[Re: Decipherment of Indus Script]

[Dr.S.Kalyanaraman]

>Ganesan wrote:[snip]>     Thank God! The "artifical construct" of Dravidian
language>     family is allowed to exist. I am happy. Few in Indology list
say>     "DEDR can cease to exist". 

On DEDR, the following quote may be of interest:

"The native Dravidian vocabulary has not been reconstructed. Burrow and
Emeneau's Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (1960) only assembles materials
for it... The civilization seems to have continued peacefully in Gujarat until
a comparatively late period, i.e. 800 BC (Fairservis 1975: 307), after which
it dissolved into the subsequent culture, which makes that area one of prime
importance in detecting any Harappan influence on Aryan language and culture."
(Colin P. Masica, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press, 1991).

San:gam literature refers to the descent of Chera kings from 42 generations of
the rulers of Dwaraka...

I suppose the point is that even at a lexical level,lot more work needs to be
done to isolate Dravidian etyma which will certainly take the Dravidian
languages back at the least to the neolithic. I have challenged that 3000+
DEDR etyma have concordant lexemes in NW Indian languages, including Gujarati_
and Dardic. I would be happy to be proven wrong which will only reinforce the
underlying hypothesis that an Ursprache is a an ephemeral chase but a
sprachbund is a reasonable framework to relate archaeology and language during
the periods of transition from the neolithic and evolution into the bronze
age.

Regards,
Kalyanaraman



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