Theo Vennemann Hofname Nierfeld (; born 27 May 1937) is a German historical linguist known for his controversial theories of a "Vasconic" and an "Atlantic" stratum in European languages, published since the 1990s.["Basken, Semiten, Indogermanen. Urheimatfragen in linguistischer und anthropologischer Sicht". In: Wolfgang Meid (ed.): Sprache und Kultur der Indogermanen. Akten der X. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, 22.–28. September 1996. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft. vol. 93. Innsbruck, 1998, pp. 119–138.]
He was professor of Germanic studies and theoretical linguistics at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich from 1974 (retired 2005).
Theories
Vennemann's book
Europa Vasconica – Europa Semitica (2003) was reviewed in
Lingua by linguists
Philip Baldi and B. Richard Page, who made reasoned dismissals of a number of his proposals. The reviewers still applauded Vennemann's "efforts to reassess the role and extent of language contact in the development of Indo-European languages in Europe".
[Philip Baldi and Page, Lingua
]
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Vennemann's controversial claims about the prehistory of European languages include the following:
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Vasconic substratum theory: A "Vasconic" language family ancestral to Basque language is a substratum of European languages, especially Germanic, Celtic languages, and Italic languages. Vennemann claims this could be evidenced by various loan words, toponyms, and structural features such as word-initial accent. The linguistic origin of Old European hydronymy, traditionally considered as Indo-European,
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Semitic is a substratum of the Celtic languages, as shown by certain structural features of Celtic, especially their lack of dative case.
[English – a German dialect? Prof. em. Theo Vennemann, Ph.D. Rotary Club Munich International. 7 November 2005. ]
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Punic language, the Semitic language spoken in classical Carthage, is a superstratum of the Germanic languages. According to Vennemann, Carthaginians colonized the North Sea region between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC; this, he claims, is evidenced by proposed Semitic loanwords in the Germanic languages as well as structural features such as strong verbs and similarities between Norse religion and Semitic religion. The theory replaces his older theory of an unknown Semitic substrate language that he called "Atlantidic" or "Semitidic". The Runic alphabet is derived directly from the Phoenician alphabet used by the Carthaginians but without intervention by the Greek alphabet. The Germanic sound shift is dated to the 6th to 3rd centuries BC, as evidenced by the fact that only some presumed Punic loanwords participated in it.
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