Pavithra, (01)
I was going through some older email, and I thought I would comment
on the following point in your note from September 20th: (02)
PK> However there was some south Indian language languages like
> Tamil (or the patrons of the language) declare that it is not
> derived from Sanskrit and it is a original language itself.
> ( I personally do not buy that... but yet to prove otherwise..) (03)
The evidence that Tamil is distinct from the Sanskrit-derived
languages is very strong. (04)
For anyone interested in the evolution of languages and their
interrelationships, the web site for Nostratic has links to
a wide variety of material: (05)
http://www.nostratic.ru/index.php?page=links
Resources on Distant Language Relationships (06)
Nostratic is a name coined by Russian linguists for a hypothetical
superfamily of languages that include the Indo-European, Semitic,
Altaic, Uralic, and Turkic languages. The name comes from the
Latin word 'noster' for "our" languages. (07)
The evidence for the Nostratic superfamily is still controversial,
but the distinction between the Indo-European family and the
southern Indian languages is very well established. (08)
For anyone who would like to study those languages, there are online
resources for 14 different Indo-European languages: Latin, Classical
Greek, Sanskrit, Old Church Slavonic, Classical Armenian, Old Iranian,
Baltic, Hittite, Gothic, Old Norse, Old English, Old French, Old Irish,
and Tocharian. See (09)
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/index.html (010)
On a related note, there is recent evidence for migrations of small
mammals (voles, shrews, mice, and stoats) into the remote regions
of Scotland and Wales that parallels the migrations of humans who
were pushed out of southern and eastern Britain by later invaders: (011)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/8279567.stm
UK Mammals have a 'Celtic Fringe' (012)
Following is an excerpt from that article: (013)
The traditional view is that the ancestors of British Celts
spread from central Europe during the Iron Age and were later
displaced by the arrival of the Anglo Saxons. However, recent
genetic studies have challenged this theory, suggesting a much
earlier origin, dating back to the end of the last ice age,
19,000 years ago. This paper suggests that the study of small
mammal populations could help resolve the controversy. (014)
The authors of that article aren't claiming that the people
brought the mammals with them, but rather that the mammals
show evidence of the climate shifts that may have also
influenced the migrations of humans into and around Britain. (015)
The conclusion of that article: (016)
It is really important to treat humans as part of a suite of
animals that were being pushed and pulled around the landscape
by changes in climate. (017)
John Sowa (018)
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