From: Manuel Rosario
Message: 2133
Date: 2000-04-15
>From: "Urban Lindqvist" <urban.lindqvist@...>______________________________________________________
>Reply-To: cybalist@egroups.com
>To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
>Subject: [cybalist] SV: Re: avestan and vedic
>Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 11:42:19 +0200
>
> > From: John Croft <jdcroft@...>
> >
> > As for the Vedic language, I know that the River Saraswati is
> > mentioned in the early Vedas, and on geological evidence that is
> > supposed to have dried up about 1,500 BCE. On this ground, Sanscrit
> > is a lot earlier than Avestan, although of course such evidence needs
> > to be taken carefully.
> >
> > Homer for instance, knew of a late Mycenaean seige of Troy, but the
> > language he wrote in was Ionian Greek, far removed from the
> > Paleo-Arcadian dialect the Mycenaeans are supposed to have spoken.
> > A similar set of events may have also occurred with Sanscrit.
>
>Yes, we mustn't forget that the languages of the Homeric poems and the
>Rigvedic hymns are both highly formulaic and traditional (as is Avestan).
>Any attempt to establish a terminus ante quem is therefore highly
>dangerous.
>
>Urban
>
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