Re: beyond languages: Mitanni and Rg-Vedic chronology

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "fournet.arnaud"
<fournet.arnaud@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "koenraad_elst"
> <koenraad.elst@...> wrote:
>
> > ...there are many languages with adstrates originating far
> > away. Thus, most European languages have a few dozen Arabic
> > words (cheque, tariff, zenith, azimuth, Betelgeuze, Aldebaran)
> > though never bordering on the Arabic speech area.
>
> I beg your pardon? Arabic has occupied Spain for centuries.
> You can trace Arabic LWs coming from two directions:
> thru Spain: they bear the article al-
> thru Italy: they are naked.

Not to speak of the fact that Arabic expansions are well-documented
historically -- in fact, they can be traced in great geographical
and chronological detail -- and, unlike the tribal migrations of the
type hypothesized for the prehistoric Indo-Aryans, were state-led
expansions. The same is true for the Spanish expansions that were
anachronistically evoked by Koenraad as a supposed term of
comparison for prehistoric Indo-Aryan expansions. In both cases, it
is like to compare apple and oranges.

> ...there is a question to answer: are Mordvins Uralic people with
> a strong Indo-Aryan substrate? or are Mordvins actually Indo-
> Aryans that have been Uralicized?

I'm very interested in this Mordvin story, Arnaud, but could you
kindly eleborate further on the alleged *Indo-Aryan* features of
some Mordvinic languages? I thought this was a case of *Iranian*
linguistic influence on Uralic.

> Chinese has both Indo-Aryan and Tocharian LWs.

What are the Indo-Aryan loan words in Chinese? Never heard of them.

Thanks and best regards,
Francesco