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To: ZULU
all evidence indicates the Celts originated in central Europe, in what is now Austria and neighboring areas. They then spread south into north Italy (Cisapline Gaul, west into Switzerland and Gaul, southwest into northern Spain (the Celt-Iberians) and across the English Channel or Bay of Biscay into the British Isles. Another group spread south and east into Anatolia (see the Galatians in the Bible) and even as far as Egypt where they served as mercenaries

I concur. Also, about the relation between the languages, the Germanics/Italics/Celtics may have been originally one group before splitting with the GErmans giving rise to the Celts or vice versa. I do find similarities between German and Latin (but htat may be due to the influence of the latter on the former), but Polish is completely different.
115 posted on 02/16/2004 7:41:44 AM PST by Cronos (W2K4!)
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To: Cronos
I remember reading somewhere that there are words in Anglo-Saxon, which came into modern English from Latin words the Anglo-Saxons picked up before invading England. Other Latin words came from Norman French.

Some words in Latin, or properly the Italic Languages of which Latin is the best known, were similar due to having arisen from a common ancestral word. I think the term is "cognate". Others were adopted into Germanic languages as above. You can't look at modern German. You have to look at say, Anglo-Saxon or Gothic or Old Norse for a better picture of these cognate words. All languages change over time. Your observations about Polish, a Slavic Language, and Germanic/Italic/Celtic are correct. The latter trhee are closer "cousins" to each other than eithre is to a Slavic Language, but they all presumably arose from the same ancestor - Indo-European and so you can find cognate words in Celtic and Sanskrit.

I guess its sort of like looking at a tree. Indo-European was the base. It split into two main branches - the Centum Languages and the Satem Languages, with some odd branches like Hittite growing out at the base.

The Centum branch split into a Proto-Germanic branch, a proto-Celtic Branch, a proto-Greek branch and a proto-Italic branch. With time, this split further. But unlike a tree, each branch also picked up words from other branches it came into contact with. kind of confusing and interesting at the same time.
147 posted on 02/16/2004 9:01:44 PM PST by ZULU (GOD BLESS SENATOR JOE MCCARTHY!!!)
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