--- In cybalist@..., "anthonyappleyard" <MCLSSAA2@...> wrote:
>
> The Rigveda might have been composed in Common Indo-Iranian
> rather than in Vedic as we see it. Phonetic changes that happened
> after the Rigveda was composed and they did not change the amount
> or metrical length of syllables, would not show.
I wouldn't be surprised if a large portion of Proto-Indo-Iranian
verse could have evolved into Vedic without effecting the meter.
However in addition to phonetic change there is also analogical,
and the new analogical forms wouldn't necessarily have preserved
the meter. There is also semantic shift that would make nonsense
of the texts if words that had acquired a different meaning were
left in place, or tend to alter the meter if replaced with words
with the proper meaning. I suppose that an effort could have been
made to replace all of those forms in which changes altered the
meter, with ones carefully chosen to preserve both the original
meaning of the texts and the original meter, but I think that this
would have required a conscious effort to alter the texts and then
hide the fact. I don't think this could have happened without some
evidence of it being left.
> ... and final [s] changing to visarga, ...
Not to dilute your point, but since it's been mentioned, didn't
word final /s/ become voiceless [h] already in Proto-Indo-Iranian?
> for one way that one such idea arose and can be refuted: some
> said that India was invaded by men from "a land in the sky"
> wearing "no-air-armor". The Sanskrit word is [nivatakavacha].
> But, learning Sanskrit a bit better shows that this word means
> "practical-layer-armor", i.e. several layers of ordinary warm
> clothes,
Actually Piotr gives a better explanation of 'nivatakavacha'.
Read
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/12754 .
David