Korean/Tamil/Hindi (was Re: Query on var.nabheda)

[bpj at netg.se]

At 23:04 6.3.1997 +0000, Sudipto Chatterjee wrote:
>Lay person's question:
>
>I read while doing some research (on an entirely different subject that I
>won't go into at this time) at the NYPL's Oriental Division that Mundari,
>the central Indian aboroginal/aadivaasi laguage has some connections with
>Magyar and Korean, and that Magyar and Korean are related in some ways. Is
>there any truth in this?
>
>Just curious.

A semi-laymans answer:

Magyar (aka Hungarian) does belong to the Ural-Altaic family of languages,
as do Finnish, Estonian (Uralic branch), Monggol, Tunggus and Manchu
(Altaic branch). Korean (and Japanese) are by some scholars connected to
the Altaic branch, although it is not even conclusively proven that Korean
and Japanese are connected to each other (since apparent cognates may or
may not be old loans). Other possibilities are a connection to Austric
languages (to which Munda as well as most Indonesian languages belongs) or
Dravidian (which may of course also be related to each other -- opinions
differ). Personally I believe someone might well build a career on Raja's
observations ;-)

Sarvamangalam!

Philip Jonsson <bpj at netg.se>