Editing Burushaski (section)

== Language contact ==
Blench (2008) notes that the supposed evidence for external relationships of Burushaski rely on lexical data which may be better explained as originating from language contact. In particular, almost all Burushaski agricultural vocabulary appears to be borrowed from [[Dardic languages|Dardic]], [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman]], and [[North Caucasian languages|North Caucasian]] languages.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Blench |first1=Roger |title=Re-evaluating the linguistic prehistory of South Asia |journal=Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past |date=2008 |page=169 |url=https://rogerblench.info/Archaeology/South%20Asia/Blench_paper%20LCHES%202007.pdf |access-date=10 September 2023}}</ref>

Following Berger (1956), the ''[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language|American Heritage]]'' dictionaries suggested that the word ''*abel'' '[[apple]]', the only name for a fruit (tree) reconstructed for [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]], may have been borrowed from a language ancestral to Burushaski. ("Apple" and "apple tree" are ''báalt'' in modern Burushaski.)

Kashmiri linguist Sadaf Munshi stated that Burushaski may have developed alongside the [[Dravidian languages]] before the [[Indo-Aryan migration theory|Indo-Aryan migration]] to South Asia, mentioning the fact that both possess [[Retroflex consonant|retroflex sounds]].<ref name="Munshi">{{cite book|last=Munshi|first=Sadaf |title=Jammu and Kashmir Burushashki: Language, Language Contact, and Change|year=2006|publisher=The University of Texas at Austin |language=en|pages=12, 105}}</ref>