Questioning of the elite dominance theory

[David L. White]

> I do not think elite dominance is enough for a conquered people to adopt
> the invaders language,

        It depends.  There are many examples where "huge numbers" of
invaders (proportionally) did not come in, yet were able to linguistically
dominate.  One may note for example 1) Latin in the Roman empire, 2) Spanish
and Portugese in Latin America, 3) English in Ireland (outside of Ulster)
and "the Celtic Fringe" generally, 4) Arabic outside Arabia (esp. Egypt,
where Arabs cannot possibly have numerically dominated the original
population), and 5) (a bit more murkily) Greek in Anatolia (quite probably
also Turkish).  I have probably missed more than a few other very good
examples.
        It should be noted as well that one study (whose author I all too
typically forget; I can get it if anyone wants it) concludes that the number
of Saxons that come over to Britain was in the range of 10-40 thousand,
hardly overwhelming masses, and that in general recent scholarship (see
especially various works by Higham) suggests quite strongly that the extent
of "Celtic survival" in Roman Britain was quite shockingly high, from the
standpoint of older conceptions.

                                                       Dr. David L. White