LL-L "Language varieties" 2005.10.02 (07) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 02.OCT.2005 (07) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties"

Beste Ron,

You wrote:
> We know that Indo-Europeans are supposed to have arrived in Europe from 
> the
> southeast (with the  remote possibility of some east-west migration from
> parts of what is now Russia, then pre-Slavonic).  Obviously some went into
> Scandinavia and developed the oldest known Germanic cultures.  So they 
> must
> have traversed at least parts of what is now Northern Germany.  The usual
> pattern was that of some members settling along the way and of other 
> members
> migrating farther on, thus leaving something of a migration trail, unless
> they traversed lands of hostile tribes that prevented settlements.
>
> We also know that the very early Saxons lived no farther south than in
> Holstein, north of the Elbe, later migrated south- and southwestward, in 
> the
> early part of the post-Christianization era then also eastward -- all in 
> all
> in a fan-shaped fashion.  If we assume the settle-and-migrate pattern
> mentioned above to have applied earlier during Indo-European migration
> northward, might it not be possible that in the areas that were not
> Celtic -- namely Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands south 
> of
> the Elbe (Westphalia, Angria and Eastphalia) -- they mixed with people of
> those pre- or proto-Germanic settlements?

I've always heard that Scania (in Sweden...or Schoonland in Middle Dutch) 
would be some sort of "birthplace" for most (if not all) Germanic tribes. If 
those people crossed northern Germany before that, I doubt that all of them 
would have moved together in one big sweep from the Black Sea to Scania. 
Along the way, some may surely have settled (mixing with people of Baltic 
origins)?
However, those Germanic tribes may also have moved in via the Baltic 
regions. It looks somewhat easier to reach Lithuania and Latvia, coming from 
the Ukrainian Black Sea and the steppes, than Flensburg for example. Maybe 
they stayed east of the Pripet Marshes, 'cause I believe those were a 
serious hurdle back then. In that case, when Saxons moved southward later 
on, they may have met people of (purely) Baltic descent. Germanics 
traversing Baltic homelands earlier on may have started the ball rolling, 
pushing Baltic people westward (bit like the Huns causing something of a 
tidal ethnic wave too, a few centuries later).

Sure, this is all pure guessing...but that can be fun too, isn't it? *s*

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx

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