First, "3.8%" means 383 entries in absolute
terms, which is not all that thin. Even those of Kuiper's critics who question
some of the items admit that the number must be about 350. Please note that the
Rigveda represents traditional poetic language, certainly more conservative and
puristic than the colloquial language, which may have been much more receptive
to foreign loans.
Secondly, I said "Old Indo-Aryan", not just
Rigvedic. That includes several later stages, such as the language of the
Brahmanas and of the Sutras, and finally Epic and Classical Sanskrit. The influx
of loans increased dramatically in post-Rigvedic times. I have no statistics to
offer, but it's fair to say that during the OIA period the vocabulary of
Indo-Aryan expanded greatly thanks to contact with the non-Indo-European
languages of the subcontinent.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2002 1:47 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] The Dravidian Salesman
> The presence of thick rich substrate layers
in Indo-Aryan demonstrates that Old Indo-Aryan engulfed and absorbed a number of
other languages ...
What do you mean by 'thick'? To my knowledge, Kuiper's list
derives about 3.8% of RV vocabulary from non IA sources. I do not think that is
all that 'thick'.
Regarding some other attempts recently, the less said
the better.
Vishal