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<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 09 April 2007 - Volume 02<br><br>=========================================================================<br><br>From: <span id="_user_isaacmacdonalddavis@gmail.com" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">
"Isaac M. Davis" <<a href="mailto:isaacmacdonalddavis@gmail.com">isaacmacdonalddavis@gmail.com</a>></span><br>Subject: LL-L "History" 2007.04.04 (02) [E1<br><br><span>Mark Dreyer wrote:</span> <br>
<div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" color="#000000" size="2"><font size="-0"><font color="#000000" size="2">Dear
Isaac:</font></font></font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" color="#000000" size="2"><font size="-0"><font color="#000000" size="2">Subject: LL-L
"History"<br><br></font></font>Ron wrote:<br><span>The Romance and Celtic
language branches grew from a common branch off Indo-European. They are
therefore more closely related to each other than to other Indo-European
branches. In Roman times, Latin (Romance) and Gaulish (Celtic) were to a certain
degree mutually intelligible, but apparently only in the sense that certain
words could be made out here and there (which is why Romans in Gaul needed [to
speak Greek(?)]. </span></font></div>
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;">
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<div> Actually, as far as I know, the Italo-Celtic hypothesis is pretty
much defunct. There are definitely similarities, even within IE as a whole,
but the current line of thinking is that the resemblance between the Italic*
languages and Celtic ones is due to areal proximity rather than genetic
relationship.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Mark: It was near enough that Julius Caeser reports in his Commentaries
that he made a point of writing his dispatches in Greek, in case they were
intercepted by Gaulish spies.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I for my part find this odd, but in a different way. Just because the
Gauls weren't in close contact with the Romans doesn't mean they also weren't
in contact with the Greeks. Masselia was a Greek colony after all. There were
almost certainly a good few Greeks around who spoke Gaulish, & more
Gauls who read Greek.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Yrs,</div>
<div>Mark</div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote></div>I've read mention of that. I've also read, though, that it's been
suggested more recently that we're inferring too much from what Caesar
said, that what was really going on was that Latin fluency was common
among Gauls, as it was certainly to their benefit to learn the language
of their enemies. I find it odd though, as well, because along with the
Gaulish inscriptions in the Latin alphabet, there are also plenty of
inscriptions in the Greek alphabet, so obviously there were a fair
number of Gauls with at least a nodding familiarity with the <span style="font-style: italic;">alphabet</span>,
if nothing else (and alphabets don't generally get borrowed in isolation). Some interesting things have been extrapolated, in
fact, based on what letters were used in the two different alphabets,
and between them, a more complete picture of the native phonology of
Gaulish has been revealed.<br><br>I
have some familiarity with Latin, and less familiarity with Gaulish,
but just on a cursory inspection, I doubt that a Gaulish-speaker could,
without training, understand someone speaking or writing Latin. Even
setting aside the question of the Italo-Celtic family, they're just not
that similar. You might be able to guess at grammatical function and/or
number on occasion (noun morphology does seem to be one of those areal
features shared between Celtic and Italic languages, though you
wouldn't know it to look at, say, Manx and French), but even the
vocabulary isn't that close. This is my impression, based on very
little familiarity, as I say. I'm certainly willing to be contradicted
by someone who knows more.
<br><br>Isaac M. Davis<br><span class="sg"><br>-- <br><br>Westron wynd, when wilt thou blow<br>The smalle rain down can rain<br>Christ yf my love were in my arms<br>And I yn my bed again</span><br>
•
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