Message
from the Author:
Dear student of the ancient Veneti.
If you download this book to look at, you should know - to avoid confusion with other views - that this is a new (since about 2000) perspective on the ancient Veneti, that saw them as the major northern trader people, much like the Phoenicians were in the Mediterranean and south on the African coast - with colonies everywhere (Yes, who can disagree that the best explanation for the ancient Veneti name being manifested widely is that they were large scale traders and established trade colonies in widely separated strategic locations?) The current theory regarding the Veneti, as you will see in encyclopedias is that they were a farmer people who migrated alot, and/or that the Veneti name in different locations are simply coincidences of different peoples using the same name. An alternative theory from Slovenian sources sees the Veneti to be of Slavic origins, and which requires complicated reconstruction of European prehistory that irritates the academic community.
My new perspective is not radical, and should not irritate anyone, and fits in with current knowledge and beliefs - at least historical and archeological. It simply proposes that if the Mediterranean had large scale trader people like the Phoenician or Greek traders, then it would be ridiculous to claim that there were no large scale players in the north. Julius Caesar wrote of the Brittany Veneti that 'they rule all who sail the seas', and that is one piece of evidence, but since with a stiff wind, a ship can sail from Britain to the east Baltic day and night in ten days, it is ludicrous to think that the Veneti dominance ended at the Jutland Peninsula! A dominance across ALL the northern seas is perhaps what Caesar meant, and that would then explain the "Venedi" name at the other source of amber at the southeast Baltic.
With this point of view, one is motivated to find the linguistic origins of the Veneti in those northern people most advanced with boats since the "Maglemose" culture after the Ice Age, and who were most preadapted to be long distance sea and river trader peoples - the Finnic peoples ( most of the western ones having assimilated into Germanic in the first millenium, but remnants today are Saami, Finns, Estonians, Livonians) The Adriatic Venetic inscriptions are located at the southern terminus of the amber trade route from the Jutland Peninsula, so the contact with the north is strongly evident.
But the proof will be in interpreting the language. I leave it up to you to determine if the book convincingly shows Venetic to have been of a Finnic nature, originating in a large scale seatrade lingua franca across the northern seas. The book might not be printed, but become an ebook in an ebook service, with a small charge. This is my final work on the Veneti language, as I cannot see what more I can do - unless archeology finds a pile of new inscriptions. (There is only so much you can squeeze out of the small quantity of Venetic inscriptions there are. Merely changing opinions on small details does not add much more.)
DRAFT BOOK
CURRENTLY MAY BE DOWNLOADED FREE
THE VENETI LANGUAGE:
A Deciphering of
an Ancient Language
from First Principles
pdf file 8megs
REFLECTIONS ABOUT THE WORK
My interest in this subject is founded in my
simple curiosity, but when I managed to translate the inscriptions, I
felt it only proper that I would document what I have done, because
this methodology may be useful in deciphering other undeciphered
inscriptions. A philosophical question: Is truth only
discovered through
science? Obviously this is not true. We learn a great deal via our
intuition, from direct observation, Science is the intellectualization
of things in our world, and yet , how does a baby learn its mother's
language, or to walk without intellectualizing the process? Gaining
knowledge can be very direct and intuitive. And that can apply to
interpreting inscriptions. An archeologist looking at words on an
archeological object, may suddenly understand what it says without
being able to explain intellectually where the insight came from.
There are linguists who dismiss my work because it is not hard core
linguistic science that they want to see. But the purpose of
deciphering inscriptions is to find meanings to words, and the end is
what counts, not how it was achieved. The end result is what matters,
surely, and the real question is - is it possible for me to show so
much coincidence and pattern in the Venetic if it is not really there?
The intricate patterns seen in a language can only be seen if it is
seen correctly - that these patterns are really there and not forced on
it. Forcing somethng on it is like forcing a square peg into a round hole. You can maybe
force it in with a hammer, but only the correct peg will be the one
that fits in easily. Thus if a Finnic approach to Venetic produces the
most organized, realistic and natural results it means the Finnic
approach is the round peg in the round hole, while the Indo-European
approaches which produce limited results that are too skeletal or too
absurd, are the square pegs forced into the round holes. Let us not get
hung up with methodology and intellectualizations, but look at the
result. Does the result look like a square peg forced into a round
hole (with bent edges etc) or like a round peg easily fitting into a
round hole. THAT is what the critic must address - not some
disagreement in some detail here or there in the process.-located on the website of artist Andres Pääbo at http://www.paabo.ca/veneti/index.html -