A Critical Review and Update of Robert Graves "The White Goddess" - An Investigation (Page 8)

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Summary so far: The date for the events of the Cad Goddeu ('The Battle of the Trees') suggested by Graves seems too early for any supposed event involving replacement of an older alphabet with a newer alphabet in Britain to have taken place. However, the events may have happened earlier. If we explore 1700 BCE as their possible date of occurence, there were several alphabets or collections of sounds that might have been the 13-consonant alphabet that Graves calls the "Beth-Luis-Nion", which Graves suggests was already in use in Britain by some group living there, at the time when what he suggested were the "Celts" arrived. And there may have been was a Semitic language spoken in Britain possibly even before 1700 BCE, by the Picts who were there mining tin. Around 1700 BCE, there was a power struggling going on over tin to make bronze.

KEY QUESTION EIGHT: Could a new alphabet have arrived in Britain in 1700 BCE?

There are no noticeable invasions of Britain around 1700 BCE.

The only proposed (by myth) arrival is of the Milesians. If they correspond to a people that really did exist, it's possible that they were only a small band (perhaps with the goal of gaining control of the tin mines and trade).

If they brought the Celtic/Gaelic language and myth, it may have, at that time, been only moderately different from the Semitic traditions already in Britain.

http://www.ensignmessage.com/archives/hebrew.html gives this illustration of that possibility:
THE SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE EARLY IRISH-CELTIC AND THE SECOND CENTURY, B.C., HEBREW- PHOENICIAN LANGUAGE, AS SHOWN BY THE PENULUS OF PLAUTUS:

PHOENICIAN OF PLAUTUS:
Byth lym mo thym nociothii nel ech an ti daisc machon
Ys i do iebrim thyfe lyth chy lya chon temlyph ula.

EARLY IRISH-CELTIC:
Beth liom' mo thime nociaithe, niel ach an ti dairie mae coinne
Is i de leabhraim tafach leith, chi lis con teampluibh ulla.

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CONCLUSION: It can't be proved or disproved that there were new arrivals in Britain around 1700 BCE. There are possible arrivals though.

CONTINUE ON TO MORE DISCUSSION OF ROBERT GRAVES' THE WHITE GODDESS