This "substrate" influenced the vocabulary and structure of the languages that eventually replaced them.

He identifies structural similarities between Insular Celtic languages (like Irish and Welsh) and Semitic/Hamitic languages, such as Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) word order.

The comparative method , the gold standard for determining language relationships, does not strongly support these deep-time connections.

He even suggests these colonizers significantly impacted the development of Germanic languages , influencing everything from the invention of runes to the origins of deities like the Vanir . Academic Reception