Re: [tied] "Niggers of India"

----- Original Message -----
From: "mkelkar2003" <smykelkar@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2005 9:57 AM
Subject: [tied] "Niggers of India"


> Whether the Indo-Europeanist envisage a violent invasion or a more
> diluted politically correct peaceful migration, race has always been a
> factor. Judge Jones' discovery of the Indo-European family shocked
> many in Europe. "...there was a cool reception in some circles to Max
> Muller's disclosure to a rather ungrateful world that the British and
> the rickshaw pullers of Calcutta were of the same racial family (Legge
> 1902 in Bryant 2005). Muller summarized the reactions as follows:
>
> "They would not have it, they would not believe that there could be
> any community of origin between the people of Athen and Rome, and the
> so-called Niggers of India (Max Muller 1883, in Bryant 2005)."

***
Patrick:

For whatever it may be worth, I do not believe the word underlying Latin
niger denotes a person of color primarily but rather a person who has
relatively a scant amount of hair. In Africa, darker complexion and
relatively light amount of hair occur frequently together. This would, of
course, not apply to most inhabitants of India (or for, that matter, all of
Africa).

I also have no problem envisioning a scenario in which lighter-complexioned
groups came into contact with less light-complexioned groups from India,
learned and modified the language of the latter, and returned to India,
where they formed a social caste, which might as easily have been based on
language as of appearance.

My major disagreement with you, Mr. Kelkar, is probably that I do not
believe the group from India was speaking PIE when they left. It seems
likelier to me that they came into contact with PAA speakers, and created a
basis for PIE by adopting _their_ language, which they, in turn, paused on
to Caucasian (language!) speakers also in the area. This mixed group then
returned to India.

***