If they speak a non-romanized Celtic then it would not sound like normal Celtic.
There are some suspicious things to it being a non Indo- European Isolate. Nobody knows what Aquitaine or Pict or Celt sounded like before the Romans came. And no one knows really when the Celts arrived in Europe. Many people, ignorant of Archaeology and DNA and adhering to theories popular when Rowan and Toynbee wrote will tell you that Celts arrived in Europe around 500 BC! But of course we now know that they used steel in Europe around 5000 BC. And La Tenne is far older than 500 BC.
The Celts lived shoulder to shoulder with the Basques in Gaul and Iberia. Actually there are three other language isolates in Europe. Aquitaine, Tartessian, and Iberian. Many say Basque is the only one.
We dig up 6,000 year old Skeletons in Ireland and Britain and find that their DNA is very similar to the people in the nearby village. And there is a north south line dividing Britain down the middle, of differing DNA, which makes sense invasion-wise.
We don't know if the Indo Europeans actually existed or what the Indo European language was like or what its words were. It is a theoretical construct. But if I say "new wound" in theoretical Indo European 'bhereg gher' and "bright red" "berri gorri" in Basque they sound much the same or that one meaning of such could have had similar roots. It is not too much of a stretch to say that agur the Basque hello or goodbye could be taken from the IE "aigh" for day and "gher", to call out or rejoice. ""Ur" is water in Basque, Wer in Indo-E, River is Ibai in Basque, which could be from Baigh for bank in IE.
The trouble with establishing that is not like some Indo- European language is that we don't know what Indo European WAS to start with. Its also like trying to compare Greek with Indian. They are related Languages but I defy the average person to prove that. A Greek and Indian would have a hard time trying to understand each other given any month of Sundays.
So to deny the assertion that there is a relation would be equally difficult.
You don't just compare sounds but related metaphor and meaning. With these broad tools it may be true that many many languages have similar roots that we have not yet guessed. For instance when we say hello, we could be saying "good day, bright god, lucky day, I am unarmed, watch out, be happy", or many many other metaphoric forms of greeting. How do you compare that among languages?
My feeling is the assertion that Basque is not IE is rooted with their desire for Independence from Spain for the most part.
EC<:-} |