3. Methodological Aspects of Glotto- and Ethnogenesis of the Germanic People

Polomé, Edgar C.

doi:10.1515/9783111633732.45

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Given the current lack of data, it cannot therefore be excluded that undocumented demographic changes during this intervening period shaped Northern Europe’s linguistic landscape over the past 4,000 - 4,500 years 9 . During and especially before the Bronze Age, little is known about the distribution of the predecessor of the Germanic languages, at which stage it is referred to as Palaeo-Germanic 10 . Lexical borrowing from Celtic 11 and into Finno-Saamic 12,13 is estimated to have occurred from the Late Bronze Age (3050 - 2500 BP), demonstrating its geographic position relative to these linguistic groups.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, for the first time we link these dramatic and contested changes with genetic evidence to determine if they were linked to population movements in northern Europe. Around the middle of the 3rd millennium BP, Palaeo-Germanic saw the effects of a set of defining sound changes, by which it developed into Proto-Germanic, the most recent common ancestor of all Germanic descendant languages 10,23,24 . The Proto-Germanic speech community is assumed to have existed in Southern Scandinavia and Northern Germany throughout the Pre-Roman Iron Age (2500 -1950 BP) 25,26 , with the likely cultural sources being the Nordic Iron Age and the Jastorf culture 16,27 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Steppe Ancestry in western Eurasia and the spread of the Germanic Languages

McColl,

Kroonen,

Moreno-Mayar

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Germanic-speaking populations historically form an integral component of the North and Northwest European cultural configuration. According to linguistic consensus, the common ancestor of the Germanic languages, which include German, English, Frisian, Dutch as well as the Nordic languages, was spoken in Northern Europe during the Pre-Roman Iron Age. However, important questions remain concerning the earlier Bronze Age distribution of this Indo-European language branch in Scandinavia as well as the driving factors behind its Late Iron Age diversification and expansion across the European continent. A key difficulty in addressing these questions are the existence of striking differences in the interpretation of the archaeological record, leading to various hypotheses of correlations with linguistic dispersals and changes in material culture. Moreover, these interpretations have been difficult to assess using genomics due to limited ancient genomes and the difficulty in differentiating closely related populations. Here we integrate multidisciplinary evidence from population genomics, historical sources, archaeology and linguistics to offer a fully revised model for the origins and spread of Germanic languages and for the formation of the genomic ancestry of Germanic-speaking northern European populations, while acknowledging that coordinating archaeology, linguistics and genetics is complex and potentially controversial. We sequenced 710 ancient human genomes from western Eurasia and analysed them together with 3,940 published genomes suitable for imputing diploid genotypes. We find evidence of a previously unknown, large-scale Bronze Age migration within Scandinavia, originating in the east and becoming widespread to the west and south, thus providing a new potential driving factor for the expansion of the Germanic speech community. This East Scandinavian genetic cluster is first seen 800 years after the arrival of the Corded Ware Culture, the first Steppe-related population to emerge in Northern Europe, opening a new scenario implying a Late rather than an Middle Neolithic arrival of the Germanic language group in Scandinavia. Moreover, the non-local Hunter-Gatherer ancestry of this East Scandinavian cluster is indicative of a cross-Baltic maritime rather than a southern Scandinavian land-based entry. Later in the Iron Age around 1700 BP, we find a southward push of admixed Eastern and Southern Scandinavians into areas including Germany and the Netherlands, previously associated with Celtic speakers, mixing with local populations from the Eastern North Sea coast. During the Migration Period (1575-1200 BP), we find evidence of this structured, admixed Southern Scandinavian population representing the Western Germanic Anglo-Saxon migrations into Britain and Langobards into southern Europe. During the Migration Period, we detect a previously unknown northward migration back into Southern Scandinavia, partly replacing earlier inhabitants and forming the North Germanic-speaking Viking-Age populations of Denmark and southern Sweden, corresponding with historically attested Danes. However, the origin and character of these major changes in Scandinavia before the Viking Age remain contested. In contrast to these Western and Northern Germanic-speaking populations, we find the Wielbark population from Poland to be primarily of Eastern Scandinavian ancestry, supporting a Swedish origin for East Germanic groups. In contrast, the later cultural descendants, the Ostrogoths and Visigoths are predominantly of Southern European ancestry implying the adoption of Gothic culture. Together, these results highlight the use of archaeology, linguistics and genetics as distinct but complementary lines of evidence.

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