About Proto-Germanic

[Anglesqueville]

Rodoorn:

I hereby challenge Mr. Jaska and Mr. Angles to consign this whole thing to the realm of fables and to come from a strict "splendid isolation" Pre-Germanic is unisono Malaren and Proto-Germanic is unisono Malaren. In my opinion they can't do that without making a complete fool of themselves, but I like to be surprised or convinced otherwise...*takes popcorn*

My opinion is still one of caution: no conclusive evidence can be presented for any certain Pre-Germanic homeland. At the moment I see more non-conclusive pieces of evidence supporting the Central European homeland (especially the possible ancient innovations shared by Albanian and Italo-Celtic, which require closer scrutiny).

As for Late Proto-Germanic and stages immediately preceding it, the location seems to be rather northern. There are two waves of unidirectional loanword layers: Celtic to Germanic, and Germanic to Finnic and Saami. These cannot be derived from any "normal" adstrate borrowings, that is, contacts between two neighboring speech communities, because that should lead to bidirectional borrowing. Instead, both of these situations seem to require superstrate type of contact.

And indeed, as Koch has excellently demonstrated, Southern Scandinavia shows strong influence from Iberia and British Isles during the Bronze Age, which could nicely explain the Celtic superstrate loanwords to Germanic. In the other direction, Germanic loanwords to Finnic and Saami cover long period from Paleo-Germanic through Proto-Germanic and Northwest Germanic to Proto-Scandinavian, and the influence of the Nordic Bronze Age Culture in coastal Estonia and Southwest Finland since the late 2nd millennium BCE could explain the earlier end of this superstratal loanword continuum. 

There is one consequence from the loanword continuum of successive Germanic reconstruction stages in Finnic and Saami: it requires the presence of the Germanic nucleus rather close to these languages. The further from Finland and Estonia we go, the more improbable it comes that all of these successive stages of Germanic could have spread to these regions. This must certainly exclude the Germanic homeland in Central European inland. Therefore, it seems unavoidable that Southeastern Sweden was included in the Germanic nucleus region since the end of the Bronze Age.

I imagine that I will be called a "fanatic" again (like an idiot from Eurogenes did a few days ago), but I can't do anything about it, once again I can only see that I am entirely in line with what you write. It's even a little embarrassing for me to find in your formulations a clarity that mine sometimes lacks. While I'm at it, would you bet on a chronological estimate of the split of the Tocharian branch?