On Language Replacement

J. Skulj
 Hindu Institute of Learning

 jskulj@hotmail.com

 

Dr. Richards and his team of 36 co-workers, drawn from 20 universities and
 5 research institutes, found evidence that colonization of Europe by modern
 man spanned a period of ~50,000 years.  However, during the last 10,000
 years only ~25% of the population arrived, and since Bronze Age only ~7% of
 new genetic groups came into the Alpine region of Europe (Richards et al,
 2000, in Am. J. Hum. Genet. 67:1232-1250).
 
 If we compare this genetic admixture to present Canadian immigration
 pattern, where yearly immigrants constitute ~1% of the total Canadian
 population, we can see that Canada has received more new population in the
 last 10 years, than Alpine region of Europe during the last 4,000 years. 
 Yet this has not resulted in any replacement of the official languages in
 Canada.  On the other hand, in Europe, archeologists and historians tell us
 that in Italy, including the Alpine region, the Etruscan and the Venetic
 languages were replaced, by Latin.  Why did languages change in Italy in
 ancient times, 2000 years ago, but are not changing in Canada in modern
 times?  Is the process of language replacement in Austria similar to that
 of ancient Rome?  How much of the process of language change is due to
 demic and how much of it is due to cultural factors?
 
 Still in the area of the Alps, namely Slovenia, north-eastern Italy and
 southern Austria, Latin did not predominate to the exclusion of Slovenian. 
 The biography of St. Columban (543-615), written by his disciple and
 successor, Abbot Jona Bobbiensis refers to inhabitants of Noricum, the area
 of your research, ”Veneti qui et Sclavi dicuntur”.
 
 Study of the disappearance of Slovenian dialects in Austria in recent
 times, due to German influences, could also give us a better understanding
 as to why Sanskrit became such a dominating language in India during a much
 earlier historical era 5,000-10,000 years ago.
 
  Lord Colin Renfrew wrote recently that based on the genetic discoveries,
 the prehistory of the world populations will have to be rewritten.  Some
 Slovenian scholars have already started the process of revising the old
 historical theories and have published their work in the book VENETI First
 Builders of European Community by Savli, Bor, Tomazic translator Skerbinc.