Original Dravidian Homeland

[Michael Witzel]

At 18:15 -0400 6/12/99, Balaji Hebbar wrote:
 the  "Dravidian  migration"  theory  had  any  connections  and
>implications  to  the  "Aryan"  one.

Complex issue. The RV is  Indo_Aryan but it has  substrate words from
Drav., Munda, and other substrate languages. In a strange, unexpected
leveling. Details in EJVS (late June)

>Also,  are  there  any  people  in  South  Asia  who  neither  speak  an
>"Aryan"  nor  Dravidian  language?  If  so,  where  would  they  fit  in
>to  all  this?  And  are  there  any  theories  on  these  people?

Zvelebil  (1990) found a few non- Nilgiri substrate words even in these
isolated  Dravidian languages.

>Are the  Veddas  of  Ceylon  these  people?

Yes. Some examples from the Vedda substrate (now speaking the IA Sinhala)
forthcoming in EJVS. Or the Kusunda in Nepal and the Nahali  on the upper
Tapti, or the "Language X" substrate in Hindi, etc. ( C. Masica).  Or
Andaman. -- Plus some more.
**Complexity**  is the story, not a simple  Aryan/Dravidian divide.

For other details see already H.H.Hock's message.

LM Fosse writes:
 >> Sergent, it is the whites who have lost their original black color - I
assume due to the bleaching northern climate

or rather by genetic shift: by their eating of vitamin C -producing grains
(instead of absorbing the little one can get of it in the northern climate
from the sun's rays, through the skin) -- if I remember Cavalli-Sforza's
(1994) argument well.

Sergent's theory of a Dravidian move from the E. Sudan (whence the alleged
African relationships with the Wolof etc., now in Senegal!)  to Central
Asia (whence the similarity with Finno-Ugric etc.)   to India is rather
contorted, and as H.H. Hock has already pointed out, not proved as far as
W. African languages are concerned. (Since L. Senghor, a cottage industry
of Indologists and others in Dakar).



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