Indic Languages

[Rajeev Kinra]

Does anyone have the exact bibliographical information for Prof.
Witzel's article?  Or, if it's unpublished, how to obtain a copy?

Thanks,
Rajeev Kinra
University of Chicago

S.Kalyanaraman wrote:
>
> Prof. Witzel's recent article in EJVS on the overlay of languages is a
> path-breaking innovation indeed of using linguistics to establish chronology
> of ancient India. While detailed comments can be offered after a careful study
> of the brilliant and painstaking piece of work, I have one basic question
> which I should express at the outset. How can we date the words so precisely
> as, say, between 1900 and 1500 BCE? The dates could as well be between 5000
> and 7000 BCE. The work of Witzel is certainly an eye-opener for relative
> chronology.
>
> The only firm dates available by other scientific techniques are: dating of
> the Sarasvati River waters from the deep wells in Jaisalmer (by Atomic
> scientists of BARC using tritium isotope analysis) to be between 4000 and
> 14000 years BP and the carbon 14 (MASCA corrected) for many of the thousands
> of sites located on the river banks of Sindhu and Sarasvati. (See the list of
> 2600 sites listed in Prof. Possehl's recent magnum opus). My decipherment of
> the script seems to indicate the inscriptions to be lists of bronze age
> weapons, as bills of lading and the language is Prakrit which seems to explain
> the rebus-based homonyms without resort to phonetic laws. I look forward to
> Web version URL of which will be cross-linked with the
> http://sarasvati.simplenet.com if Prof. Witzel permits. Thanking Prof. Witzel
> again and with the best regards. Kalyanaraman
>
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