>From: Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>
>Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 06:28:50 +0000
>
>And I think a division on similar lines would probably have happened even
>if the Carthaginians had wiped out the Romans. I don't think the latter
>would've been any more successful in stemming presure from Germanic tribes
>on the western provinces. The two centers would've been different.
>Carthage and Alexandria? Perhaps even more of Europe lost. A stronger
>Christian north Africa might have caused the early Muslims to to sweep
>across Asia Minor & the Balkans rather than across north Africa.
>
>The whole of western & central Europe might have been essentially Germanic
>speaking. There'd certainly be no Ramance languages!
>
Interesting. There might have been surviving Continental Celtic langs too.
Perhaps in southern France and the Iberian pen. How would the Slavs have
been affected?
Christian North Africa. Germano-Celtic Christian Spain and France.
Christianized Vikings? Launching crusades to liberate Arabized Italy and
Greece. The Kiyev Califate? Wow! That opens a whole new can of worms.
What happens to the age of exploration? The Renaisance? The Americas?
Adam who likes this idea!
>[....]
> >
> >Here's the passage I was referring to, from Paul Jouon's 1923 French
>grammar:
> >
> >Phoenician, which is represented by the inscription of King Kilamuwa
> >(9th cent.) and by fairly numerous inscriptions later than the fifth
> >cent., is closely related to Hebrew. The Punic dialect of Carthage and
> >her colonies is related to Phoenician.
> >
> >I forgot to include the word "dialect".
>
>Yep - there were Phoenician dialects around the Med - especially on the
>eastern seaboard of Spain.
>
>Ray.
>
>=========================================
>A mind which thinks at its own expense
>will always interfere with language.
> [J.G. Hamann 1760]
>=========================================
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