Quote Originally Posted by Frostwulf
I was curious to which tribes you consider 'real' German? My guess is your referring to the Suebi as being real Germans while the Belgae tribes not being 'real' Germans?
since these regions were at the time still in the phase of prehistory (or proto-history, a term referring to ppl which left no written evidence of their own - if you got your education in france though, you probably see protohistory as teh period from the first agriculture, being the neolithicum, well thats only a methodological difference), we depend on archeology. but its hard to see a difference in language based on parts of pots and weapons. basically no real difference can be seen between the ppl caesar called germans and the ones he saw as gauls, culturally that is. the rhine as border was mostly arbitrary and apologetic to explain why he stopped his conquests there. archeologist nowadays now for sure the culture on both sides was the same.

the belgae were celtic but seemed to have claimed lineage with 'german' tribes to the north, yet looking at example the the language they used in names we know as 'ambiorix' the -ix suffix is celtic and refers to 'king'.

so yes the belgae weren't real germans in terms of language. as i said the rhine effectively became a 'linguistic' border by the time of august.

@Moros

good luck in Leuven, but i've always been hooked on Ghent, and as i'm from west-vlaanderen, its also a lot closer. though the depart of letteren & wijsbegeerte is a nice building (sweet big libraries). couldn't find the entrance though the first time i came there