bones and flesh

[Michael Witzel]

There have been a number of questions put in my direction, but I did not
have any time during the past month to answer in detail. The many points
made by Dr Ganesan, I have just answered to him privately (11k) .You can
ask him or me personally if you are interested in wheat, KarkoTa,  etc etc.


At 12:34 -0800 11/19/99, Paul Kekai Manansala wrote:

>> Prof. Witzel, Substrates in OIA, 1999, p. 14
>> "Munda originally had no retroflexes".
>> On the same page, "In short, the people of the (northern)
>> Indus language must have spoken with retroflexes".

>Last I read, the idea that Munda did not originally have retroflexes
>is based on the fact that retroflexes are not universal in Munda, with
>one language given as an exception. This theory does not take
>linguistic drift into adequate account.

Well, one simply cannot *reconstruct* them for Proto-Munda, with the
exeption of retroflex D, -- which is a strange dissymetry in the consonant
system ( t : no d , no T but D...).  See Zide in  Current Trends in
Linguistics 1969 p. 414. -- Who and what is "drifting here"?  One cannot
use modern data and assume that they are the same as in 1500 BCE,  e.g.
Hindi/Nepali have retroflex r as in ghoRaa "horse" but Vedic did not  (e.g.
Late Vedic ghoTaka 'horse').   ---
(Mod.) description is one thing, reconstruction another.

>Also, the use of initial retroflexes in Munda and "Aryan" languages
>as opposed to the non-initial retroflex system in the south.

Modern IA and modern Munda. Not in Vedic.  Just a time difference of some
3500 years....
Check out the Latin of 150 BCE and modern Rumanian or French and behold...
Lat. camera = French chambre  [sha~br ]. No  sh- in Latin...



 ==========================================================================
Michael Witzel                          Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies
Harvard University                  www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs
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my direct line (also for messages) :  617- 496 2990
home page:     www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm