Quote Originally Posted by cmacq View Post
Sorry, not to draw too fine a point, however...



As with the Lepontii and Euganei, neither the Raetians nor Ligurians were Italic people. As well it doesn't appear they were Celt and I don't even think they were IEs, although there may have been an IE aspect, of some kind. If one wants to go the IE route with them that brings us round to the Centum, and I may have to go there at some point, but not yet.
You are correct the Raetians and Ligurians talked non IE languages and weren't Italians. They however were subject to Celtic influence quite a bit however. That's all I and power2the1 siad. We never claimed them to be celtic.



Again, most likely not Celt. I can provide one link between the Polish (Baltic) and Italian (Adriatic) Veneti. Amber...
Yes. But that's all. And the author the OP read claimed a connection between the 'Italian' and the Gallic tribes.



If... and that’s a big if; the Veneti people were IE, and if the three major groups were related, then they most likely were an aspect of the LBA Urnfield expression? As with the proto-Celts, -Italics, -Illyrian, -western Balts, and others; this period witnessed the geographical jockeying that got each into their historic settings. However, the Celt ethnogenesis and following expansion occurred later in the EIA (euro). Also the archaeology of all thee Veneti groups do not fit well with the establish perimeters provided for continental Celtic culture.
I'm pretty sure the Veneti are considered IE by the scientific world. However they probably aren't closr related to the Celts than other IE's were.