This publication is the result of almost three years of research and study, but it has its roots in the beginning of my linguistic career. In the first class of Elamite that I took at the University "L'Orientale", Professor G. P. Basello explained that Elamite is an isolated language, compared with many linguistic groups without success. I immediately delved into the Dravidian hypothesis and decided to make this subject my MA thesis, of which this work is a continuation. Not much has been written on the cognation between Elamite and Dravidian: the leading publication was done by McAlpin in 1981, but the other scholars who dealt with this topic renounced it due to the impossibility of a concrete result or just gave their remarks. Elamite is, indeed, one of the most unknown languages of the Ancient Near and Middle East. It was spoken and written from the Mesopotamian region of Susiana to the Iranian plain of Persepolis. It is difficult to state when the spoken language died: the last inscriptions date to the 4th century b.c.e., but some evidence of the written language survived until nowadays. Since the discovery of Elamite in the trilingual Persian inscriptions, Elamite underwent many names and definitions ("Elamite" is neither the last one nor the best one!) and it was clear that a cognation was needed to understand this language.
In this search for a linguistic family to adopt Elamite, Dravidian appeared as the main candidate. The Dravidian linguistic group is a multifaceted ensemble of almost thirty languages spoken today by around 200 million people, mainly in Southern and Central India, but also in Pakistan. Its evidence outnumbers Elamite, but its oldest attestations (III/II b.c.e.) do not reach Elamite's latest ones. The affinity between Elamite and Dravidian was first proposed in 1855 by E. Norris while he was studying the Elanite inscriptions of Bisotun:
"In one or two points of phonography this alphabet resembles that used by the Tamils: there is no distinction made between the surd and sonant consonants at the beginning of a word, and in the middle of a word the same consonant must have been pronounced as a sonant when single, and a surd when double".
Nonetheless, he did not imply any connection between the two languages. At that time the Elamite language was called Scythic and he was looking for a connection with the Altaic languages. A year later, R. Caldwell published his great volume on Dravidian languages and showed their affinities with the Altaic linguistic group (at the time called Scythian). In that comparison, he included the remarks of Norris on the Bisotun inscriptions and added some morphological interpretations using Elamite to prove the connection between Dravidian languages and the Altaic group." At the beginning of the 20th century, Georg Husing brought the subject up again and published two articles (1901 and 1910)™ in which he also highlighted, for the first time, the affinity between Elamite and Brahui, a matter that was developed by Ferdinand Bork in 1925.
The cognation between Elamite and Dravidian was left behind until the 2nd half of the century when Elamite studies flourished again. This led to two new comparisons: first, the one made by an Elamite scholar, I. M. Diakonoff, who concluded that the materials were still not enough to postulate the cognation and, subsequently, the article published by the Dravidianist David McAlpin in 1974.
Scholars have expressed different views on the relation between Elamite and Dravidian. They are based on some similarities noticed among the languages of these two groups. But whether these similarities are rule bound so as to establish family relationship is in doubt. In addition to apparent similarity in certain lexical items, do we have some regular phonological correspondences so as to establish their cognate status? It is also opined by some that the Brahui language spoken mainly in the Baluchistan area (Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) exhibits more closeness to Elamite than the other Dravidian languages and based on that certain hypotheses are also now in existence. The so called closeness of Brahui to Elamite, if it is right, might be due to their geographical proximity when compared to other Dravidian languages. Investigations so far done have not provided any solid evidence to establish family relationship between Elamite and Brahui. So also is the case of Elamite with other Dravidian languages. Anyway, more studies are required in this area to arrive at definite conclusions.
: A The present work "Elamite and Dravidian Reassessment" by Filippo Pedron attempts to have a reassessment of the existing studies in this field in general and the studies of McAlpin with regard to Elamite, Brahui and other Dravidian languages in particular. This work is definitely a product of an indepth study. The author looks at the etyma furnished by McAlpin with an analytical mind and scientific precision. The methodology adopted and the unbiased critical nature of the study are commendable. Might be recognizing the importance of this work, Senior Dravidian Scholar Prof. E. Annamalai (Former Director, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru) brought my attention to this work and also strongly recommended its publication.
I have to give a special thanks to Prof. Sanford Steever, the renowned Dravidian linguist who has also made substantial study in 'Elamite-Dravidian problem', for readily agreeing to my request to write a Prologue for this book. This prologue is the product of Prof. Steever's several years of reasearch and study in Dravidian and that is why he could present his views at ease on the problem quite convincingly with irrefutable arguments. In short, this Prologue to Filippo Pedron's "Elamite and Dravidian: A Reassessment" by Prof. Sanford Steever really enhances the worth of this book to further heights.
I sincerely thank Time Offset Printers, Thiruvananthapuram, Mrs. Aswathy A., Mrs. Greeshma C., Mrs. Salini V.R., Dr. N. Muraleedharan Nair, Dr. Aiswaria G. Shajan, Mrs. Rajitha K.V. and Ms. Anju B. for their sincere cooperation and help in publishing this book in its present form.
This book "Elamite and Dravidian: A Reassessment", I am sure, is of immense value to all those who are engaged in the study and research on Elamite and Dravidian languages.
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