[gothic-l] Germanic and Lappish

[sig]

Dear MCLSSAA2 at fs2.mt.umist.ac.uk, (please, sign next time so we
don't have to discuss with an e-mail address :^))

 You're lucky not having written in any Scandinavian language! The
ethnic appelative Lappish is not *politically correct*..(lapp in
Swedish means i. a. patch). Use Saami (or Sami). There exists, at
least in Sweden, a Saami parliament, regular Saami tv programs,
schools etc. There is a tremndous resurgence of ethnic pride here
across the borders.

 A recent tv production (Norwegian-Swedish) reviewed the Saami's
heritage as could be traced through archeology and other sciences.
But what stayed in my mind was the impressive initial part of the
presentation, where it was noted how shamefully often Swedes,
Norwegians, etc (--it's really a global phenomenon) tend to speak
carelessly about _their_ own history, their stone age, metal ages,
medieval times, on and on. But when discussing ethnic minorities,
aborigines, it somehow is assumed that their culture is and has
been static forever and ever. No-one seems to realise how equally
drastically any minority's culture may have changed over millennia
and interactions with other groups.
 The tv program, backed by the foremost scholars in Scandinavia,
made a strong case for the Saami as the direct descendants of the
first line people to follow the receding ice cap as it began
melting some 15000 years ago. There is a continuity of
archeological finds from the perimetry of Hamburg and north.
Genetic studies on the Saami show some last common denominator (in
the mitochondrial DNA) with other Europeans some 15000 years back.
 OK, now to the linguistic aspect. The Saami have words in their
language that are only found in non-Indoeuropean languages. They
gave one example: The word for skiing is (I'm uncertain about the
spelling) 'cuiogat', which in early celtic means to move forwards
by jumping. The culture that they share with north Asian peoples
then has not entered Fenno-Scandia-N W Russia ("The Top of
Europe") through migrations of later times as formerly thought --
the Saami are the original Europeans! (Euro-Asians?)

MCLSSAA2 at fs2.mt.umist.ac.uk wrote:

> Someone a while ago (sorry, I can't find the reference) listed various
> words that are in Germanic and also in Lappish. One that I seem to
> remember is Germanic {hauh-} = Lappish {kauko} = "high". Which way
> were these words borrowed?

 Good question! They speak a fenno-ugrian, closely related to
Finnish (beacuse according to the tv program most of Finland was
once Saame territory and the language prevailed over that of the
immigrants).

> If Germanic developed in Scandinavia,
> Germanic could have taken these words from Lappish.

Either way, but now we are talking about events within the last
3000 years "only". Now, re-read your own question against the
background I provided above:

> How far south in
> Norway and Sweden have archaeologists found evidence of Lappish type
> culture being present up to several centuries BC?

Answer: From the end of the last ice age (15000 years back), from
North Germany and north. Yup, including much of the ancient stone
carvings!

> If most of Norway
> and Sweden were once Lappish territory, it could be that, for once, we
> see in Lappish a surviving descendant of one of the many aboriginal
> substratum languages that incoming Indo-European overrode and replaced
> long ago in its well-known big spread.

BINGO!! Accolades.

:^D)


Sig

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