From: tgpedersen
Message: 15342
Date: 2002-09-10
>What a nice link! I eagerly grasp the opportunity to push my site
> Another:http://www.bharatvani.org/books/ait/ch34.htm
>
> "As for the alleged Dravidian substratum influence on Indo-Aryan
> phonetics, viz. the retroflex or cerebral consonants in Indo-Aryan
> (as well as in Dravidian), there has always been a school which
> rejects the hypothesis of a Dravidian origin. According to Eric
> Hamp, the phonetic conditions favouring the differentiation
> dental/retroflex "can be traced in the Indo-European patrimony of
> Sanskrit".31 Though Hamp is not yet prepared to discard a Dravidian
> influence in cerebralization altogether, he does note certain facts
> which plead against a Dravidian origin, e.g. the absence of
> retroflexes in initial position. The debate is still open, but the
> case for an indigenous IE origin is getting stronger. Also, a
> Dravidian origin of the retroflexes would not prove the Aryan
> invasion, merely that the interaction of Dravidian and Indo-Aryan
> happened later than the latter's separation from its IE sister
> branches."