The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #11483   Message #4085678
Posted By: GUEST,John Merry Theoriser
30-Dec-20 - 09:06 AM
Thread Name: Yan Tan Tethera - more words in the count?
Subject: RE: Yan Tan Tethera - more words in the count?
I think I've got a copy of it somewhere, Guest RA. Unfortunately for Professor Renfrew, genetics has disproved his Anatolian theory regarding the spread of the Indo-European languages in favour of the steppe theory. As far as I recall in the book, he was saying that a Bronze Age population in Britain pre-dated the Iron Age Celts, which is something that many others have said and is not disputed. Renfrew makes claims for languages spread over land, but I would say the evidence isn't there. Ancient Welsh legends state that the Lloegrians or moon-worshippers (Luwians?) were in what is now central and south-eastern England before them. They say that they arrived by sea from Syria, and that their leader was called Albyne. Alan Wilson and Adrian Gilbert have come up with much historical evidence. I would claim to have found some linguistic evidence. Most of us who have looked believe that a wave of Anatolian speakers were the people who preceded the Iron Age Celts. There is no evidence at all of Anatolian languages having spread north of the Balkans, so a seaborne spread is the only possible conclusion.