 Whether or not any of the Belgian "Germani" spoke a Germanic language in the modern sense is uncertain.The names of their leaders and their tribes for the most part appear to have Celtic origins, which is in fact also true of the neighbouring tribes across the Rhine in "Germania" at that time, such as the Tencteri and Usipetes.On the other hand, place-name analysis seems to show that a Germanic language was being spoken in this region by the 2nd century BCE, and there are also signs of an older substrate language in the Belgic region.