the scientific
> community, were it not that Kalevi Wiik has actively publicized them in
> the Finnish media, and also quite succesfully managed to market them as a
> "linguistic breakthrough" to some archeologists, geneticists and
> historians. Thus, in the recent years Uralists have been forced to mount
> an attack against the "Anti-Uralists", and this may deceptivily look like
> a serious scientific debate to non-linguists. I sure hope the situation
> with Celtic isn't as bad.

Interestingly, just after I happened to mention Kalevi Wiik in the
connection of the discussion on Proto-Celtic, it was pointed out to me in
private correspondence that Wiik is currently also an active supporter of
the "Celtic lingua franca" theory. The following passage is quoted from
Wiik's abstract of his paper "On the Origins and History of the Celts",
which will be read at the "International Colloquium on Early Contacts
between English and the Celtic Languages" (University of Joensuu Research
Station, Mekrijärvi, Finland, 24-26 August, 2001):

  "The first Celts, therefore, are the Basque-speaking hunters of western
Europe who adopted agriculture and the IE language from the LBK culture
and the Impressed Ware cultures. The area formed a chain of Celtic
dialects: in the north (Rhine area) the dialects were based on the LBK
(Central European) dialect of the IE language, while in the south (eastern
Iberia and southern France), they were based on the Impressed Ware
(Mediterranean) dialect of that language. In addition, the substrata of
the non-IE languages were different along the chain of the Celtic
dialects: the northern dialect had a Basque substratum, while the more
southern dialects had a Basque, Iberian, or Tartessian substratum. The
result was the following chain of Celtic dialects/languages: Lusitanian -
Celtiberian - Gaul - Lepontic.
  During the Bell Beaker period (c. 2800-1800 BC), the Celtic language was
used as a lingua franca by the populations of Western Europe. It was the
language of the élite of the Copper Age (Bronze Age). The centre of the
Celtic world was in the Únìtice culture in 1800-1500 BC, in the Urnfield
culture in 1200-800 BC, in the Hallstatt culture in 800-500 BC, and in the
La Tène culture in 500-50 BC. The Celtic lingua franca was based on
different Celtic dialects during the six different cultural periods
mentioned."

The complete version of Wiik's abstract can be read on the internet at
http://www.joensuu.fi/fld/ecc/Wiikabstract.htm.

 - Ante Aikio