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The Origin of the Germanic Languages and the Indo-Europeanising of North Europe

Authors: Sigmund Feist;

The Origin of the Germanic Languages and the Indo-Europeanising of North Europe

Abstract

As the title shows, the author of this article does not hold with the theory that the spread of the Indo-European languages had its origin in northern Europe. At present we have no means of defining with certainty the starting point, the original 'home' of the Indo-Europeans. Their early appearance in Asia Minor, which the decipherment of Hittite has revealed, is at least no support for the theory of a northern origin; for migrations so swift and so far-reaching have little probability in the first half of the second millenium before our era. Of the proofs advanced for the theory, the alleged racial similarity between Indo-Europeans and Germans is above all scientifically worthless. For here two phenomena of human existence, one physical and hard to define (race), the other psychic (language), tho not necessarily connected, are arbitrarily brought into a causal relationship. Besides, it is urged that the Lithuanians, because of the very archaic type of their language, must have remained closest to the original home. The present distribution, however, of languages south of the Baltic is not an early inheritance. Today there meet here two entirely distinct branches of the Indo-European family; in the west the Germanic which belongs to the centum group; in the east the Slavic and the Baltic which belong to the satam group. We know that Germanic was established here only during the late Middle Ages by colonisation of territory that had previously been Slavic or Prussian. Before the birth of Christ-a period still prehistoric for this part of the world-there lay south of the Baltic East Germanic languages (those of the Goths, Gepidae, Heruli, etc.) which vanished from this region after the migration to the Black Sea of the Goths and the tribes that went with them. Eastern neighbors of the Goths were (on the testimony of Ptolemy the geographer) the Galindae and the 'Sudauer', that is Prussian peoples. This district remained Prussian until the 17th century when this member of the Baltic branch was absorbed by the Germans on one side, by the Lithuanians

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
19
Average
Top 10%
Average
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