Editing Dravidian languages (section)

===Dravidian influence on Sanskrit===
{{main|Substratum in Vedic Sanskrit}}

Dravidian languages show extensive lexical (vocabulary) borrowing, but only a few traits of structural (either [[phonology|phonological]] or grammatical) borrowing from Indo-Aryan, whereas Indo-Aryan shows more structural than lexical borrowings from the Dravidian languages.<ref name="britannicaOnline">"[http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9109791 Dravidian languages.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409105643/https://academic.eb.com/ |date=9 April 2023 }}" [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 30 June 2008</ref> Many of these features are already present in the oldest known [[Indo-Aryan language]], the language of the ''[[Rigveda]]'' (c.{{nbsp}}1500 BCE), which also includes over a dozen words borrowed from Dravidian.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=6}}

[[Vedic Sanskrit]] has [[retroflex consonant]]s ({{IAST|ṭ}}/{{IAST|ḍ}}, {{IAST|ṇ}}) with about 88 words in the ''Rigveda'' having unconditioned retroflexes.{{sfnp|Kuiper|1991}}{{sfnp|Witzel|1999}} Some sample words are ''{{IAST|Iṭanta}}'', ''{{IAST|Kaṇva}}'', ''{{IAST|śakaṭī}}'', ''{{IAST|kevaṭa}}'', ''{{IAST|puṇya}}'' and ''{{IAST|maṇḍūka}}''.
Since other [[Indo-European languages]], including other [[Indo-Iranian languages]], lack retroflex consonants, their presence in Indo-Aryan is often cited as evidence of substrate influence from close contact of the Vedic speakers with speakers of a foreign language family rich in retroflex consonants.{{sfnp|Kuiper|1991}}{{sfnp|Witzel|1999}} The Dravidian family is a serious candidate since it is rich in retroflex phonemes reconstructible back to the [[Proto-Dravidian language|Proto-Dravidian stage]].{{sfnp|Subrahmanyam|1983|p=40}}{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990}}{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|p=36}}

In addition, a number of grammatical features of Vedic Sanskrit not found in its sister [[Avestan language]] appear to have been borrowed from Dravidian languages. These include the [[gerund]], which has the same function as in Dravidian.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=36–37}} Some linguists explain this asymmetrical borrowing by arguing that Middle Indo-Aryan languages were built on a Dravidian substratum.{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|pp=40–41}} These scholars argue that the most plausible explanation for the presence of Dravidian structural features in Indic is [[language shift]], that is, native Dravidian speakers learning and adopting Indic languages due to [[Minoritarianism|elite dominance]].{{sfnp|Erdosy|1995|p=18}} Although each of the innovative traits in Indic could be accounted for by internal explanations, early Dravidian influence is the only explanation that can account for all of the innovations at once; moreover, it accounts for several of the innovative traits in Indic better than any internal explanation that has been proposed.{{sfnp|Thomason|Kaufman|1988|pp=141–144}}