Re: beyond languages: Mitanni and Rg-Vedic chronology

From: fournet.arnaud
Message: 58166
Date: 2008-04-28

----- Original Message -----
From: "koenraad_elst" <koenraad.elst@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 4:47 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: beyond languages: Mitanni and Rg-Vedic chronology



> The linguistic ancestor to all Iranian and Indian IE languages
split into a
> certain number of branches :
> Among which we can identify :
> - Eastern Europe Iranian
> - Eastern Europe Indian (substrate to Mordvin)
> - Mittani "Indo-Aryan"
> - Persian Iranian
> - Indian Indic
>
> Whatever and Whenever Mittani indo-Aryan was,
> This has *NO* relevance *WHATSOEVER* with India and Indic.
>
> Rg Veda can be dated thru internal examination of what Rg Veda is.
> Nobody cares what Mittani indo-aryan was, when it comes to Rg Veda.
>
> Even if Mittani was totally unknown, that would not change a single
letter
> of what we understand about Rg Veda.
>
> Arnaud
>

>Agreed. Except that the Mitanni evidence may well externally
>corroborate the internal chronology of the Rg-Veda.

>While Out-of-India theorizing has been captured lately by people with
>little understanding of IE scholarship, one exception has kept on
>doing serious work, at a steadily improving level: bank clerk
>Shrikant Talageri,
=======
I don't think he is an exception.
Maybe he will develop more complicated tricks.
Arnaud
=========
>Smug invasion theorists are welcome to laugh out loud, but this may
>well be what future generations will be taught about Indo-Iranian:

There is no invasion theory
Just a process of ethnogenesis involving IE speakers coming from somewhere
else.
Arnaud
======

>Also referring to the common culture of the late-Rg-Vedic and Avestan
>period are the Mitanni (and Kassite) names. After the emigration of
>the Iranians (and before them, of other early-IE-speaking groups),
=========
This kind of theory will always crash on the obvious fact that some
languages like Uralic Moksha displays clear Indic features.
Actually, it's possible that the three-way s, s^ and รง has been introduced
in Moksha by Sanscrit.

And it will always crash on the obvious problem that there is no reason why
IE should have only expanded toward the north-west.
Once established in India, Indic started expanding in all directions as can
be expected.

Arnaud
======