LL-L "Language contacts" 2003.05.11 (10) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 11.May.2003 (10) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language contacts

Luc Helinckx asked under "Morphology":

> As far as I know French doesn't have similar features, so this would
> indeed corroborate Ron's hypothesis, attributing it to Celtic influence.

But don't forget that French, too, is a group of Romance varieties with
strong Celtic substrates, as are Walloon, Occitan, Catalan, Galician
(Gallego), Portuguese, Castilian, various northern dialects of Italian,
etc.

What we are probably talking about is much variety among extinct Celtic
language varieties to the south and to the west, thus probably many
different features.

> A relatively late continental German evolution sounds logical but how on
> earth these Romance (non-French, I believe) influences got to Germany is
> a mystery to me. The Southern Lowlands have been Spanish property for
> quite some time, but I doubt that they could have exerted such an
> influence that later on the whole of Germany decided to copy this
> characteristic. Geographical distribution east of Cologne might shed a
> light on this issue.

Luc, much of what is now Southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and
Northern Italy (and also Romania) was originally Celtic.  There is ample
archeological evidence for this, apart from written sources.  Quite a
few of those communities later became Romance-speaking by way of Roman
occupation (i.e., they adopted Vulgar Latin on Celtic substrates, just
as in the case of French, etc.).  As Germanic speakers advanced
southward they came into contact with speakers of various Gallo-Romance
varieties and probably with a few remaining Celtic speakers, and
gradually these communities overlapped and amalgamated.  Be they
speakers of Celtic or of Gallo-Romance, the Germans referred to those
people and their language varieties as "welsch" (< _wal(a)hisc_), which
came to be the name for "Romance" and also came to be used to refer to
any unintelligible, non-Germanic language (e.g., "Rotwelsch" for a
certain "underground" jargon).  Obviously, like Dutch _Waals_, this name
is related to "Gaul," "Galicia," "(Portu)gal," "Gaelic," "Wales,"
"Welsh," "Wallachen," "Vlach," etc.  Surviving remnants of these
Germanic-influenced Gallo-Romance varieties in and near the south of the
now German-speaking areas are the Rhaeto-Roman (Rumansch) varieties of
Switzerland (Graubünden/Grisone/Grisun, Engadin), and the Ladin and
Friulian of Northern Italy (Southern Tyrol/Alto Adige, Dolomites, and
some in Slovenia).

If we are indeed dealing with Romance influences, they could thus have
made their way eastward and/or northward, being passed on from one
Germanic variety to another.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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