Proto-Dravidian

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Proto-Dravidian is the proto-language of the Dravidian languages.

1 Hypothetical language
2 Differentiation
3 Indus Valley
4 Spread
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Hypothetical language

Proto-languages are, by definition, hypothetical languages reconstructed by linguists, and hence no proto-language has any historical record. So is the case with Proto-Dravidian. Due to a dearth of comparative linguistic research into the Dravidian languages, not many details as to the grammar, epoch, or location of Proto-Dravidian are known.

[edit] Differentiation

It is thought to have differentiated into Proto-North Dravidian, Proto-Central Dravidian and Proto-South Dravidian around 1500 BC, although some linguists have argued that the degree of differentiation between the sub-families points to an earlier split^{[citation needed]}. The only book which covers all the Dravdian languages which can point to Proto-Dravidian forms is Dravidian Etymological Dictionary still consist only of lists of related words without further explanation; therefore for a talented linguist Proto-Dravidian offers large possibilities

[edit] Indus Valley

This geographical and chronological horizon would correspond well with an identification of Proto-Dravidian with the unknown language of the Indus Valley civilization, and the individual groups of Dravidian speakers would have been scattered after its collapse in the early 2nd millennium BC. Various substratic influence on Vedic Sanskrit ascribed to Dravidian lends further support to this hypothesis. Asko Parpola has suggested that Meluhha may be the Sumerian rendition of the a native Proto-Dravidian name for the Indus Valley Civilization.

The identification of Indus Valley Civilization language with some form of Dravidian has not been conclusive or successful. Iravatham Mahadevan, who with his knowledge of both Tamil and Sanskrit, spent many decades studying the IVC script said in an interview in 1998 that IVC script is undeciphered. According to Michael Witzel, the well-known Indologist, there are not many dravidian loan words in the earliest stratum of Vedas, even though, the dravidian influence quickly increases in the post-Rigvedic period. In the essay "Substrate Languages in Old Indo-Aryan", Prof.Witzel says "As we can no longer reckon with Dravidian influence on the early RV, this means that the language of the pre-Rgvedic Indus civilization, at least in the Panjab, was of (Para-)Austro-Asiatic nature."

[edit] Spread

Many linguists tend to favour the theory that speakers of Dravidian languages spread southwards and eastwards through the Indian subcontinent, based on the fact that the southern Dravidian languages show some signs of contact with linguistic groups which the northern Dravidian languages do not.