Theo Vennemann
Encyclopedia
Theo Vennemann is a German
linguist
known best for his work on historical linguistics
, especially for his disputed theories of a Vasconic substratum and an Atlantic
superstratum of European languages. He also suggests that the High German consonant shift
was already completed in the early 1st century BC, and not in the 9th century AD as most experts believe. Born in Oberhausen
-Sterkrade, he is currently a professor emeritus in Germanic and Theoretical Linguistics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
by linguists Philip Baldi and B. Richard Page, who made reasoned dismissals of a number of his proposals. Nevertheless, they concluded by saying:
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
known best for his work on historical linguistics
Historical linguistics
Historical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
, especially for his disputed theories of a Vasconic substratum and an Atlantic
Atlantic (semitic) languages
The Atlantic languages of Semitic or "Semitidic" origin are a disputed concept in historical linguistics put forward by Theo Vennemann...
superstratum of European languages. He also suggests that the High German consonant shift
High German consonant shift
In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost...
was already completed in the early 1st century BC, and not in the 9th century AD as most experts believe. Born in Oberhausen
Oberhausen
Oberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
-Sterkrade, he is currently a professor emeritus in Germanic and Theoretical Linguistics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Theories on the prehistory of European languages
Vennemann's controversial claims about the prehistory of European languages include the following:- A language family ancestral to BasqueBasque languageBasque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
is a substratumSubstratumIn linguistics, a stratum or strate is a language that influences, or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum is a language which has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum is the language that has higher power or prestige. Both substratum and superstratum...
of European languages, especially GermanicGermanic languagesThe Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
, CelticCeltic languagesThe Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
, and ItalicItalic languagesThe Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family. It includes the Romance languages derived from Latin , and a number of extinct languages of the Italian Peninsula, including Umbrian, Oscan, Faliscan, and Latin.In the past various definitions of "Italic" have prevailed...
. Vennemann claims this could be evidenced by various loan words, toponyms, and structural features such as word-initial accent.
- The linguistic origin of Old European hydronymyOld European hydronymyOld European is the term used by Hans Krahe for the language of the oldest reconstructed stratum of European hydronymy in Central and Western Europe...
, traditionally considered as Indo-EuropeanIndo-EuropeanIndo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...
, is classified as Vasconic by Vennemann.
- Numerous toponyms that are traditionally considered as Indo-European by virtue of their Indo-European head words are instead names that have been adapted to Indo-European languages through the addition of a suffix.
- PunicPunic languageThe Punic language or Carthagian language is an extinct Semitic language formerly spoken in the Mediterranean region of North Africa and several Mediterranean islands, by people of the Punic culture.- Description :...
, the SemiticSemitic languagesThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
language spoken in classical CarthageCarthageCarthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
, is a superstratum of the Germanic languages. According to Vennemann, Carthaginians colonized the North SeaNorth SeaIn the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
region between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC; this is evidenced by numerous Semitic loan words in the Germanic languages, as well as structural features such as strong verbsGermanic strong verbIn the Germanic languages, a strong verb is one which marks its past tense by means of ablaut. In English, these are verbs like sing, sang, sung...
, and similarities between Norse religion and Semitic religion. This theory replaces his older theory of a superstratum of an unknown Semitic language called "Atlantic".
- Semitic is a substratum of the Celtic languagesCeltic languagesThe Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
, as shown by certain structural features of Celtic, especially their lack of external possessorsDative caseThe dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....
.
- The Runic alphabetRunic alphabetThe runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...
is derived directly from the Phoenician alphabetPhoenician alphabetThe Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, was a non-pictographic consonantal alphabet, or abjad. It was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia...
used by the Carthaginians, without intervention by the Greek alphabetGreek alphabetThe Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
.
- The Germanic sound shift is dated to the 6th to 3rd centuries BC, as evidenced by the fact that some presumed Punic loan words participated in it, while others did not.
Reception
Vennemann's book Europa Vasconica - Europa Semitica was reviewed in LinguaLingua
Lingua: An International Review of General Linguistics is a peer-reviewed academic journal of general linguistics that was established in 1949 and is published by Elsevier. Its current editor-in-chief is Johan Rooryck ....
by linguists Philip Baldi and B. Richard Page, who made reasoned dismissals of a number of his proposals. Nevertheless, they concluded by saying:
We hope in this review to have made it clear that, while we disagree with part of what V has proposed, we also applaud his efforts to reassess the role and extent of language contact in the development of Indo-European languages in Europe. We remain eager to learn more about this fascinating approach to the prehistory of European language and culture.