The Languages of Harappa - People Fas Harvard

from two closely related sources languages, e.g. Engl. tea, French thé :: Russian and North
Indian chai, coming from S. and N. China respectively. It is clear that many of the following
words go back to such slightly divergent Central Asian origins.
First, it has to be established why we should think of central Asian origins. For, in
theory, such loans could also have originated in the Panjab and have traveled to Iran (as is
the case with the words for rice, discussed above), or, conversely, from some Iranian area to
the Panjab. However, a selection of the most typical loans tends to center on the Bactria-
Margiana area (cf. Witzel 1995, 1997a n. 54, 1999a,b), perhaps with the inclusion of Sistan
for some words. The following ones can be plotted both in time and place: *uštr 'camel',
*khar 'donkey', *išt 'brick'.
• *uštr > Ved. ura / Avest. uštra 'camel'. The middle and new Akkadian word udru 'Bactrian camel'
is a loan from Iran, see EWA I 238, KEWA III 652, cf. Diakonoff in JAOS 105, 1985, 600. The domesticated
camel was introduced into the BMAC area from Central Asia only in the late 3rd mill. BCE.
• khar > Ved. khara / Avest. xara 'donkey', cf. also Toch. B ker-ca-po < *karca-bha?, with the
common Indian animal suffix -bha (as seen in garda-bha 'donkey', råsa-bha 'donkey', śara-bha 'a horned
animal', a-bha 'bull'). The word may be a late 3rd mill. Near Eastern loan that came to the BMAC area
together with the domesticated donkey, cf. Akkadian (Mari) årum, ajarum 'male donkey', EWA I 447. The
apparent overlap with Dravidian (denied by EWA 473) in Drav. *garda- > Tamil kalutai 'donkey' is of
importance as it may represent one of the few possible links of a Central Asian substrate that is found both in
Dravidian and Vedic.
• *išt > Ved. ii, iikå / Avest. ištiia 'brick', zəmō-ištuua 'clay brick'; OPers. išti, MP., NPers. xišt; cf.
also Toch. iścem 'clay'? The regions north of the BMAC do not have any bricks in the period before c. 2000
BCE (except, perhaps for the Caucasus area and at Sintashta, east of the Urals). Again, the item and the word
would have been encountered by tribes speaking Indo-Iranian or the already separated Old Indo-Aryan
and Old Iranian dialects as soon as they expanded into the one area where these three loans are possible
around c. 2000 BCE (or later): the BMAC area.
These so far neglected words in Indo-Iranian without Indo-European etymologies
(see now Witzel 1999a,b, Lubotsky, forthc.) include, notably, the local words for the newly
introduced domesticated camel and donkey, and for wheat, Ved. godhūma, Avest. gantuma
< *gant-um < gant + um (cf. Berger's reconstruction, Burushaski **γund-um). They are
joined by a number of words from agriculture and settled life: *parš 'sheaf', *bīj 'seed,
semen', *ya(u)v(ī)yå 'stream, irrigation channel', *sthūnå 'pillar', *bhiš, bhiš-aj' 'to heal,
healer', *vīnå 'lute', *ling 'mark', *kapaut 'blue', *kadru 'brown'. Of interest are also the
words that have a wider range of spread in central Asia and beyond (for details see Witzel
1999a,b): **kana/k'ana 'hemp', *bhang 'hemp', **sinšap 'mustard', *kayap 'tortoise',
**pard/pandh 'spotted animal, panther' (often found in early and also in later C. Asian art,
see Dani 1992), **kart-ka 'rhinoceros'. The last few words which indicate animals that need
a wetter regions than usually found in Central Asia may be connected with the area of the
(then well watered) Sistan. (Of still older, E. European or N. Central Asian origin may be:
**medh/melit 'sweet, honey', **sengha/singha 'lion').
Further, there are a number of old, little studied local pre-Iranian names. They
include, among others, Avest. Xnəta < *khnanta = Avest. vəhrkåna, Gorgån < *khranta);
Suγδa 'Sogdia', and in O.Pers., the Median Kampanda, Sikaya(h)u-vati; the Arachosian
Aršådå, Gandutava; the Southeast Iranian name Cambyses (Kamb(a)ū/ujiya) ~ Ved.
Kamboja, Karmåna and Maka (modern Makran), Maciya 'a person from Maka' (details in
Witzel 1999a,b).