Harappan language

{{Short description|Language of the Bronze Age civilization of the Indus Valley}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Harappan

| altname = Indus Valley, Mohenjo-Daro

| region = Indus Valley

| extinct = {{circa|1300 BC}} or later

| familycolor = unclassified

| family = unclassified

| dia1 =

| script = Indus script

| iso3 = xiv

| linglist = xiv

| glotto = hara1272

| glottorefname = Harappan

| imagecaption = Impression of an Indus stamp seal, showing a string of five "Indus script" glyphs; the Indus script is interpreted by some scholars as the writing system of the Harappan language.

| image = Indus seal impression.jpg

| states = Indus Valley Civilisation

| acceptance = undeciphered

}}

File:Akkadian cylinder seal with inscription Shu-ilishu, interpreter of the Meluhhan language, Louvre Museum AO 22310.jpg cylinder seal with inscription: "Shu-ilishu, interpreter of the language of Meluhha";{{Cite book |last=Parpola |first=Asko |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DagXCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT353 |title=The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780190226930 |page=353 |language=en}} Louvre Museum, reference AO 22310.{{Cite web |title=Meluhha interpreter seal. Site officiel du musée du Louvre |url=http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not&idNotice=12071 |website=cartelfr.louvre.fr}}]]

The Harappan language is the unknown language or languages of the Bronze Age ({{circa|3300 to 1300 BC}}) Harappan civilization (Indus Valley civilization, or IVC). The Harappan script is yet undeciphered, indeed it has not even been demonstrated to be a writing system, and therefore the language remains unknown.{{Cite web |date=2023-03-06 |title=India - Agriculture and animal husbandry {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Agriculture-and-animal-husbandry#ref46830 |access-date=2023-06-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306022746/https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Agriculture-and-animal-husbandry#ref46830 |archive-date=2023-03-06 }} The language being yet unattested in readable contemporary sources, hypotheses regarding its nature are based on possible loanwords, the substratum in Vedic Sanskrit, and some terms recorded in Sumerian cuneiform (such as Meluhha), in conjunction with analyses of the Harappan script.

There are some possible loanwords from the language of the Indus Valley civilization. {{transliteration|sux|Meluḫḫa}} or {{transliteration|sux|Melukhkha}} ({{langx|sux|{{cuneiform|𒈨𒈛𒄩𒆠}}}} {{transliteration|sux|Me-luḫ-ḫa^KI}}) is the Sumerian name of a prominent trading partner of Sumer during the Middle Bronze Age. Its identification remains an open question, but most scholars associate it with the Indus Valley Civilisation.{{sfn|McIntosh|2008|page=46}} Asko Parpola identifies Proto-Dravidians with the Harappan Culture and the Meluhhan people mentioned in Sumerian records. In his book Deciphering the Indus Script, Parpola states that the Brahui people of Pakistan are remnants of the Harappan culture.Asko Parpola (1994), Deciphering the Indus script, Cambridge University Press According to him, the word "Meluhha" derives from the Dravidian words mel ("elevated") and akam ("place"). Parpola also relates Meluhha with Balochistan, which he calls the "Proto-Dravidian homeland". He also relates Meluhha with the transient word Mleccha, a Vedic word used to mean "barbarian" and used by the incoming Aryan speaking population for the native Harappan population.{{citation |last1=Parpola |first1=Asko |first2=Simo |last2=Parpola |title=On the relationship of the Sumerian toponym Meluhha and Sanskrit mleccha |journal=Studia Orientalia |volume=46 |year=1975 |pages=205–238 |url=http://ojs.tsv.fi/index.php/StOrE/article/view/49874/14912}}{{Citation |last=Witzel |first=Michael |year=1999 |author-link=Michael E. J. Witzel |title=Substrate Languages in Old Indo-Aryan (Ṛgvedic, Middle and Late Vedic) |periodical=Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies |volume=5 |issue=1 |url=http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/ejvs0501/ejvs0501article.pdf |page=25 |access-date=2018-12-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206073939/http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/ejvs0501/ejvs0501article.pdf |archive-date=2012-02-06 |url-status=dead }}An Indus loanword of "para-Munda" nature in Mesopotamian has been identified by Michael Witzel, A first link between the Rgvedic Panjab and Mesopotamia: śimbala/śalmali, and ^GIŠšimmar? In: Klaus Karttunen and Petteri Koskikallio (eds.) Vidyarnavavandanam. Essays in Honour of Asko Parpola. 2000 (Studia Orientalia, published by the Finnish Or. Soc. 94): 497–508. See also Witzel, [http://compling.ai.uiuc.edu/2007Workshop/Slides/witzel.doc The language or languages of the Indus civilization] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720084908/http://compling.ai.uiuc.edu/2007Workshop/Slides/witzel.doc |date=2011-07-20 }}, July 2007.

Identification

There are a number of hypotheses as to the nature of this unknown language:

One hypothesis places it within or near the Dravidian languages, perhaps identical with Proto-Dravidian itself. Proposed by Henry Heras in the 1950s,{{Cite book |last=Heras |first=Henry |title=Studies in Proto-Indo-Mediterranean Culture |date=1953 |publisher=Indian Historical Research Institute |location=Bombay, IN}} the hypothesis has gained some plausibility and is endorsed by Kamil Zvelebil, Asko Parpola and Iravatham Mahadevan.{{Cite web |last=Rahman |first=Tariq |title=Peoples and languages in pre-islamic Indus valley |url=http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/subject/peoplesandlanguages.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509053921/http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/subject/peoplesandlanguages.html |archive-date=2008-05-09 |access-date=2008-11-20 |website=utexas.edu |publisher=University of Texas |place=Austin, TX |quote=... who was the first to suggest that the language of the Indus Civilization was Dravidian. |department=Asian Studies Network Information Center (ASNIC)}}{{Cite web |last=Cole |first=Jennifer |title=The Sindhi language |url=http://www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/jscole/Sindhi_Elsevier_encyl.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106015921/http://www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/jscole/Sindhi_Elsevier_encyl.pdf |archive-date=January 6, 2007 |access-date=2008-11-20 |quote=... Harappan language, the ancient script is as yet undeciphered, but a prevailing theory suggests a Dravidian origin.}} A 2021 research paper published in Nature argues that Proto-Dravidian was spoken in Indus Valley based on the ultraconserved Dravidian tooth-word and genetics.{{Cite journal |last=Ansumali Mukhopadhyay |first=Bahata |date=2021-08-03 |title=Ancestral Dravidian languages in Indus Civilization: ultraconserved Dravidian tooth-word reveals deep linguistic ancestry and supports genetics |journal=Humanities and Social Sciences Communications |language=en |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=1–14 |doi=10.1057/s41599-021-00868-w |issn=2662-9992 |s2cid=257091003 |doi-access=free}}
A "language isolate", i.e. a language with no living continuants (or perhaps a last living reflex in the moribund Nihali language). In this case, the only trace left by the language of the Indus Valley civilization would be historical substratum influence, in particular the substratum in Vedic Sanskrit.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

= Multiple languages =

The Indus script only indicates that it was used to write one language (if any), but it is quite possible that multiple languages were spoken in the IVC, much as Sumerian and Akkadian co-existed in Mesopotamia for centuries. Jane R. McIntosh suggests one such possibility: Para-Munda was originally the main language of the civilization, especially in the Punjab region. Later, the proto-Dravidian immigrants introduced their language to the area in the 5th millennium BC. The Dravidian language was spoken by the new settlers in the southern plains, while Para-Munda remained the main language of those in Punjab.{{sfn|McIntosh|2008|p=355-356}}

= Other theories =

Michael Witzel suggested as an alternative, that an underlying, prefixing language similar to Austroasiatic, notably Khasi; he called it "para-Munda" (i.e. a language related to the Munda subgroup or other Austroasiatic languages, but not strictly descended from the last common predecessor of the contemporary Munda family). Witzel argued that the Rigveda showed signs of this hypothetical Harappan influence in the earliest historic level, and Dravidian only in later levels, suggesting that speakers of Austroasiatic were the original inhabitants of Punjab and that the Indo-Aryans encountered Dravidian speakers only in later times.{{Cite conference |last=Witzel |first=M. |author-link=Michael E. J. Witzel |date=2000-02-17 |editor-last=Kenoyer |editor-first=J. |editor-link=Jonathan Mark Kenoyer |title=The Languages of Harappa |url=http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/IndusLang.pdf |access-date=2007-07-18 |book-title=Proceedings of the conference on the Indus civilization |place=Madison, WI}}{{Cite journal |last=Witzel |first=M. |author-link=Michael E. J. Witzel |date=August 1999 |title=Substrate languages in old Indo-Aryan |url=http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com |journal=EJVS |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=1–67}} cf. reprint in: {{cite journal |title={{grey|[no title cited]}} |journal=International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics |date=2001 |issue=1 |at=sqq.}} The theory was since further supported by Franklin Southworth.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}. As of 2019, Witzel prefers to leave the question of the original Indian language(s) open until better reconstructions for Dravidian and Munda substrate components in Indo-Aryan languages have been done.{{Cite journal |last=Mukhopadhyay |first=Bahata Ansumali |date=December 2021 |title=Ancestral Dravidian languages in Indus Civilization: Ultraconserved Dravidian tooth-word reveals deep linguistic ancestry and supports genetics |journal=Humanities and Social Sciences Communications |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=193 |doi=10.1057/s41599-021-00868-w |s2cid=236901972 |doi-access=free}}
Indo-European languages: generally believed to be arriving after 1800 BCE, but recent genetic and linguistic study suggests that the language family emerged from the Fertile Crescent as early as 6000 BCE and likely spread to South Asia.{{Cite journal|date=2023-07-28|title=Language trees with sampled ancestors support a hybrid model for the origin of Indo-European languages|journal=Science|language=en|volume=381|doi=10.1126/science.abg0818|hdl=10234/204329|hdl-access=free |last1=Heggarty |first1=Paul |last2=Anderson |first2=Cormac |last3=Scarborough |first3=Matthew |last4=King |first4=Benedict |last5=Bouckaert |first5=Remco |last6=Jocz |first6=Lechosław |last7=Kümmel |first7=Martin Joachim |last8=Jügel |first8=Thomas |last9=Irslinger |first9=Britta |last10=Pooth |first10=Roland |last11=Liljegren |first11=Henrik |last12=Strand |first12=Richard F. |last13=Haig |first13=Geoffrey |last14=MacÁk |first14=Martin |last15=Kim |first15=Ronald I. |last16=Anonby |first16=Erik |last17=Pronk |first17=Tijmen |last18=Belyaev |first18=Oleg |last19=Dewey-Findell |first19=Tonya Kim |last20=Boutilier |first20=Matthew |last21=Freiberg |first21=Cassandra |last22=Tegethoff |first22=Robert |last23=Serangeli |first23=Matilde |last24=Liosis |first24=Nikos |last25=Stroński |first25=Krzysztof |last26=Schulte |first26=Kim |last27=Gupta |first27=Ganesh Kumar |last28=Haak |first28=Wolfgang |last29=Krause |first29=Johannes |last30=Atkinson |first30=Quentin D. |issue=6656 |pages=eabg0818 |pmid=37499002 |url=http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-220000 |display-authors=1 }}

Harappan language

Identification

= Multiple languages =

= Other theories =

See also

Footnotes

References

Further reading