Proto-Indo-Aryan (sometimes Proto-Indic[note 1]) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Aryan languages.[1] It is intended to reconstruct the language of the Proto-Indo-Aryans, who had migrated into the Indian subcontinent. Being descended from Proto-Indo-Iranian (which in turn is descended from Proto-Indo-European),[2] it has the characteristics of a satem language.[3]
| Proto-Indo-Aryan | |
|---|---|
| PIA, Proto-Indic | |
| Reconstruction of | Indo-Aryan languages |
Reconstructed | |
Proto-Indo-Aryan is meant to be the predecessor of Old Indo-Aryan (1500–300 BCE), which is directly attestedasVedic and Classical Sanskrit, as well as by the Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni. Indeed, Vedic Sanskrit is very close to Proto-Indo-Aryan.[4]
Some of the Prakrits display a few minor features derived from Proto-Indo-Aryan that had already disappeared in Vedic Sanskrit.
Today, numerous modern Indo-Aryan languages are extant.
Despite the great archaicity of Vedic, the other Indo-Aryan languages preserve a small number of conservative features lost in Vedic.[5]
One of these is the representation of Proto-Indo-European *l and *r. Vedic (as also most Iranic languages) merges both as /r/. Later, however, some instances of Indo-European /l/ again surface in Classical Sanskrit, indicating that the contrast survived in an early Indo-Aryan dialect parallel to Vedic. (A dialect with only /l/ is additionally posited to underlie Magadhi Prakrit.)[6] However, it is not clear that the contrast actually survived anywhere in Indo-Iranian, not even in Proto-Indo-Iranian, as /l/ is also found in place of original *r in Indo-Iranian languages.
The common consonant cluster kṣ /kʂ/ of Vedic and later Sanskrit has a particularly wide range of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and Proto-Indo-Iranian (PII) sources, which partly remain distinct in later Indo-Aryan languages:[7]