Substratum in Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit has a number of linguistic features which are alien to most other Indo-European languages. Prominent examples include: phonologically, the introduction of retroflexes, which alternate with dentals, and morphologically, the formation of gerunds.[1]: 79  Some philologists attribute such features, as well as the presence of non-Indo-European vocabulary, to a local substratum of languages encountered by Indo-Aryan peoples in Central Asia (Bactria-Marghiana) and within the Indian subcontinent during Indo-Aryan migrations, including the Dravidian languages.[2]

Scholars have claimed to identify a substantial body of loanwords in the earliest Indian texts, including evidence of Non-Indo-Aryan elements (such as -s- following -u- in Rigvedic busa). While some postulated loanwords are from Dravidian, and other forms are traceable to Munda[1]: 78  or Proto-Burushaski, the bulk have no proven basis in any of the known families, suggesting a source in one or more lost languages. The discovery that some words taken to be loans from one of these lost sources had also been preserved in the earliest Iranian texts, and also in Tocharian, convinced Michael Witzel and Alexander Lubotsky that the source lay in Central Asia and could be associated with the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC).[3][4] Another lost language is that of the Indus Valley civilization, which Witzel initially labelled Para-Munda, but later the Kubhā-Vipāś substrate.[5]

  1. ^ a b Bryant, Edwin (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate. Oxford University Press.
  2. ^ Rusza, Ferenc (2009). "The influence of Dravidian on Indo-Aryan phonetics". Jared S. Klein – Kazuhiko Yoshida (Eds.): Indic Across the Millennia: From the Rigveda to Modern Indo-Aryan, Pp. 145–152 (Paper read at the XIVth World Sanskrit Conference, Kyōtō 2009).
  3. ^ Witzel, Michael (2005). "Central Asian Roots and Acculturation in South Asia. Linguistic and Archaeological Evidence from Western Central Asia, the Hindukush and Northwestern South Asia for Early Indo-Aryan Language and Religion". In Osada, T. (ed.). Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past. Indus Project. Kyoto: Research Institute for Humanity and Nature. pp. 87–211.
  4. ^ Lubotsky, A. (2001). "The Indo-Iranian Substratum". In Carpelan, C.; Parpola, A.; Koskikallio, P. (eds.). Early Contacts between Uralic and Indo-European: Linguistic and Archaeological Considerations. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura. pp. 301–317.
  5. ^ Witzel, Michael (December 2009). "The linguistic history of some Indian domestic plants" (PDF). Journal of Biosciences (Submitted manuscript). 34 (6): 829–833. doi:10.1007/s12038-009-0096-1. PMID 20093735. S2CID 6245657.