--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> > Dravidian influence appears to be non-existent in early Rigvedic,
where the non-IE substratal or adstratal elements come mainly from a
prefixing language called "Para-Munda" by Witzel because of its
putative Austroasiatic connections (there are also other non-IE loans
from even more enigmatic substratal languages, such as
Masica's "Language X"). The influx of Dravidian loans begins quite
suddenly in middle Rigvedic and continues into the late and post-
Rigvedic periods.
I have read the work of Witzel you are referring to. I find it to be
premised on the earlier works of FBJ Kuiper who has postulated a
staggering number of lexemes from Munda in Vedic.
Piotr, have you seen this recent URL? http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%
7Esanskrit/images/C._ASIA_.pdf Early Loan Words in Western Central
Asia: Substrates, Migrations and Trade In the examples cited, I find
little or no references to PIE or IE languages. Maybe, my reading is
wrong; many Central Asian language words seem to be cognate with Indo-
Aryan and Munda. Language X seems to be moving close to Munda, in
reference to agriculture terms: Zide, A. and Zide, N. Proto-Munda
cultural vocabulary: evidence for early agriculture. In: Ph. N.
Jenner et al., Proceedings of the First International Austroasiatic
Conference. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press 1976, 1295-1334.
J. Nichols seemed to see Sogdian as the Urheimat; is the search for
the epicentre moving southeastwards?