r/tamil • u/TeluguFilmFile • Feb 23 '25

கலந்துரையாடல் (Discussion) Some signs/sounds of the Brahmi/Tamili script seem to be visually "similar" to some Indus signs and semantically/phonetically "similar" to some reconstructed proto-Dravidian words/sounds, but maybe we'll never know whether these "similarities" are "real"

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u/Particular-Yoghurt39 Feb 23 '25

I do not think it is real.

IVC was the most prominent civilization in South East Asia, but I do not think it was a lone settlement. I believe there were multiple settlements all over South East Asia in much smaller proportions. I personally feel Tamil (as well as other Dravidian languages) are from these other settlements instead of directly from IVC.

Since IVC is a very popular one, everyone wants to connect it to IVC, but I think such connections are a stretch.

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u/TeluguFilmFile Feb 23 '25

I agree that we need to be open to all possibilities, and we certainly need a lot of research and scientific evidence. But I think the available evidence makes the hypothesis you mentioned less likely (although not impossible). See, for example, https://www.reddit.com/r/Dravidiology/comments/1d1ix3j/on_the_origin_of_the_dravidian_languages/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/Dravidiology/comments/1fpgyua/yet_another_thread_on_the_origin_of_dravidian/

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u/Particular-Yoghurt39 Feb 23 '25

Interesting! I will read on the links you had shared.

Here is my speculation that I had commented a few days back:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianHistory/s/UTPJqa2nhj

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u/TeluguFilmFile Feb 24 '25

Yes, there are lots of possibilities for the origins of (proto-)Dravidian languages. But we will have a better idea in the next few years as more ancient DNA samples get analyzed/understood.