Dating the final IE unity

[Rick Mc Callister]

	re: Gaulish of Trier & Galatian

	Wasn't it St. Jerome [correct me if I'm wrong] that said that and
is it true that he had never been to Galatia to find out? Also, when did
Galatian become extinct?
	If it were still spoken, we would be looking at about 600 years or
so of separation, less than the difference between say Swedish and
Norwegian, Spanish and Portuguese, Czech and Slovak, English and Scots
	So you would expect them to understand one another unless there was
a strong substrate or one of the languages had become extinct.
	Now, if, as some on the list say, Old Irish was so close to Gaulish
inscriptions at c. 700 CE. How did it become so radically different by 1400
CE?
	As far as I know, these changes were not due to the Viking and
English invasions or to Latin influences.
	I throw out some possibilities
	Is it possible that WRITTEN Old Irish was NOT the direct ancestor
of Gaelic? i.e that it held the same relationship to Gaeilge and Gaidhlig
that Classical Latin held to Romance?
	Is it possible that WRITTEN Old Irish was only a literary language?
	Is it possible that WRITTEN Old Irish was the language of an elite
of Briton or Gaulish origin and did not represent the speech of the
majority?
	Other than the arcane reference to Iarn-Belre and references to
Cruithne/Picts, is anything known of other speech varieties in early
Ireland?
	Please answer with light rather than heat and with reasoned replies
rather than appeals to received authority

[snip]