--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> Here's Iravatham Mahadevan's critical assessment of Asko Parpola's
admittedly ingenious attempt to decipher the Indus script:
>
> http://www.harappa.com/script/maha15.html
>
> Retroflexion is of course characteristic of Dravidian, but if Rigvedic
Indo-Aryan had the retroflex series before it began to borrow words from
Dravidian, one has to consider other substare languages as the possible
source of retroflexion -- perhaps in Dravidian _as well as_ Indo-Aryan.
Retroflex consonants occur also in Burushaski (a linguistic isolate), in
Dardic, Nuristani, and in the Iranian languages of the Afghan region
(Pashto, Parachi, Ormuri, some Baluchi dialects, most of the Pamir
languages). As these languages do not form a genetic grouping, only a
geographical one, retroflexion must be considered an areal trait,
possibly picked up from a pre-IE substrate of Central Asia.
>
> Piotr
Yes, Retroflexion is a characteristic of Dravidian, and if you
let drav. to be the high Harappan language, Burishaski etc.,
could borrow retroflexion from Dravidian.
"Systemic" retroflexion, rather than spontaneous, and imbedded
in the syllabary is characteristic in India. Possibly from
Dravidian.
Regards,
N. Ganesan