SV: Harappan Euhemerus

[Dominik Wujastyk]

On Tue, 19 Dec 2000, Raveen Satkurunathan wrote:

> There is a clear Tamil substratum in the language, which also
> appears in place names, kin terms, poetry, dance, and religious beliefs

I agree completely with what you say about national identity issues
impairing a 20-20 view of Maldivian cultural origins, but I think you put
the above a little too strongly.  There may indeed be Tamil borrowings in
Divehi; there are certainly Malayalam ones.  But one must remember that
the basic language is Indo-Aryan, and is closest to Sinhala in grammar,
morphology, and most of its non-Islamic vocabulary.

--
Dominik Wujastyk
Founder, INDOLOGY list.