Norse Mythology Family Tree

[Desdichado]

Actually, Mark, Teutonic is an archaic term that hasn't been used much in historical, archeological or linguistic terminology for the better part of 80 years or so, at least in the English-speaking academic world. I think you're using Teutonic to mean Germanic the way professional linguists and historians do, and using Germanic to refer to something more specifically German, or proto-German.

There is a very clear distinction between German and Germanic; German referring to the country Germany, or things that pertain to said country (such as language or people) and Germanic referring to the broad culturo-linguistic group that led to such diverse culturo-linguistic entities as the Skandinavians, the Ostrogoths, the Germans and the English, to name just a few. Germanic is a very broad branch of the Indo-European language tree, on par with Celtic, Slavic, Indo-Iranian, or any other "top level" family division that came out of the Proto-Indo-European dispersion. So using the term Germanic as a broad term is actually perfectly correct.

Granted, amongst people who don't read the specialist literature, there can be some confusion between the terms German vs. Germanic, but it doesn't take long to clear that up. Meanwhile, Teutonic has been dropped by the academic community pretty thoroughly because of it's dubious origins.

In a way that's unfortunate, because it would be easier in some ways to use it as a more specific phrase that clearly didn't refer to the much more modern entity of Germany, but there it is. My original comment was fairly light-hearted in that I was merely pointing out the irony of using the name of a tribe that may very well have been Celtic to refer to the Germanic people, but now you've let the genie out of the bottle and got me talking all technical about one of my hobbies.

 

[Mark]

I think you're using Teutonic to mean Germanic the way professional linguists and historians do, and using Germanic to refer to something more specifically German, or proto-German.

No, I'm not actually. I'm using it to refer to some (but not all) of the people who you are referring to broadly as Celtic. I'm specifically meaning the tribal people who later moved southward, challenged the Romans, and also influenced a number of tribes that you are referring to as Germanic.

I think my first link may have confused you and the issue, so my apologies for that, but clearly not all of the Germanic people influenced what is now commonly accepted as Norse Mythology and thus my point of it being imprecise.

I think the confusion might also stem from your attaching the influence primarily to linguistics and I am attaching it primarily to cultures.

 

[Desdichado]

OK, I see your point. As my familiarity with the subject is primarily driven by my linguistic hobby, it's very likely that I'm giving too much weight to that aspect of it.

 

[Mark]

OK, I see your point. As my familiarity with the subject is primarily driven by my linguistic hobby, it's very likely that I'm giving too much weight to that aspect of it.

And in all fairness, linguistics can be considered the cornerstone of most cultural influences, so I can certainly understand why that was naturally used as a frame of reference.