The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

FS AND Q'S 147
of France and the British Isles. All these seem to have come from the same Celtic cradle
and to have been of the same racial t3^e or, to speak more accurately, types. Later still,
we have seen that the Koban folk, who had learned the use of iron in the neighbourhood
of the Caucasus, returned to the Danube valley, after which some of them entered Greece
as Dorians, while others entered Italy with the Villa-nova culture and a third group
pursued their predecessors over all parts of France except the Seine valley. It seems
possible, if not probable, that these two waves of invasions may have been those which
brought Q and P speech respectively into these different parts of Europe. If this equation
be accepted, the main features of Sir John Rhys' hypothesis have been proved. But
it will not be wise to jump too hastily to a conclusion, for the fact that there were two
waves of invaders and two of Wiro dialects may be only a coincidence. We must
attempt to apply a confirmatory test.
In Greece we have seen that Casson has shown good cause why we should beheve
that the advance of the men with the iron sword should be equated with the Dorian
invasion. The Dorians spoke a P dialect and may well have been the first to introduce
such a tongue into Greece. We have seen how Rhys' view that Q dialects survive
in the writings of Herodotus and Hippocrates is open to question, but we have also noted
that Wace had equally questioned the " Achaean " invasion proposed by Ridgeway. I
have already put forward an amended scheme for the latter, and suggested the arrival
of only a few Nordic adventurers. Had these been Wiros of Q speech, they could not,
owing to the paucity of their numbers, have imposed their tongue upon their subjects.
If, therefore, we accept the equation for Greek lands, we need not expect to find
evidence of the survival of Q speech in Greece in the fifth century.
But I have suggested that these " Achaean " adventurers were stragglers from
the band of Nordics who were responsible for the Phrygian invasion of Asia Minor. If
the equation, which we are endeavouring to prove, were true, we should expect that
the Phrygian language was of the Q form. Unfortunately we know httle of the
Phrygian tongue even in the palmy days of Athens, still less of its form in the thirteenth
century.
All philologists are agreed that with the language of Thrace it formed the
Thraco-Phrygian group, from which, according to some philologists, modern Albanian
is derived. Dacian is also beUeved to have belonged to the same group. Some years