--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
> Which raises a question I made that you still haven't
> answered. How much linguistic diversity existed in IA
> when the Vedas were written?
I'm no expert on the matter. The only relevant languages I can
compare at all are Sanskrit and Pali. When presented with a cognate
pair, I can ususally derive the Pali from the Sanskrit, so I don't
think the diversity was enormous. I'd suggest that it need not be
greater than the diversity of Old English, but that's only a stab at it.
On the vocabulary front, when looking for IE cognates there seems to
be little point in looking beyond Sanskrit. However, there may well
be greater diversity in non-IIr vocabulary.
Richard.