Elamo-Dravidian languages
| Elamo-Dravidian | |
|---|---|
| (obsolete) | |
| Geographic distribution: |
South Asia, West Asia |
| Linguistic classification: | Proposed language family |
| Subdivisions: | |
| Glottolog: | None |
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The Elamo-Dravidian language family is a hypothesised language family that links the Dravidian languages of India to the extinct Elamite language of ancient Elam (present-day southwestern Iran). Linguist David McAlpin has been a chief proponent of the Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis. Recent[when?] collaborative work with American Indologist Franklin C Southworth further establishes[citation needed] this family in academic circles.[1] The extinct Harappan language (the language or languages of the Indus Valley Civilization) may also be part of this family. Proponents of the larger Nostratic language family hypothesis accepted Elamo-Dravidian at an early stage.
Linguistic arguments
McAlpin (1975) in his study identified some similarities between Elamite and Dravidian. He proposed that 20% of Dravidian and Elamite vocabulary are cognates while 12% are probable cognates. He further proposed that Elamite and Dravidian possess similar second-person pronouns and parallel case endings. For example the term for mother in the Elamite language and in different Dravidian languages like Tamil is "amma".[2] They have identical derivatives, abstract nouns, and the same verb stem+tense marker+personal ending structure. Both have two positive tenses, a "past" and a "non-past".[3]
Georgiy Starostin criticized McAlpin's proposed morphological correspondences between Elamite and Dravidian as no closer than correspondences with other nearby language families.[4]
Proposed cultural links
Apart from the linguistic similarities, the Elamo-Dravidian Hypothesis rests on the claim that agriculture spread from the Near East to the Indus Valley region via Elam. This would suggest that agriculturalists brought a new language as well as farming from Elam. Supporting ethno-botanical data include the Near Eastern origin and name of wheat (D. Fuller). Later evidence of extensive trade between Elam and the Indus Valley Civilization suggests ongoing links between the two regions.
The distribution of living Dravidian languages, concentrated mostly in southern India but with isolated pockets in Southern Afghanistan and Pakistan (Brahui) and in Central and East India (Kurukh, Malto), suggests to some a wider past distribution of the Dravidian languages. However, there are varied opinions about the origin of northern Dravidian languages like Brahui, Kurukh and Malto[disambiguation needed].[5] The Kurukh have traditionally claimed to be from the Deccan Peninsula,[6] more specifically Karnataka. The same tradition has existed of the Brahui.[7][8] They call themselves immigrants.[9] Many scholars hold this same view of the Brahui[10] such as L. H. Horace Perera and M. Ratnasabapathy.[11] Moreover, it has now been demonstrated that the Brahui only migrated to Balochistan from central India after 1000 CE. The absence of any older Iranian loanwords in Brahui supports this hypothesis. The main Iranian contributor to Brahui vocabulary, Balochi, is a western Iranian language like Kurdish.[12]
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ The Cambridge History of Iran 2 by I. Gershevitch p.13
- ↑ David McAlpin, "Toward Proto-Elamo-Dravidian", Language vol. 50 no. 1 (1974); David McAlpin: "Elamite and Dravidian, Further Evidence of Relationships", Current Anthropology vol. 16 no. 1 (1975); David McAlpin: "Linguistic prehistory: the Dravidian situation", in Madhav M. Deshpande and Peter Edwin Hook: Aryan and Non-Aryan in India, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1979); David McAlpin, "Proto-Elamo-Dravidian: The Evidence and its Implications", Transactions of the American Philosophical Society vol. 71 pt. 3, (1981)
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ P. 83 The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate By Edwin Bryant
- ↑ P. 18 The Orāons of Chōtā Nāgpur: their history, economic life, and social organization. by Sarat Chandra Roy, Rai Bahadur; Alfred C Haddon
- ↑ P. 12 Origin and Spread of the Tamils By V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar
- ↑ P. 32 Ideology and status of Sanskrit : contributions to the history of the Sanskrit language by Jan E M Houben
- ↑ P. 45 The Brahui language, an old Dravidian language spoken in parts of Baluchistan and Sind by Sir Denys Bray
- ↑ Ancient India; Culture and Thought By M. L. Bhagi
- ↑ P. 23 Ceylon & Indian History from Early Times to 1505 A. D. By L. H. Horace Perera, M. Ratnasabapathy
- ↑ J. H. Elfenbein, A periplous of the ‘Brahui problem’, Studia Iranica vol. 16 (1987), pp. 215-233.
