Dravidian origins

[Robert Zydenbos]

Am 17 Dec 2000, um 23:18 schrieb Bjarte Kaldhol:

> Since I wanted to know something about the Dravidian languages without
> going so far as to read a grammar of Tamil, I sat down to read
> Zvelebil's article in Encyclopaedia Britannica (Vol. 22, 15th
> edition). In the third paragraph, he states: "Nothing definite is
> known about the origin of the Dravidian family."
>         Well, let us see what this professed ignorance leads to: [...]

> 3. A hypothesis has been gaining ground that posits a movement of
> Dravidian speakers from the northwest to the south and east of the
> peninsula, a movement originating possibly from Central Asia. (This
> hypothesis is not substantiated, and Zvelebil later confesses that
> "nothing definite is known about the ancient domain of the
> Dravidian parent speech".) [...]

Firstly, you should not read a mere encyclopedia article. Much
better is Zvelebil's book _Dravidian Lingusitics: An Introduction_,
which I have mentioned some time before on this list (publ.
Pondicherry, I believe by the Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics
and Culture, in 1990 or 1992 or so. I do not have my copy of the
book at hand for the exact reference, sorry). A few chapters deal
with the question of relationships between Dravidian and other
language families, and Zv. gives bibliographies for further reading.
Secondly, after reading those chapters (through which you will
learn that Dravidian is more than Tamil ;-) ), you will see that Zv.'s
standard for what is "definite" is rather high. A migration of this
language family via the Indian northwest is rather certain; but it
cannot as yet definitely be said whether Dravidian came from
central Asia or from further west. On this matter too, Zv. gives good
bibliographies for further reading.

RZ


Robert Zydenbos
Institut für Indologie und Iranistik
Universität München