Class 1, Question 8

• A suprastratum language is a newly arrived language that influences, and is influenced by, pre-existing languages (eg, vulgar Latin influenced, and was influenced by, the Celtic languages spoken in Gaul).

• A substratum language is a pre-existing language that is influenced by, and influences, more recent languages (eg, Gaulish, Iberian, Ligurian, etc, influenced and were influenced by the Germanic suprastratum).
Their presence:

• Liaison – refers to the phonological process that inserts a normally final consonant when it is followed by a vowel in the next word. Moreover, the “h” was a true consonant in Germanic languages, whereas it was not in Latin.

• The social contexts in which linguistic borrowing occurs. For instance, when a community of speakers learns a new language which has been superimposed upon them as would have been the case when Latin was spread to the provinces of Spain or Gaul, and carry traces of their native language into the new language.

• The French numerical system partially reflecting multiples of twenty, for example, seems to have been retained from the Celtic languages.

http://www.coh.arizona.edu/french/inst/fre280/walterpp25-35.htm http://books.google.ca/books?id=lBfcAgWbUYAC&pg=PA283&lpg=PA283&dq=substratum+and+a+superstratum,+celtic+languages&source=bl&ots=a-4-2UC2q-&sig=ijNRXsl3mrMxVCX-NFq5Q3FcNwU&hl=fr&ei=T8FATb3CL4XTgQeAs_WOAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=substratum%20and%20a%20superstratum%2C%20celtic%20languages&f=false