Celtic and Afro-Asiatic? (some folklore)

The folowing information is folkloric rather than linguistic:

Every time I read about the supposed conection between insular Celtic and
Semitic, I remember the Fomorians.

Ireland has a large, preliterate history which is almost *never* taken
seriously as history. Today it is thought of as mythology.

Curiously, in this history, three previous peoples are mentioned as having
lived in Ireland before the Milesians (Celtic speakers) arrived. The Tuatha de
Danaan, the Firbolg and the Fomorians. The Fomorians are also called the "Sea
People" and are said to have come from North Africa. ;)

More grist for the mill!!!!

>Joerg later wrote:
>> A problem with the assumption of an Afro-Asiatic substratum
>> in Insular Celtic is that there is no trace of Afro-Asiatic
>> anywhere in between (Iberian peninsula, France).  Instead we
>> have Basque along the way, which has nothing to do with AA,
>> neither genealogically nor typologically.  But that doesn't
>> mean that an Afro-Asiatic language in Britain is impossible.
>
>Actually, it's not inconceivable.  The Phoenicians had trade
>interests in Britain, as Britain was one of the better sources
>of tin in the ancient world.  So they could have founded emporia
>along the same lines as those the Greeks founded throughout the
>Mediterranean world.  But AFAIK there's no archaeological evidence
>for such an emporion, and so any link is little more than a
>remote possibility.
>
The Keenans
makeenan@syr.edu

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