Indigenous Proto-Dravidian?

[Guest guest]

>From Science Magazine, Volume 294, 2 November 2001, page 989:

 

"In India, for example, Renfrew and Bellwood

have proposed migration pathways

from the fertile crescent—where the Near

Eastern agricultural "package" of wheat, bar-ley,

sheep, and cattle originated 10,000 years

ago—along the Arabian coast, reaching India

as early as 8000 years ago. The hypothetical

Elamo-Dravidian language family—which

includes the Dravidian languages Tamil in In-dia

and Brahui in Pakistan, and the extinct

Elamite language in Iran—shows a nice,

sweeping distribution in the

same direction.

Dorian Fuller, an archaeo-botanist

at University College in

London, offers a different story.

His excavations show that indigenous

southern Indian crops such

as mung bean and foxtail millet

appeared in southern India 4800

years ago, with wheat and barley

arriving 600 years later. The Near

Eastern crops apparently stalled

for 3000 years in northwest India

before farmers developed

monsoon-tolerant wheat. Also

undermining Renfrew's hypothesis

is new work on Dravidian linguistics.

Preliminary analyses

suggest that the Dravidian words

for native southern Indian crops

are older than the words for the

Near Eastern agricultural package.

So Dravidian may be native to India and

unrelated to Elamite. " QUOTE ENDS

 

What are the implications of this suggestion, from a linguistic

perspective? If the above is true, how are the supposed PIE-

protoDravidian correspondences impacted?

 

Sincerely,

 

Vishal Agarwal