Dravidian/Uralic

[Emil HERSAK (by way of B. Reusch)]

(I'm sending this to the list as the original sender has been unable to
subscribe yet. Please excuse x-posting.)
Beatrice
 
From:   Emil HERSAK <emil.hersak at zg.tel.hr>
Sent:   1997.
To:     Members of the list
Subject:        Dravidian/Uralic
 
Dear Indologists,
 
The short short encyclopaedic questions, that I would very much appreciate
if someone could answer:
 
First, regardless of whether the term Indo-European can be attributed to
Thomas Young, as is sometimes claimed, can anyone give me the birth and
death dates of Young.
 
Second, in his book "In Search of the Indo-Europeans" (1992), in a very
useful  critique of the various "racial" interpretations of Indo-European,
J.P. Mallory wrote: "Cannon Isaac Taylor, for example, once proposed the
notion that the Indo-Europeans were essentially 'an improved race of
Finns'" (page 268). Can anyone provide information on the context for this
quote. Namely Mallory, does not give any information on the source, or on
Taylor himself. BTW, for the sake of bibliographic precision, I would be
pleased to find out what Mallory's own initials stand for (J.P.).
 
Third, it would be very interested in hearing anything on the present state
of the theory of ancient language links between Dravidian and Uralic. I am
aware that this has been rejected by many linguistis, but nevertheless the
theory is still often encountered in the literature. In this context,
bellow I give a quote from a text by Janos Harmatta presented at a
conference in Dushanbe several years ago. Unfortunately, in Harmatta's work
there seem to be inconsistencies, and despite my attempts, I have not found
any information on either HARALI or the Sumerian he mentions in the
following quote. Some persons I contacted on the matter assumed the
references were pure fabrication. Nevertheless, before rejecting the idea,
I would appreciate your comments.
 
"Historical and linguistic research often presumed that the Dravidians came
from Northern territories lying around Lake Aral, where they had intensive
linguistic contacts with Finno-Ugrian tribes. It was even assumed that
Dravidian and Finno-Ugrian were genetically related languages. Linguists
tried to assure a linguistic basis for this theory, but even the latest
effort to point out a great number of common elements in Finno-Ugrian and
Dravidian vocabulary did not arrive at any conclusive result. In any case,
however, if the golden land H(+hook sub)arali (later Arali, Arallu) of the
Sumerian hymm on trade with Tilmun, situated beyond Tukris(+hachek) in the
far North-East, can be sought in Iran, and perhaps, even in Ancient
Khorazmia indeed, then this name may be of Dravidian origin (cf. Tamil
ar[+dieresis sub]al "to burn, to shine", ar[+dieresis sub]ali "fire",
ar(+dieresis sottoscritto)alo[+macron]n "Agni, sun") and its meaning could
be the same as that of Khorazmia, reflecting Old Iranian
*Xva(macron)ra+zmi- "land of the Sun". If the localisation of H(+hook
sub)arali and this interpretation is correct, then this toponym may give a
hint for the ancient home of the Proto-Dravidians" (p 81).
 
Source: J. Harmatta, "Proto-Iranians and Proto-Indians in Central Asia in
the 2nd Millenium B.C. /linguistic evidence/. Etnicheskie problemy istorii
central'noj azii v drebnosti /II tysjacheletie do n.e. - Ethnic problems of
the History of Central Asia in the Easly Period/ Second Millenium B.B. -
Moscow, 1981, pp. 75-83.
 
Sincerely,
 
Emil Hersak
Institut for Migration and Ethnic Studies,
Zagreb, Croatia.
e-mail: emil.hersak at zg.tel.hr