History Forger James Aitken Wylie

1) History Forger James Aitken Wylie, 2) To give you an idea of Wylie's proceedings ...

Wiki says:

James Aitken Wylie (1808-1890) was a Scottish historian of religion and Presbyterian minister. He was a prolific writer and is most famous for writing The History of Protestantism.

I have been reading some chapters of his book. I e of book one of his work.

His basic idea about Protestantism is that St Ambrose of Milan was a surviving real Christian despite living after Constantine, that there is a straight line from St Ambrose to Claudius of Turin, and a straight line from him to the Turin populace who protested against submission to Rome of its episcopacy, and these were then partly fleeing to Cologne and getting burnt as heretics, partly fleeing to Piedmonte and hiding in Waldensian valleys.

And from then on to Protestants.

Now, this cannot be.

Because St Ambrose was no iconoclast, unlike Claudius of Turin. Because St Ambrose believed the Real Presence, also, it might appear (and JAW absolutely thinks so) unlike Claudius of Turin. So, there is NOT a straight line from St Ambrose to Claudius of Turin.

In case anyone thinks I am making it up that St Ambrose believed the Real Presence, here is De Mysteriis chapter 8, by St Ambrose:

Chapter 8 Of the mystical feast of the altar of the Lord. Lest any should think lightly of it, St. Ambrose shows that it is of higher antiquity than the sacred rites of the Jews, since it was foreshadowed in the sacrifice of Melchisedech, and far better than the manna, as being the Body of Christ. 43. The cleansed people, rich with these adornments, hastens to the altar of Christ, saying: "I will go to the altar of God, to God Who makes glad my youth;" for having laid aside the slough of ancient error, renewed with an eagle's youth, it hastens to approach that heavenly feast. It comes, and seeing the holy altar arranged, cries out: "You have prepared a table in my sight." David introduces the people as speaking, where he says: "The Lord feeds me, and nothing shall be wanting to me, in a place of good pasture has He placed me. He has led me forth by the water of refreshment." And later: "For though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff have comforted me. You have prepared in my sight a table against them that trouble me. You have anointed my head with oil, and Your inebriating cup, how excellent it is!" 44. We must now pay attention, lest perchance any one seeing that what is visible (for things which are invisible cannot be seen nor comprehended by human eyes), should say, "God rained down manna and rained down quails upon the Jews," Exodus 16:13 but for the Church beloved of Him the things which He has prepared are those of which it is said: "That eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love Him." 1 Corinthians 2:9 So, lest any one should say this, we will take great pains to prove that the sacraments of the Church are both more ancient than those of the synagogue, and more excellent than the manna. 45. The lesson of Genesis just read shows that they are more ancient, for the synagogue took its origin from the law of Moses. But Abraham was far earlier, who, after conquering the enemy, and recovering his own nephew, as he was enjoying his victory, was met by Melchisedech, who brought forth those things which Abraham reverently received. It was not Abraham who brought them forth, but Melchisedech, who is introduced without father, without mother, having neither beginning of days, nor ending, but like the Son of God, of Whom Paul says to the Hebrews: "that He remains a priest for ever," Who in the Latin version is called King of righteousness and King of peace. 46. Do you recognize Who that is? Can a man be king of righteousness, when himself he can hardly be righteous? Can he be king of peace, when he can hardly be peaceable? He it is Who is without mother according to His Godhead, for He was begotten of God the Father, of one substance with the Father; without a father according to His Incarnation, for He was born of a Virgin; having neither beginning nor end, for He is the beginning and end of all things, the first and the last. The sacrament, then, which you received is the gift not of man but of God, brought forth by Him Who blessed Abraham the father of faith, whose grace and deeds we admire. 47. We have proved the sacraments of the Church to be the more ancient, now recognize that they are superior. In very truth it is a marvellous thing that God rained manna on the fathers, and fed them with daily food from heaven; so that it is said, "So man ate angels' food." But yet all those who ate that food died in the wilderness, but that food which you receive, that living Bread which came down from heaven, furnishes the substance of eternal life; and whosoever shall eat of this Bread shall never die, and it is the Body of Christ. 49. Now consider whether the bread of angels be more excellent or the Flesh of Christ, which is indeed the body of life. That manna came from heaven, this is above the heavens; that was of heaven, this is of the Lord of the heavens; that was liable to corruption, if kept a second day, this is far from all corruption, for whosoever shall taste it holily shall not be able to feel corruption. For them water flowed from the rock, for you Blood flowed from Christ; water satisfied them for a time, the Blood satiates you for eternity. The Jew drinks and thirsts again, you after drinking will be beyond the power of thirsting; that was in a shadow, this is in truth. 49. If that which you so wonder at is but shadow, how great must that be whose very shadow you wonder at. See now what happened in the case of the fathers was shadow: "They drank, it is said, of that Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were done in a figure concerning us." 1 Corinthians 10:4 You recognize now which are the more excellent, for light is better than shadow, truth than a figure, the Body of its Giver than the manna from heaven.

This is hardly presbyterian, and whether Claudius of Turin by considered the bread was a figure of the body of Christ or his words mean sth else, St Ambrose clearly does NOT mean that, since he says that the real body of Christ on which we Christians feed in the Eucharist is more excellent than the Rock and than the Mannah which were figures of it.

And since Waldensians have come to accept Presbyterian doctrine hereon, they are clearly NOT in line with St Ambrose of Milan.

Also there is no sign either that diocese of Milan (with neighbouring ones) was persecuted bloodily by Papacy between St Ambrose and Claudius of Turin, or that Claudius of Turin himself was more heavily attacked than a refutation of his errors and his writings considered erroneous (not the comment on Genesis, which is preserved) were not preserved as such, only by quotes from his opponents refuting him, or for that matter that any Waldensians were persecuted between Claudius of Turin and appearance of Waldensians and other heretics. This is a very far cry from his original claim that Protestantism is Christianity and from the claims of others it was persecuted between Constantine and earlist Waldensians identified as such as much as later. And that by Papal Rome. A very far cry indeed.

Now, was James Aitken Wylie forging history consciously or unconsciously?

I don't dare to judge, but supposing he was no liar it was at least a bit careless of him not to check the book De Mysteriis, which he wrongfully cites as proof St Ambrose knew of only two sacraments, when in reality those were the Sacraments he decided to treat in that book - because Catechumens had been held more in the dark about these two. And if he checked it, how come he missed chapter 8?

Hans Georg Lundahl
Marguérite Audoux Library, Paris
St Stephen's Day or Boxing Day
26-XII-2014

English Wiki : James Aitken Wylie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Aitken_Wylie

Newadvent site : Fathers : St Ambrose of Milan : On the Mysteries
http://newadvent.com/fathers/3405.htm

A Pipe and a Cup that show Christmas Spirit

Bashing Secularism : 40 Martyr Reflections: Saint John Kemble
http://bashingsecularism.blogspot.com/2008/11/40-martyr-reflections-saint-john-kemble.html

Contrast this with the story of the under sheriff coming to collect him for his martyrdom and joining him for a last smoke of his pipe and a final cup of wine. The story became famous and gave rise to the Herefordshire expressions "Kemble pipe" and "Kemble cup", meaning the last pipe or cup of a sitting. The custom was still recorded in the nineteenth century but was gradually lost with the disappearance of communal pipe sharing.

For this Christmas season, I am not directly citing the things that happened to him before that ... might come up on St Stephen's Day, though ...

Still some hours to the 24:th, and then still a day until it's really Christmas./HGL

Chronology for Exodus

Here is from someone* considering Exodus according to Bible was 1446 BC:

The starting point for such a study of chronology is in the monarchy, for 1 Kings 6:1 dates the Exodus a particular time span back from a regnal year of Solomon. For this starting point we may utilize Edwin R. Thiele’s chronology developed in his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Chicago, later published under the title of The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings (1965). According to that chronology, Solomon died in 931 BC after a reign of 40 years. That means that he came to the throne in 971 BC. According to Thiele, dates that are given in the text that deal with the building of the Temple show that Solomon used a Tishri calendar to measure those regnal years (Thiele 1965: 29). The reign of Rehoboam who followed Solomon in Judah was calculated according to the accession year system which means that Year 1 started the year after Rehoboam, likewise Solomon, came to the throne. For Solomon this means that 971/970 BC was his accession year and 970/969 BC was his first full regnal year (Thiele 1965: 28–30). That makes 967/966 BC his fourth year. The Exodus occurred in the spring and Solomon’s Temple building began in the spring (the month after Passover), and thus the building began in the spring of 966 BC, between the two Tishri new years. This gives us the starting point from which to figure backwards, the spring of 966 BC.

The time period to add to this date is the 480 years that are given in 1 Kings 6:1. This goes back to the time when “the Israelites had come out of Egypt.” Adding those 480 years dates the Exodus to the spring of 1446.

Here is Haydock on 3 Kings 6:

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859 edition.
3 KINGS - Chapter 6
http://haydock1859.tripod.com/id882.html

It has a footnote to verse 1:

1: Year of the World 2092, Year before Christ 1012.; 2 Paralipomenon iii. 1.

The Year of the World here differs from St Jerome's Chronology and follows probably Vulgate - the translation St Jerome made but did not himself use for chronological purposes. Or even KJV/Masoretic text, and it's the chronology of Ussher. Whatever chronologist said the Temple was commenced 2992 anno Mundi, it is noteworthy that the reign of King Solomon was further back compared to Christ.

Since the beginning of the Temple was 1012 BC according to this chronology.

This is 46 years more than 966, so it would place Exodus in 1492 (a year notable on other side of Christ for Christian Recapture of Granada and discovery of Americas ... and some might count it as marking a Shepharadic Exodus from Spain too). St Jerome's Exodus date is 1510 ... not very far off. 18 years.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
St Victoria, Virgin and Martyr
23-XII-2014

* Amenhotep II as Pharaoh of the Exodus
févr. 22, 2008 - by William Shea PhD
http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2008/02/22/Amenhotep-II-as-Pharaoh-of-the-Exodus.aspx

À Qui la Gloire?

"Noël, c'est à l'origine la fête du soleil : rendons gloire au Soleil qui nous donne chaque jour la lumière et sans lequel nous ne pouvons vivre !"*

Non. Rendons gloire au Seigneur POUR M. Frère Soleil PAR QUI Dieu nous donne chaque jour la lumière.

C'est sans Dieu que nous ne pouvons pas vivre.

Les premiers trois jours, la lumière créée par Dieu ne venait pas encore du Soleil, qui ne fut créé que le quatrième jour. Et dans l'éternité, le Jérusalem céleste aura Dieu-fait-Homme Lui-même pour lumière, sans ni Lune ni Soleil.

La fête que nous allons célébrer a beau être à l'origine sur le solstice, néanmoins, c'est pas pour le Solstice, c'est pour l'Incarnation.

"Les Romains et les Germains avaient pris l'habitude de fêter avec éclat la renaissance du Soleil... Cette fête fut alors "récupérée" par l'Église, qui estimait que le petit Jésus était aussi le Christ Soleil..."

"Alors, son jour de naissance ne pouvait être que le 25 décembre... "

Pas tout à fait. C'est plutôt que le Vendredi Saint, un 14 Nisan selon le calendrier de Kaïphe (et Christ a pu le compter comme le 15 Nisan, s'Il avait observé la nouvelle Lune de Nisan**), selon les calculs coincidait cette année avec un 25 Mars, et Jésus étant Saint par Excellence, la Source de Sainteté, a donc dû soit être engendré soit naître un 25 Mars.***

Or, ça serait plutôt que l'Annonciation s'est faite un 25 Mars, donc en comptant neuf mois (les calculs sont basés sur mois romaines, évidemment) on tombe sur le 25 Décembre. Aussi, à son Baptême Notre Seigneur n'était pas encore 30 ans, aux Noces de Cana déjà passé les 30. Si donc le 6 Janvier commémore la date du Baptême, alors Notre Seigneur serait né vers 2 Février, mais si la fête du 6 Janvier commémore plutôt la date de Cana, alors le 30:e. anniversaire de Notre Seigneur a dû être plus tôt, vers ... 25 Décembre.

Rendons gloire à Lui, non pas juste pour nous avoir créé le Soleil 5199 ans avant Son Incarnation ("plus que quatre mille ans"), mais aussi surtout pour cette Incarnation que l'Église fête le 25 Mars quand la Vierge a sû, et le 25 Décembre quand on L'a vu.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Bpi Georges Pompidou
IV Dimanche d'Avant
21-XII-2014

* lexilogos : Origine de Noël
http://www.lexilogos.com/calendrier_noel.htm

À part la faute et à part la gigantesque omission (sauf l'admission de trop peu), l'article est assez bon.

** À l'époque chaque mois, comme c'est encore une fois le cas dans le calendrier lunaire des Musulmans, on l'a vu dernier Ramadan, était calculée par vue de la Lune. C'est uniquement depuis Hillel II que les Juifs - déjà séparés des Chrétiens - ont un calendrier fixé en avance.

*** Quoique le raisonnement d'un Juif devenu Chrétien de type Hebrew Roots n'est pas mauvais : Il serait né à la naissance des agneau, comme Il est crucifié à l'égorgément des agneaux : et Il serait selon lui né début avril cette année là. Par contre, je préfère obéir à l'Église qu'à un raisonnement privé dans une question où l'unité est nécessaire.

When a Calvinist was lazy

Sometimes I find something good enough to share, but here I will even quote context in full, of one detail

Late in 1862, the Confederate army was well into its invasion of Maryland. Confederate Supreme Commander Robert E. Lee drafted a document called Special Order 191, which described in extreme detail every movement of every brigade of his army for the next several months. He gave copies of the order only to his most trusted generals, including Stonewall Jackson.

Jackson, however, was way too lazy to write up individual orders to each of his commanders, so he gave them all copies of 191. One of those commanders was Daniel Harvey Hill, who did what we always do with our tax forms and jury duty papers: he left them on the ground, in a box, wrapped around three cigars. He then forgot about them.

Several days later, the aforementioned Union scout, Barton W. Mitchell, found the papers at the campsite, probably thinking, "Holy shit! Free cigars!"

He recognized the cigar wrappings as looking important and sent them off to his commander. That guy, in turn, sent them to his commander. Through who knows how many chances for the scrap of paper to get lost, bled on, eaten by a horse or for the guy holding them to get blown up by a cannon ball, they survived until some aide somehow recognized it as Robert E. Lee's handwriting.

He gave it to Union General George McClellan.

And How Did it Change The World?

Ever heard of the Battle of Antietam? The bloodiest day in American history? The North won, and from that point on the South didn't really have a chance.

Well, the Union won because it basically had the equivalent to Prima's Official Strategy Guide on Robert E. Lee's Invasion of Maryland.

Read more: 6 Random Coincidences That Created The Modern World #4. The Cigar Box that Won the Civil War
By Fernando Espino | April 27, 2009 | 3,820,057 views (this will give them some more)
(I give this link with some hesitation, he doesn't seem to appreciate what a great artist Adolph was!)
http://www.cracked.com/article_17298_6-random-coincidences-that-created-modern-world.html

Serves the Calvinist right for Calvinists being main enactors of slavery in the 17th C. doesn't it? You see, I heard from a VERY great Civil War buff friend of mine (a Balkan man, like Zlatan) and he was a Southron admirer, that Stonewall Jackson was a Calvinist, he was so brave because he thought God had predestined everything anyway.

God sure had predestined that lazy moment of Stonewall Jackson's, and the cigar box, doesn't mean they lacked freewill!

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
Octave of Immaculate Conception
of the Blessed Virgin Mary
15-XII-2014

Désolé pour le délai avec la Réforme suédoise, mais il y a "Frau HM"

Ich bin Frau H. M., der Auditor General von Unicaja Bank Madrid. Im Zuge meiner Abschlusspruefung, entdeckte ich eine schwimmende Fonds auf einem Konto, das 1990 bei der Cam Bank eroeffnet wurde, bevor der Besitz von Unicaja Gruppe gekauft wurde, ich bin der Abschlusspruefer der einem toten Auslaender Herr Kenny, der im Jahr 2004 starb, zugeteilt wurde

Bien, Frau H. M. (et pourquoi pas Frau H. M. L.), ça passe encore. Notons que Frau veut dire Madame, il s'agit donc d'une mariée, divorcée ou veuve, surtout d'une femme.

der Auditor General von Unicaja Bank Madrid.

Mais "der Auditor" c'est au masculin!

Je ne suis pas du tout sûr qu'un Allemand dirait "Auditor General", ça pourrait venir d'une mauvaise traduction sur Google Translate, ça pourrait aussi être un mot composé.

Mais je suis très sûr qu'un Auditor General est un homme et que si une femme a ce poste elle serait Auditorin General.

En plus, traduire "de" au sens génitif avec "von" est conversationnel, dans une lettre formelle c'est impossible. Soit on utilise le vrai génitif, soit on utilise "chez" c'est à dire en Allemand "bei".

Im Zuge meiner Abschlusspruefung

Avec Abschlußprüfung juste derrière cette lettre, elle pourrait peut-être plutôt être une Mademoiselle, non? En plus on ne devient pas auditeur général juste après une Abschlußprüfung. Qu'elle écrit le mot Abschlusspruefung n'est pas une vraie faute d'orthographe, car ß peut avoir ss comme substitut, et ü peut être remplacé avec ue, mais dans une lettre formelle un professionnel devra utiliser les signes correctes, les abbréviations convenues (ü est une abbréviation convenue de ue, et ß à l'origine de sz, mais de nos jours on le considère aussi comme équivalent de ss - encore, si c'était une Suisse allemande, Abschlusspruefung pourrait bien passer).

entdeckte ich eine schwimmende Fonds auf einem Konto, das 1990 bei der Cam Bank eroeffnet wurde, bevor der Besitz von Unicaja Gruppe gekauft wurde,

Dit-elle "eine Fonds"? Si c'est "le fonds" en Français, je crois qu'ici ça devrait être "einen Fonds", biensûr "schwimmenden" (aber was ist denn das?).

Pour "eroeffnet" la nuance de correctitude est la même que pour "Abschlusspruefung".

bevor der Besitz von Unicaja Gruppe gekauft wurde,

... von der Unicaja Gruppe!

ich bin der Abschlusspruefer der einem toten Auslaender Herr Kenny, der im Jahr 2004 starb, zugeteilt wurde

Oh, j'avais mal compris Abschlusspruefung alors. Je croyais que cet Abschluss était la fin d'études, et Abschlusspruefung un examen, mais il semble que dans le monde comercial et bancaire le mot se refère à la fermeture (Abschluss aussi) d'un compte.

Mon vocabulaire allemand est incomplet, vu que j'ai quitté Vienne à l'âge de 11 et 1/2.

Par contre FRAU H.M. ne peut pas être DER Abschlußprüf-ER, et ELLE ne peut pas être CELUI, DER .... zugeteilt wurde. Mais plutôt DIE Abschlußprüf-ERIN, DIE .... zugeteilt wurde.

Et pour Auslaender = Ausländer, voir plus haut. Encore, un vrai agent de banc saurait normalement pas seulement que M. Kenny est "étranger" mais aussi de quelle nationalité.

S'il vous plaît, continuez d'être si faibles en Allemand (et en logique d'affaires) la prochaine fois que vous essayez de tromper quelqu'un!

En prime:

Received: from ...(....[10.223.111.63])

Thu, 11 Dec 2014 11:27:12 +0100

X-Sieve: CMU Sieve 2.3

Received: from ... .com.mx ([201.134.92.83])

Si une adresse finit en .mx, peut-on croire que le spammeur (et même scammeur) se trouve au Mexique? Je ne serais pas trop étonné. Il y a là-bas des gens qui sont fiers d'un ancêtre Cristero, mais aussi d'autres qui les détestent, et qui probablement me détestent parce que je suis pour les Cristeros. Il y a même des gens qui me détesteraient parce que je trouve les actes de Cortez davantage correctes que ceux de Moctezuma.

De toute manière, sur les adresses la recherche me donne:

inetnum: 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
netname: IETF-RESERVED-ADDRESS-BLOCK
descr: IPv4 address block reserved by the IETF

inetnum: 201.0.0.0 - 201.255.255.255
netname: NON-RIPE-NCC-MANAGED-ADDRESS-BLOCK
descr: IPv4 address block not managed by the RIPE NCC

En d'autres mots, ce ne sont de toute manière pas des adresses IP normales d'Europe.

Hans Georg Lundahl
BU Nanterre
Octave de l'Immaculée Conception
de la Bienheureuse Vierge Marie et
Ste Christiane la servante
15-XII-2014

From Babel to Common Traits of Indo-European Languages - doing without a Mother language

I know, I have promised a French essay on the Swedish-Catholic noble exiles in Poland ... still upcoming!

Following examples of language confusion are taken from a meme found on "Silly Linguistics" which was termed "Language confusion #1", not all in tables there as here, but I put them so because I wanted my full sentences to be about a solution type (totally theoretical in the cases given):

Afrikaans	German	English
Hoekom	Warum	Why, How come
Wie	Wer	Who
Waar	Wo	Where
Hoe	Wie	How

If speakers of Afrikaans, German and English in South Africa and South West Africa had been cut off totally from Europe, would we not have seen attempts to uniformise the system? Would remaining differences not be more likely to be about words that could be taken as synonyms, rather than in meaning of homonyms?

A side note: on first and last line, "why" and "wie" would be very old forms, instrumentals of the masculine/neuter form. But diversified. In Swedish "hvi" used to exist, until loosing its h and being pronounced like "vi" = "we". Then the word "hvarföre" modelled after (extinct) "hvarför" and both probably after German "warum, wofür" replaced "hvi". This also happened in dialects where h remained, if any.

	Swedish	Norvegian	German	English	Esperanto
expedition	= office, expedition	= office, expedition	rare, like English	= expedition, not office
semester	= vacation	= vacation	= term	= term?
vi	= we	= we			= you
ni	= you				= we
-en (on noun)	the ...	the ...	pl.	(occ. pl.)

Meanings of "expedition" and "semester" might tend to uniformise in bilingual situations. Confer the meaning of "réaliser" in French Canadian. In US and Canadian English "realise" less means "bring about," "make real in the real world" than "make real to oneself," "understand the full implications of" while in French of France the latter meaning is unknown. "Un réalisateur" is what is called a "director", he takes a film from script to real moving pictures ready to be shown on theatres. But French Canadians nevertheless use "réaliser" like in English too. Why? How come? Well, they are often bilingual and their neighbours are speaking English.

Or "vi"/"ni"? If Esperanto and Swedish had been two neighbouring languages, would they not have tried to uniformise the usage, ideally by replacement?

Supposing Norwegian was beside with "I" for you and "vi" for "we", would not a probable (but not certain) oputcome have been to eliminate "ni" and uniformise "vi, I" rather than anything else?

But if Italian rather than Norwegian had been beside, with "noi, ci" for "we, us" and "voi, vi" for "ye, you", would not another outcome have been more probable? Noi for we, voi for you? Or even chi/tji (after ci), I (after Norw. I), or why not even - if we had had both Norwegian and Italian - suppose the polite form "Dere" could play a role?

All languages switch to Italian Chi for we, all languages switch to Norwegian polite Dere for you. That could possibly happen, and both equivocal forms would be eliminated.

Before leaving Swedish "ni", it has a very interesting story. In correct Swedish "do you guys want to ...?" used to be "vilja ni ...?" but only since the latest clear change in Swedish. This phrase originated as (unrecorded or scarce recorded) "vilje ni ...". Which phrase in its turn came from "viljen I ..." - the standard form in 17th C Swedish and in Bible Swedish. That however has a curious verb ending. Indo-European -ete would give Germanic -ið, and Old English -aþ became all three plural persons, while Icelandic -ð remains, like German -et, the usual 2pl form. So why "viljen I" rather than "viljedh I"? Probably from German "wollen Sie" where the 3pl is a polite substitute for 2pl. And this third plural verb ending in its most abrased form (next to total extinction) became the initial of the modern Swedish 2pl personal pronoun - in nominative only. Other cases, like Er/Eder/Edher (general oblique, plus one form of possessive), it still starts in a vowel. And it is the same pronoun as "you", since y disappeared (year = år) in Nordic languages.

And would not - to get back to the list - Swedish -r replace German -en, German "der, die, das : die" replace Swedish -en, -et : -na? I mean, if Swedish and German had been two neighbouring languages, lots of bilinguals, neither having a written literature.

Except of course possibly where Swedish -en/-on was in itself plural (Husen, ögonen) ...

Afrikaans	Dutch
het	heeft
't	het

"'T boom heeft blaren!"

Obviously, all of these are purely theoretical, in real life all languages here already have their histories and their literature, and are not likely to adapt because of confusions where they get neighbourly. All are well aware that they speak same language as Swedes and Norwegians who are neither neighbours of Germans nor of Esperanto speaking populations. Or same language as Germans who are not neighbours of Scandinavians or Esperanto speakers. Or of having learnt Esperanto as an international help language. So none is likely even in such a situation to switch grammar. But this cultural background was not there just after Babel. So this kind of syncretistic mutual adaptation between language systems was then much more possible.

It has actually happened once historically. English and Old English have diverse systems of pronouns and articles - because of centuries of bilingualism in Danish/Norwegian.

To me - that is on my favourite guess, I do not pretend to know, only that linguists know no better - Proto-Indo-European was not a language like those arising immediately after Babel, it was a failed attempt at an Esperanto after Tower of Babel, and one which never achieved a complete lexicon, or as complete a lexicon even as Esperanto has. Though the lexicon might have grown to more complete than Quenya.

The problem with this model for an evolutionist linguist is not of the linguistic type. Rather, it's a question if people back when the commonalities between Indo-European languages are from were advanced enough to make such an attempt.

I am pretty sure, and Swaheli provides a key, if peoples coming from Semitic Lud, Hamitic Heth and Kaphthorim, Iaphetitic Iavan and Madan, were all cramped together in and around Anatolia, they would very soon try to eliminate too grating discrepancies. And we get Nesili possibly spoken by Ludians, or less likely by original Hethites (Hattusha was conquered, and when its language was later used as a sacred language this Hattili/Hattic remained distinct from Nesili/Hittite, it may be Fenno-Ugrian or related to Karthvelian), Lydian, Lykian and Phrygian certainly spoken by Ludians, Ionic Greek spoken by Iavanians, probably early Aryan (Indo-Iranian) spoken by Kaphthorim on Crete* and ALL of these adapting to common patterns - conjugations of verbs, words for close relatives (out of six words, Germanic is unique in keeping all six : Greek replaces "brother and sister", Latin "son and daughter", Slavonic and Baltic replace the word for "father" - as does Hittite and Gothic, going same way as Slavonic), certain bodyparts but intriguingly not others, numerals up to ten and the word for hundred, mostly too the word for twenty ... it is less a question of adopting wholesale all commonalities, but of adapting more or less to them.

Some of the words were from start given with different pronunciations according to language (as in Esperanto or Latin loans and neologisms in -tion), and these helped to determine shape of loans between the languages. Take "rotation" - a word in -tion, come into great use in modern astronomy and mechanics.

Let it land in 1) Copenhagen, 2) Malmö, 3) Stockholm and 4) Helsingfors or Åbo (Helsinki and Turku to Finnish speakers, I am here concerned with the Swedish dialect there) - it will immediately be pronounced in four different ways. 1/2 will have French R:s, and 3/4 will have Italian r:s. 2/3 will pronounce "ti" in between sh/ach-laut and Scots wh (combine retroflex, velar and labialised!), 1 will pronounce it like "si" in Polish or "tj" in Swedish, whereas 4 will have a sh of same type as English. In 4 the ending will be -n after a pure long vowel [-u:n], in 3 there will be an off glide [-u:^wn], in 2 the offglide will nearly form a diphthong and there will be an unrounded on-glide [-^euwwn] and in 1 you will have a diphthong starting with a clearly lower , namely mid-high vowel [-o:n/-oun/-o:^wn]. These pronunciations obviously never came from a common pronunciation of that word in the even there hypothetically unified (spelled alike) mother language Dönsk tungu, but instead these pronunciations arise with instant diversification - in part where each speaker of Danish or Swedish had access to the word on paper, but also in part where a speaker from any of these areas hearing it in any of the other ones makes a kind of "phonetic translation" while adopting the word.

Saying this cannot have happened can have three roots, none of them quite reasonable to me:

• Nostalgia or horror nostalgia for Urheimat (Scandinavia in 30's and 40's, Kurgan in 50's, Anatolia of Agricultural Revolution in 90's)
• Considering the process too sophisticated for whoever spoke original words now so widespread
• A kind of fear least this fate of a failed Indo-European Esperanto should become a prophecy about the present projects of world languages, whether English or Esperanto or other.

But reasons are also given.

"Languages very rarely borrow basic vocabulary or grammatic material from each other"

Depends on how close they are squatting on each other. Depends on how confusing bilingualism was before borrowings. And how attractive the other language is as a model.

"Why would words for relatives be common to very many different peoples?"

Courts and arranged/diplomatic marriages? Noted how "daughter in law" is one of the words that come up more than once?

"If it was a lingua franca, why din't it have numerals consistently all over, and what about currency?"

The numerals that are found over and over again are so basic they could be from liturgic instructions. Even true of "hundred" if the Greek custom of Hecatombic sacrifice has some prehistory. Lack of common numerals for thousand or for thirty or a common way of saying fortyfive might reflect aptness in code switching or lack or commercial interest.

"A lingua franca cannot have had the grammatical complexity of Latin, Greek, Sanskrit"

They can have shared and parallelled innovations. Conditional mood of Romance languages is an innovation. The Latin futures in -bo and imperfects in -bam are supposed to be innovations. The point about lingua francas is they are usually used, when at all by educated people, as a makeshift instead of a common educated language. Here I mean the lingua franca can also have had the social function of a high language.

"Original indo-european grammar was highly complex and survives only in incomplete form in whatever the daughter language we study."

The incomplete survival of a supposedly even more complex conjugation, of a supposedly eight cased declinsion, of supposedly fine shaded synonyms which have been taken over diversely in diverse languages, may be due to fact that many languages contributed. Is head *qwennos, *kaput, *kauput, *ghabhala/*ghabhalom (which latter is reconstructed for Greek kephalé, Lithuanian galva, Polish glów) a list of fine shaded synonyms in one original language, or are penn/céann, caput, heafod/Haupt, the Greco-Slavic forms a symptom of many languages at the very origin of the story?

"If Indo-European was originally meant as a lingua franca like Esperanto, why didn't they put it into writing?"

What if Nesili was far from only, but at least highest prestige form of the lingua franca? What if common words - like the pater gloss, different from Nesili attas - were exchanged below but not quite independently of Hittite?

Or what if the lingua franca was for religious taboo reasons an oral only language? I can imagine breakdown of Hattusha ushering in a ban against Hittite hieroglyphs among people nevertheless united "by Hittite" - i e by Indo-European.

"Nesili and Sanskrit are both to worn out to be original IE"

In Nesili, like in Mycenean Greek, like in Runes, the pronunciation is given with approximations. Sanskrit is too worn and a bit later than Nesili too. Plus original may have been unwritten.

And so on. Objections to my thyeory can be answered. PIE is not a refutation of Babel, and I would hardly class it as an immediate product of Babel either. Fenno-Ugrian can have been a rival attempt at making an Esperanto, which also failed to unify humanity (isä - apa : atya - apa may be same two words as attas :/: pater, but with pater compound, both apa- and -ter ending).

Hans Georg Lundahl
Bpi, Georges Pompidou
Pope St Damasus I
and St Daniel Stylite
11-XII-2014

* If the theory is correct according to which decryptation of Linear A really yielded an Aryan language.