Re: beyond languages: Mitanni and Rg-Vedic chronology

----- Original Message -----
From: "koenraad_elst" <koenraad.elst@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 4:47 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: beyond languages: Mitanni and Rg-Vedic chronology



> The linguistic ancestor to all Iranian and Indian IE languages
split into a
> certain number of branches :
> Among which we can identify :
> - Eastern Europe Iranian
> - Eastern Europe Indian (substrate to Mordvin)
> - Mittani "Indo-Aryan"
> - Persian Iranian
> - Indian Indic
>
> Whatever and Whenever Mittani indo-Aryan was,
> This has *NO* relevance *WHATSOEVER* with India and Indic.
>
> Rg Veda can be dated thru internal examination of what Rg Veda is.
> Nobody cares what Mittani indo-aryan was, when it comes to Rg Veda.
>
> Even if Mittani was totally unknown, that would not change a single
letter
> of what we understand about Rg Veda.
>
> Arnaud
>

>Agreed. Except that the Mitanni evidence may well externally
>corroborate the internal chronology of the Rg-Veda.

>While Out-of-India theorizing has been captured lately by people with
>little understanding of IE scholarship, one exception has kept on
>doing serious work, at a steadily improving level: bank clerk
>Shrikant Talageri,
=======
I don't think he is an exception.
Maybe he will develop more complicated tricks.
Arnaud
=========
>Smug invasion theorists are welcome to laugh out loud, but this may
>well be what future generations will be taught about Indo-Iranian:

There is no invasion theory
Just a process of ethnogenesis involving IE speakers coming from somewhere
else.
Arnaud
======

>Also referring to the common culture of the late-Rg-Vedic and Avestan
>period are the Mitanni (and Kassite) names. After the emigration of
>the Iranians (and before them, of other early-IE-speaking groups),
=========
This kind of theory will always crash on the obvious fact that some
languages like Uralic Moksha displays clear Indic features.
Actually, it's possible that the three-way s, s^ and ç has been introduced
in Moksha by Sanscrit.

And it will always crash on the obvious problem that there is no reason why
IE should have only expanded toward the north-west.
Once established in India, Indic started expanding in all directions as can
be expected.

Arnaud
======