The Ligurian conjecture

 

A Dutch linguist and professor published a paper proposing a language for Holland and Belgium which was not German nor Brythonic. He based his hypothesis upon the study of ancient place names in Holland and Belgium. Many linguists speak about Italic features in the Dutch language. It is not about words but for instance about the pronunciation of long vowels. Several rivers seem to be derived from the Ligurian word 'izara'. And there are more indications such as the apparent impossibility to explain place names on the Mediterranean shores in PIE. All this made me suppose that an important Ligurian language zone existed in western Europe.

 

 

All languages above are non-PIE languages (proto-Indo-European). All maps are schematic. More non-PIE languages could existed in western Europe. The date, 8000 BC, is a guess. The supposed pre-Ligurian language zone is in green. This could have been the language situation just after the Last Glacial Maximum. The pre-Ligurian region stretched from the Côte d'Azur (Monaco) up to the North Sea, a band no wider than maybe 200km (Rhône-Saone valley), widening in the north. Pre-Ligurian was a pre-agricultural language. In the north, pre-Ligurian came under pressure from the neighbouring languages. PIE was introduced around 5000BC, first in the south and a bit later in the north of Europe, together with agriculture. The south pre-Ligurians adopted agriculture from the Occitan-Roman speakers and in the process took over the PIE language. Pre-Ligurian became Ligurian, now a PIE language. A number of substrate, pre-Ligurian words and place names, such as 'izara' (river : 'iz' =water + 'a-ra' = running) remained. They introduced the agricultural technology and language to their relatives in the north. But agriculture was adopted at virtually the same time by the German Bavarians and by the Brythonic speakers to the west of France. The Basque zone is according to the most recent hypothesis.

Gradually the Ligurian language faded out in the north in favour of German (ancient Belgium) and in 'France' in favour of Brythonic, where it became para-Brythonic. Para-Brythonic would be a mixed language, based upon Brythonic but with a lot of Ligurian (Italic, Occitan) words. Compare with modern English: the language is based upon German, but half the vocabulary consists of foreign, mainly French words. German and Brythonic grew toward each other, squeezing Ligurian out. The process continued for about 3000 years. The Germanic language reached its most southern expansion in northern France. Basque was gradually pushed to the southwest.

 

Para-Brythonic gradually re-expanded to the north in France, pushing back German. An etymological study of ancient place names to the north of Paris revealed a German origin for many of them. Para-Brythonic became also the most spoken language in central Gaul, Switzerland and a tiny part of northern Italy (south slopes of the Alps). 'Pure' Brythonic (as also spoken in Britain) became gradually confined to Brittany (Bretagne). Only the south (the Côte d'Azur) kept its Ligurian language (now a part of Occitan) for a longer time. Occitan expanded further to the west. Basque lost more of its territory.

This conjecture can explain why the 'French' part changed its para-Brythonic (wrongly called 'Celtic' ) language into northern Occitan (proto-French) during and after the Roman empire so easily, without much resistance. The local language was already full of Ligurian-Occitan words. It also explains the presence of Isère (south-east France) , Oise (northern France), Sarre (west Germany, bordering Luxemburg) and Ijzer (west Belgium), maybe also Ijssel (Holland), all river names which are probably derived from 'izara'. It explains the 'Italic features' within the Dutch language. I consider the possibility that the southeast of England was also pre-Ligurian speaking once upon a time because of the landbridge between Calais and Dover.

When the Romans conquered Gaul, the northern Ligurian language had since long disappeared.

Warning: this is weaker than a hypothesis, it is a conjecture.