The comparative method , the gold standard for determining language relationships, does not strongly support these deep-time connections.
Vennemann posits that starting in the fifth millennium BCE, Atlantic/Semitidic seafaring colonizers (related to Semitic speakers) settled the coastal regions of Western and Northern Europe. Europa Vasconica-Europa Semitica
He points to Old European hydronyms (river names) across the continent, which he reinterprets as having Basque-related origins rather than Indo-European ones. The comparative method , the gold standard for
This "substrate" influenced the vocabulary and structure of the languages that eventually replaced them. The comparative method
Structural similarities like VSO word order may be typological coincidences rather than proof of direct contact.
While provocative, Vennemann's theories are highly debated and generally rejected by the mainstream linguistic community. Critics often argue that: