A section of linguists are of the view that Tamil is the mother of many languages including the so-called Dravidian languages(sic).The timeline of the history of the major southern languages is roughly as under:
- Tamil——Conservative estimate circa 5000 B.C. as Tamil is the Indus Valley language.Earliest around 10000 B.C. at least as proved by the work Pranava Vedam by MaMuni Mayon
- Telugu—-Circa 400 B.C .Bhattiprolu inscriptions
- Kannada—Circa 230 B.C. Ashokan edicts at Brahmagiri
- Malayalam—Earliest branching could be by circa 9th c.A.D.
The timeline clearly establishes the mother hood of Tamil over the other languages.
The hypothesis of a language called ‘proto- Tamil’ having existed and all these languages descending from the same is untenable for the following reasons:
- Linguists believe that there are no valid grounds to infer the existence of any mother to Tamil as its etymology,grammar,syntax etc. is complete and leaves no scope for such a belief.
- For argument sake,if it is accepted that a ‘proto-Tamil’ language existed and all these languages descended from it,then all languages should be of same age which is not true here. No language can descend from a mother language after a gap of more than 1000 years.
- If ‘proto-Tamil’existed,it should be like Tamil’s mother .Then,how can Telugu,Kannada,Malayalam be born out of grand-mother directly?ask linguists.
- Any ‘proto-language’ exists before the concerned language comes into shape. In other words,any proto-language is an unrefined,raw form of language that disappears after the concerned language is formed.So,linguists feel that claiming that proto-Tamil existed after Tamil was formed and other languages descended from it is untenable.
TIME LINE ASSUMING PROTO-TAMIL EXISTED:
- Proto-Tamil(?)—circa 5500 B.C.
- Tamil——Conservative estimate circa 5000 B.C. as Tamil is the Indus Valley language.Earliest around 10000 B.C. at least as proved by the work Pranava Vedam by MaMuni Mayon
- Telugu—-Circa 400 B.C .Bhattiprolu inscriptions
- Kannada—Circa 230 B.C. Ashokan edicts at Brahmagiri
- Malayalam—Earliest branching could be by circa 9th c.A.D.
Gap between Proto-Tamil and Telugu is 5100 years,Kannada is 5300 years and Malayalam is 6400 years.How can a language descend from Proto-language after such a long gap?is the question posed by linguists.
CORE DICTION DEDUCTION TECHNIQUE(CDDT)
Extracts from https://www.quora.com/Which-is-the-mother-of-Sanskrit-language/answer/Alvaro-Hans?__filter__=&__nsrc__=2&__snid3__=3321603133
Surprisingly,there’s no subject called ’Motherology’in Linguistics that would help us trace the mother of any language!Nevertheless,some linguists have recently formed certain ground rules to identify the mother language of any language in question.
’CDDT’ (Core Diction Deduction Technique) lists out a few ground rules for the purpose.
What are the rules?
1.The fore most deciding rule is the presence of common core words between the ‘mother’ and the ’daughter’ languages discussed.List of ’Core diction’ is furnished elsewhere.
2. The chronological precedence of the ‘mother language’ needs to be established beyond reasonable doubt.
3. The ‘mother language’in question should have identifiable lot of ’native speakers’ to prove independent origination and spoken status as of now.
What are the core words/core diction for the exercise?
When any language ‘originates’the first words to originate are all ‘verbs’ normally.For example, core verbs like’come,go,sit,eat’ etc originate first followed by core nouns like’food,water,mom,dad,brother,sister’etc.’.
Linguists are of the view that a language is original if at least 90% of the following core diction A is proved to be original,meaning its ’own’.The view is based on the understanding that ‘verbs’ are the drivers of spoken basics and no language can originate without its own verbs.’Nouns’ may be borrowed from any language from any where.
A-Core Verbs
1. Go
2. Come
3. Run
4. Sit
5. Eat
6. Pee
7.Shit
8. Stand
9. Lie
10. Sleep
11. Bath
12. Drink
13. Fuck
B- Core Nouns
14. Man(Person)
15. Woman(Female)
16. Mom
17. Dad
18. Wife(my woman)
19. Food
20.Water
21. Brother
22. Sister
23. Hot
24. Cold
25. Fire
26. Good
27. Bad
28. God
29. Fear
30. Sad
31. Dog
32. Cow/Bull
33. Animal
34. Cave/Home
35.Tree
36. River
37. Forest
38. Etc.
(This is a sample list only for illustrating the concept)
However,if 90% of the core diction of Daughter language D is derived from another chronologically older mother language M,then it can be safely concluded that the second language M is the ‘Mother language’ of the first language D.
An illustration would help understand the CDD Technique better.
Let’s take a simple set of languages for easy understanding,say Tamil and Malayalam.
A-Core Verbs -TAMIL (Mother) MALAYALAM(Daughter)
1. Go ————-Po———————- Poaku
2. Come ——— Vaa——————- Varuka
3.Run ———— Odu—————— Oduka
4 Sit —————Iru ——————-Irukkuka
5. Eat ————- Unnu —————-Bhakshikkuga(Tamil-Patchi=consume)
6.Pee———— Onnukku ———— Pi(Tamil for shit)
7. Shit ————- Kakka————— Sirr ?
8. Stand———- Nil ——————- Nikku
9. Lie —————- Padu ————— Kitakkuka(Tamil-Kida=lie down)
10. Sleep(v)——— Urangu ———- Urakka
11.Bath(v) ————Kuli ————- Kulikku
12. Drink ———— Kudi————- Kudikku
13. Fuck———— Okka ————- Umpi(Tamil-Oombu=suck)
Almost 95% matching is seen in this study.Some words may not match exactly as another equivalent word of M language may be used in D language, like for ‘eat’.Sometimes phonetic changes in D words may disguise the words from immediate recognition .
Most of the words in B List Core Nouns are also likely to match thus strengthening the relationship.However B List words are prone to undergo more changes with time and varied cultural contacts..So B List matching may be considered as supplementary/additional/extra proof only.
Tamil is the oldest surviving language of the world and possibly the language of the Tower of Babel vide https://www.quora.com/What-would-be-the-first-language-if-all-languages-were-born-from-the-Tower-of-Babel/answer/Alvaro-Hans . So,Indians can feel proud that India is the home to the oldest language of the world.
Those who put up edit suggestions are requested to submit their thoughts as a separate answer as I have more than 1100 answer drafts to work on and so,not in a position to spare time for edit suggestions.Thanks for your understanding.
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