Horses (words, archaeology)

[S. Kalyanaraman]

---Michael Witzel <witzel at FAS.HARVARD.EDU> wrote:
> Or, the horse can have been introduced by various people several>
times and from different directions. For example, *if* it should turn
out
> that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian made it (out of Central
Asia/Iran)> straight for the Deccan, via Sindh, Gujarat, Maharastra,
as some think.> And there can have been adaptations of a earlier word
for 'hemione'
> (half-ass) which looks very much like a horse -- as is supposed to
have> happened for Drav. hullii:  (O.)Tam. ivuLi 'horse' and Brahui
(h)ullii
> 'horse' < 'hemione' (Burrow already in 1972; see DED 500).

A comment on the suffix -ul.i may be relevant.

-ul.i an affix that denotes a person or beast following an occupation
or being possessed of, e.g. at.t.ul.i (a hunting animal), eggul.i (a
rustic or low person; a bashful person); oggul.i: a joining, mass,
multitude; dondul.i: a mass, a crowd, a throng; jan:gul.i: a mass, an
assemblage, a herd; jan:gul.iga: name of a class or caste of people
(Ka.); ul.iga an affix denoting a man who lives on or by, e.g.
de_vul.iga (an attendant upon an idol); man.n.ul.iga (one who is
engaged in earth-work)(Ka.lex.) cf.u_l.iga serice, work (Tu.)

The suffix in the words, ivul.i (Tamil), hulli_ (Bra_hui) should
therefore, be interpreted in terms
of the usefulness of the 'hemione' (or the Arab horse?)for carrying
loads over land. May be not to land on a chariot taxi ca. 1700 B.C.

The question is: what do the phonemes: iv- and h- (proto-laryngeal?)
connote in Dravidian?

I would revert to the more important subject of sarasvati dating in a
separate posting. I am happy
that there is some recognition of the importance of
sarasvati river (both locus and secular sequence of desiccation of a
mighy perennial flow from molten snows) for objective appraisal of the
linguistic/archaeological evidence.

Regards,
Kalyanaraman
==
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http://www.probys.com/sarasvati
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kalyan97 at yahoo.com

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