Atlantic Semitic languages

“Atlantic-Semitic languages” is the name of a hypothetical language group prominently postulated by the German linguist Theo Vennemann . According to this hypothesis, Germanic and Celtic languages ​​reflect influences from Afro-Asiatic languages , particularly Semitic languages , so that very early language contact can be assumed.

Vennemann assumes the existence of an influencing language, which he calls Semitic or Atlantic , and which is reflected as a superstrate influence in the vocabulary of Germanic.

Europa Semitica

In his work Europa Vasconica – Europa Semitica , Vennemann, based on linguistic arguments, argues, among other things, that Germania was “under Carthaginian-Phoenician domination for a long time” between the expedition of Himelcon and the end of the Second Punic War. The Germanic languages ​​were therefore shaped by a superstrate influence of the Phoenician language . Vennemann estimates the lexical influence of Phoenician on Germanic at that time to be over 50%. He also believes that the origin of the runes can be traced back to the influence of the Phoenician script and not to Latin or other alphabets that were in use in northern Italy at that time, such as the Etruscan script or that of the Raetians. Vennemann also points to possible parallels between Germanic and Semitic mythology.

Germanic substrate hypothesis:

The Germanic substrate hypothesis, (or The non-Indo-European substrate hypothesis), attempts to explain the distinctive nature of the Germanic languages within the context of the Indo-European languages. Based on the elements of Common Germanic vocabulary and syntax which do not seem to have cognates in other Indo-European languages.

The non-Indo-European substrate theory was first proposed in 1910 by Sigmund Feist, who estimated that roughly a third of Proto-Germanic lexical items came from a non-Indo-European substrate and that the supposed reduction of the Proto-Germanic inflectional system was the result of pidginization with that substrate.