[Regia-NA] FW: [BRITARCH] BBC 2 Newsnight tonight! Languages in Prehistoric Britain

[Douglas Sunlin]

By "English" I presume they refer to a Germanic language. (?)
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>From: "Nicholson, Andrew" <andrew.nicholson at dumgal.gov.uk>
>Reply-To: list-Regia-NA <list-regia-na at lig.net>
>To: "Regia eGroup (regia at yahoogroups.com)" <regia at yahoogroups.com>, "Regia 
>NA (list-regia-na at lig.net)" <list-regia-na at lig.net>
>Subject: [Regia-NA] FW: [BRITARCH] BBC 2 Newsnight tonight! Languages in 
>Prehistoric Britain
>Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2007 17:14:03 -0000
>
>For interest
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: British archaeology discussion list [mailto:BRITARCH at JISCMAIL.AC.UK]
>On Behalf Of Win Scutt
>Sent: 03 January 2007 16:42
>To: BRITARCH at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
>Subject: [BRITARCH] BBC 2 Newsnight tonight! Languages in Prehistoric
>Britain
>
>Hi all, and Happy New Year!
>
>I know this is a topic that pops up quite frequently on Britarch, but the
>question of which languages were spoken in Britain in prehistory has been
>the subject of my research for the last five years - and is featured on BBC
>2 Newsnight tonight (prog starts 10.30, but feature is around 11pm).
>
>I know too that this is a very controversial issue, but I hope you will 
>keep
>an open mind! Here it is in a sort of nutshell:
>
>Previously my research had been in landscape archaeology in SW England and 
>I
>had started to notice that many place-names better described the functions
>of places in prehistory than in the early medieval period. So I developed a
>test that compared place-names with landscape change; and I also examined
>Roman place-names for Old English elements and contexts.
>While there can be no certainties in this kind of research, it became very
>clear to me that the case for a forerunner of English being spoken in much
>of eastern Britain in prehistory is much stronger than it is for a 'Celtic'
>language.
>
>The notion that English was brought to eastern Britain by post-Roman
>invaders seems to have its origins in the thoughts of 16th century
>historians. After all, looking at a linguistic map of Britain with 'Celtic'
>to the west and Germanic to the east, at the same time as reading Nennius,
>Gildas and Bede, it's not surprising that someone should reach that
>conclusion. But, in my view, a Germanic language (or a group of Germanic
>languages) were brought by people much, much earlier than this.
>
>Recently I have begun to collaborate with Stephen Oppenheimer (Oxford) and
>Peter Forster (Cambridge) who have been coming to similar conclusions
>completely independently and from different angles: Stephen mainly through
>genetics and Peter mainly through phylogenetic networks applied to 
>language.
>
>I have written a paper for Antiquity called "An English Prehistory" which I
>have been invited to resubmit. I have uploaded the draft (without
>illustrations) to http://writeboard.com/a1f300104540dbaa4 The password is
>'durrington'. I would very much welcome comments and amendments from all
>Britarchers - preferably polite ones please! You can find more details on 
>my
>website at www.archaeology.ws
>
>Best Wishes
>
>Win
>
>
>
>--
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>
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