Original Dravidian Homeland

Ferenc Ruzsa f_ruzsa at ISIS.ELTE.HU
Tue Jun 15 11:32:24 UTC 1999


Hans Henrich Hock wrote:
> we have to turn to those who trace the dispersal of homo
> sapiens for possible answers as to the origin of the different South Asian
> phenotypes.  (Here, the most widely accepted theory argues for an African
> origin of all human beings.)


To avoid misunderstandings: the African origin of Homo sapiens is on a
different time-scale from the supposed immigration of Dravidians. The
dispersal could happen more than a hundred thousand years ago, and even
modern man (H. sapiens sapiens) was in Europe before 30 000 BCE. And,
considering the speed of linguistic change, we cannot meaningfully talk of
any language family before ca. 8 000 BCE. (I joust doubled the period we
have some knowledge of.)

I (being a Hungarian speaker) thought over the suggested connection between
Dravidian and Finno-Ugoric languages. The idea is correct, not too naive,
but very far from proven.

Yours,
Ferenc





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