ABSTRACT
This chapter presents background information on the linguistic situation in South Asia, starting from the earliest period for which useable data are available. As there are detailed treatments of this subject elsewhere, no attempt is made at completeness here. 1 Three South Asian language families provide data for the prehistoric period: (1) Indo-Iranian, with three branches: (A) Indo-Aryan, with texts in Old Indo-Aryan or OIA dating back to the middle of the second millennium Bce, (B) Iranian, with texts in Avestan dateable to about the same period, (C) Nuristani (or Kafiri), a group of non-literary languages spoken by small groups in the mountain ranges of the northwestern part of the subcontinent; (2) Dravidian, for which comparative evidence provides reconstructions dating back probably to the third millennium Bce; and (3) Munda, a branch of the Austro-Asiatic family, which provides reconstructions dateable to about the middle of the second millennium Bce. Each of these major linguistic groups is discussed here briefly.
