Questioning of the elite dominance theory

[Tristan Jones]

This message was originally submitted by Tristan at MAIL.SCM-RPG.COM.AU to the
INDO-EUROPEAN list at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG.

[ moderator snip ]

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I do not think elite dominance is enough for a conquered people to adopt the
invaders language, sure they will adopt some words from the invading language
and change the conquered peoples language, depends if the invaders or the
invaded are more advanced than another. In those cases where a small elite
domaites over a conquerored nation (i.e. the Franks in Gaul, Germanic Tribes in
Italy and Spain, Mongols and Tartars in Russia) these invading cultures where
just absorbed into the local culture.  People only adopt the language of
invader as a primary tongue because lots of peoples of the invaders actually
come to their homeland and make a statement like this <B>"adopt out language,
we are here to stay!, if you do not like it go somewhere else"</B>. In the
moments where invader languages replaced the languages of the conquered, Slavic
over the various languages of Eastern Europe, Indo-European over the pre Indo
european languages of Europe in the 4th to 3rd Millennium BC, Anglo-Saxons over
the Welsh, Turks over the Greeks in Anatolia and the Indo-Aryans over the
Dravidian speaking people's of Northern India. We have seen huge migrations of
the invaders come to the lands they conquered, not just replacing the elite of
the society, however huge sections of it. The main question is how much of
invaded population would the Invaders have to make up to impose their language
onto the invaded people's