Indian Linguistic Area (Proto-Indoaryans or Proto-Indian)

From: S. Kalyanaraman
Message: 69929
Date: 2012-08-02

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/07/indian-linguistic-area-proto-indoaryans.html

30.7.12
Indian Linguistic Area (Proto-Indoaryans or Proto-Indian)
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The term Proto-Indian is used as a linguistic category.

The idea of a Linguistic Area is linked with the term Sprachbund which was
introduced in April 1928 in the 1st Intl. Congress of Linguists by Nikolai
Trubetzkoy. He made a distinction between Sprachfamilien and Sprachbunde:

Gruppen, bestehend aus Sprachen, die eine große Ähnlichkeit in
syntaktischer Hinsicht;
eine Ähnlichkeit in den Grundsätzen des morphologischen Baues aufweisen;
und eine
große Anzahl gemeinsamer Kulturwörter bieten, manchmal auch äussere
Ähnlichkeit
im Bestande der Lautsystem, — dabei aber keine systematischen
Lautentsprechungen keine Übereinstimmung in der lautlichen Gestalt der
morphologischen Elemente, und
keine gemeinsamen Elementarwörter besitzen, — solche Sprachgruppen nennen
wir
Sprachbünde. [Trubetzkoy, 1928: 18 (italics his)]Trubetzkoy, N. S., 1928.
Proposition 16. In: Actes du 1er Congrès international de linguistes,
17-18.Leiden: A. W. Sijthoff’s Uitgeversmaatschappij.

A study of what is defined as Indian Linguistic Area by Murray B. Emeneau
can begin with the co-author of Dravidian Etymological Dictionary T.
Burrow, who wrote the following embedded article on the Proto-Indoaryans in
JRAS (April 1973). A number of linguists have also endorsed the reality of
Indian Linguistic Area. The question to be explored is: what was the date
of the genesis of this area? I suggest that the genesis can be traced to
the Indus-Sarasvati civilization which is evidenced archaeologically, from
ca. 3500 BCE.

Emeneau, MB, 1956, India as a linguistic area, Language 32, 1956, 3-16.
Kuiper, FBJ, 1948, Proto-Munda words in Sanskrit, Amsterdam, 1948; 1967,
The genesis of a linguistic area, IIJ 10, 1967, 81-102
Masica, CP, 1971, Defining a Linguistic area. South Asia. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press.
Przyludski, J., 1929, Further notes on non-aryan loans in Indo-Aryan in:
Bagchi, P. C. (ed.), Pre-Aryan and Pre-Dravidian in Sanskrit. Calcutta :
University of Calcutta: 145-149
Southworth, F., 2005, Linguistic archaeology of South Asia, London,
Routledge-Curzon.

See also: Murray B. Emeneau, 1980. Linguistic area: introduction and
continuation. In: Language and linguistic area, 1-19. Stanford: Stanford
University Press.

The Proto-Indoaryans -T. Burrow, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (New
Series) April 1973 105 : pp 123-140 (For a pdf copy of the article, email
me).
• DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00130837 (About DOI)

Abstract

It is now generally agreed by most authorities on the subject that the
Aryan linguistic vestiges in the Near East are to be connected specifically
with Indo-Aryan, and not with Iranian, and also that they do not represent
a third, independent Aryan group, and are not to be ascribed to the
hypothetically reconstructed Proto-Aryan. This conclusion is incorporated
in the title of M. Mayrhofer's bibliography of the subject, Die Indo-Arier
im alten Vorderasien (Wiesbaden, 1966), and it can now be taken as the
commonly accepted view. It is based on the fact that where there is
divergence between Iranian and Indo-Aryan, and where such elements appear
in the Near Eastern record, the latter always agrees with Indo-Aryan. Such
items are aika “one” and šuriyaš “sun”, and the colour names parita-nnu and
pinkara-nnu which correspond to Sanskrit palita- “grey” and piṅgala-
“reddish”. The evidence of vocabulary is supported by that of the four
names of gods appearing in the Hittite-Mitanni treaty, where the Vedic gods
Mitra and Varuṇa, Indra, and the Nāsatyas can be clearly recognized. This
combined evidence is sufficient to establish the conclusions of Mayrhofer
and others beyond reasonable doubt, and the arguments of A. Kammenhuber,
who later attempted to resuscitate the theory that the Aryans of the Near
East were Proto-Aryans, cannot be said to have been successful.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/125553673/Protoindoaryanstburrow1973
Protoindoaryanstburrow1973<http://www.docstoc.com/docs/125553673/Protoindoaryanstburrow1973>

(To be continued)
S. Kalyanaraman
31 July 2012

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