Elamite and Dravidian: Further Evidence of Relationship [and Comments and Reply]

This paper presents the correspondences in verbal morphologies to support the existing lexical and other morphological evidence (reported elsewhere) that the Dravidian language family is closely cognate with Elamite. It uses primarily Achaemenid Elamite, for which the most detail is available, and in particular the description of the verb given by R. T. Hallock. A great deal of use is made of Dravidian Ver Morphology by P. S. Subrahmanyam. For one of the two basic tenses in both Dravidian and Elamite, the nonpast, it is shown that there is an item-for-item correspondence in the verbal morphologies for all surviving forms. This is obvious only after a reinterpretation of Proto-Dravidian verbal morphology. For the other basic tense, it is shown that significant correspondences exist in spite of major changes. Also, parallel shifts in verb classes for an intransitive/transitive contrast are shown to be cognate. Other verbal forms, including the auxiliaries, are discussed.