
Dravidian language family is 4500 years old - Dravidian
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/dravidian-language-family-is-4500-years-old-study/article23314180.ece
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dilippkumar
This is exciting news for a couple of reasons.

1\. The origin of proto-dravidian and how it relates to other families is a
huge mystery. There were speculations that it could be related to Proto-
Elamite or the Munda language family but nothing conclusive. Another fun
speculation is that it was the language spoken by the people living in the
Indus Valley cities.

2\. Dr. Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, probably the most prominent linguist who was
studying dravidian languages passed away in 2012. There has been very little
happening in dravidian linguistics. A while back, I was looking for scholarly
articles regarding proto-dravidian and there hasn't been results since the
early 2000s when it was demonstrated that Proto-dravidian split into north,
central and southern branches (Note: I'm not an expert in this field, I might
have missed some developments. Please point me to any research I might have
missed). This result is exciting just because it looks like somebody is
working on proto-dravidian again

~~~
Dravidian
I appreciate the guts of the researchers, Iam quite sure that they will be
under immense political pressure to contain the results.

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xan92
The theory of Aryan and Dravidian is introduced by the British to create
separation. The history is more than 4500 years.

~~~
AareyBaba
In the last two decades we have genetic data that paints a much more complex
picture. India is a fertile land and people have been streaming in (and out)
for at least 50,000 years. If people move just 30km away every generation that
is enough to populate the entire land in a thousand years.

Also the existence of an isolated Dravidian language in what is now Pakistan
is puzzling
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahui_language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahui_language)

