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"Numbers near branches indicate the
reliability in percent of the specific branch, calculated by the
method of the bootstrap." This comment mystifies me, deservedly
I dare say.
By His Bootstraps is the title of a rather
fine sf story by Robert A.Heinlein. |
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It is rather difficult to accept the separation of the "Germanic" languages into *West, *North and *East. The positioning of English under *West, and the Scandinavian languages under *North in table A (p.68 in the 1987 hardback edition of Renfrew) seems very odd, considering Bede's account of the origins of the English people (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) not to mention Beowulf, or the evidence linking Sutton Hoo with central Sweden.
What is the division between "Anglo-Frisian" and the Scandinavians based on? The enclitic article? Vowel changes and other phonetic variation? The monoglot will assume that "Anglo-Frisian" is linguistically closer to German or Dutch than to Danish or Swedish. This simply cannot be the case.
Didn't the Angles come from Scandinavia? And weren't the Frisians also from Scandinavia? Are Frisians the same as "Old Saxons"? Aren't Jutes the same as Geats? Wasn't Beowulf, the "Old English" hero, a Geat?
How are languages to be defined? Will anyone ever succeed in unravelling this?