02-11-2007, 03:28 AM
Quote:Mike
I am a bit confused by your arguments, in the first time you seemed to agree with me that the reason for a low acceptance of Britonic language were social considerations, but in this last post you fully support Coates argument about genocide, that is in no way, AKAIK, supported by genetic research.
Oh well, it seems everyone is confused, now. 8)
Yes, I agree with you that the failure to adopt the language of the
conquered is due to many causes; primarily among those would be
your (and Coates) point about lack of prestige. Also (I said to leave
aside what Coates says about genocide - that is, a complete
massacre of the natives) the murder of the native population - to
greater or lesser extents - may be another factor (the significance
depending on the extent, of course). The point I was trying to make
in my last post to you is that it would be helpful to forget the term
'genocide' (as in, exterminating the entire population who once lived
in the East of Britain) and simply accept a lesser degree of massacre,
which subsequently led to both commensurate exile of the natives in
the West/over the sea to Brittany and of the survival of those who
remained as serfs/slaves among the incoming migrants. This would
allow for your hypothesis of the surviving natives 'becoming Anglo-
Saxon' - but under duress.
Thus there is no need to dismiss, entirely, the evidence for Anglo-
Saxon hostility to native Britons simply because we cannot prove
some kind of 'holocaust' of the natives. And the various genetic
studies certainly do imply the possibility of 25-50% population
replacement in the East. Though they cannot be sure about how long
ago that happened, and the studies, so far, have been limited in scope.
As I pointed-out, before, simply because we may have a reasonably homogenous genetic composition to the population of England, today,
it does not, at all, figure that this situation pertained 1,500 years ago. Wales, on the other hand, definitely is genetically distinct from England (most probably for the reason we're discussing, since they
were the original Britons).
Ambrosius / Mike
"Feel the fire in your bones."
