--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:...> We know of a language with Indic
features (but in some respects more archaic than Vedic) that came
into contact with Mitanni Hurrian about 1400 BC. This suggests that
pre-Indo-Aryan was spreading across the region alongside early forms
of Iranian. If we are talking about the most likely scenario, one
that doesn't force us to jumble up the partly done jigsaw puzzle and
start from scratch, I'd be really surprised to find Indo-Aryan (or
any other form of Indo-Iranian) in the subcontinent earlier than the
middle of the second millennium. The Indus Valley civilisation
flourished approximately between 2500 and 1700 BC, so in absence of
some really solid evidence to the contrary I'm reluctant to accept
that it may have been Indic or Indo-Iranian speaking. The only thing
that would convert me at once would be the successful decipherment
of the Harappan script as a form of Indo-Iranian.
The dates of IVC may have to be revised, Piotr. The 1999 diggings of
Meadow and Kenoyer in Harappa have indicated a start date of 3300
BCE.
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/meadow/meadow2.htm
What languages would have existed in the subcontinent earlier than
mid-2nd millennium BCE?