I am trying to find out a little about the history of the Pali
language, ie. the origins.There seems to be confliting views on the
roll of sankrit as pertaining to the prakrit languages. Did the
prakrits evolve from sanskrit, or is sanskrit a "polished" prakrit.

Does this look right> Indo-european>Indo-ariyan>Prakrit>Magadhi>Pali.?

Any info on this topic would be much appreciated.

Metta zeb