LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 26.JUL.2000 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 26.JUL.2000 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Language varieties

Regarding the antiquity of the North and West Germanic languages Stefan
wrote:

>As late as the 500's AD, runic inscriptions were still being written in a
single Northwest Germanic language<

Is this in fact correct? The earliest runic inscriptions, from 300 CE,  seem
to be in proto-Norse. Gothic, recorded from 350 CE, is said to have Nordic
features, which seems to imply that Nordic had Nordic features when the
Goths left the Baltic area.

These things seem to put the break-up of linguistic unity at least around
three centuries earlier.

I said before that I found it difficult to get a clear picture of these
issues from the literature. I have noticed that some authors at the popular
end of the scale go straight from Protogermanic to Old English (say) with no
reference to a Common Northwest Germanic period.

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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