--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> It's OK as long as you concede that "Indian" is not a language
family but an areal grouping (like, say, the "Balkan League"). If you
do so, your Indian lexicon may be a valuable contribution to Indian
areal studies -- a regrettably neglected field, in which, as I think
we agree, very much remains to be done. But the reality of linguistic
families (in particular, Indo-European and Dravidian) is supported by
a vast amount of very good evidence and can't be dismissed as an
artifact of the methods we use.
Yes, I concede and agree with you, Piotr, with a few caveats.
A linguistic area ca. 5500 BP is what we can get to with some degree
of confidence (statistically), because of the availability of
archaeological pointers and some inscriptions. Any reconstructions
further into pre-history -- say, the neolithic periods -- beyond that
date bristle with enormous methodological problems (like the ones
encountered by Renfrew when he tried to match archaeology and
language).
Just as IE and PIE studies have progressed, this field of studies
related to the languages of the area (Gujarati, Sindhi, Punjabi and
Tamil, in particular) are needed.
Another fundamental problem to be resolved is Sam.skr.tam itself
(Burrow has not said the last word on the topic); if, by definition,
it is an artifact created by an intervention (what Turner
calls 'hyper-sanskritization'-- a process of refinement by
grammarians (say, Pa_n.ini) and the 'literate' groups, the gulf which
exists between 'written' Sam.skr.tam (or, grammatically correct
Sam.skr.tam) and the spoken Pra_kr.t (or even Pa_li) has also to be
bridged with further studies. Luckily, we have a vast corpus of
inscriptions in Pra_kr.t and texts in Pa_li which may be invaluable
aids.
Bha_rata needs to re-kindle interest in linguistics -- a discipline
which started with Ya_ska in his own, inimitable, folk style. We had
Bhattacharjee who did magnificent work on Munda etyma, complementing
the superb work of Zide; B. died young and I don't know of anyone
pursuing the work which he started.
How I wish there is a group like this discussing languages (and
language families) of Bha_rata!