Schedule 80. StuTS

In recent decades, the idea that the Indo-Aryan language family has been influenced through intimate contact with Dravidian languages has been popular among scholars of South Asian linguistics. One particular Indic language, however, seems to have been more heavily affected by a possible language shift than most: Marathi. In opposition to this view, several scholars such as Hock (2001) and Kulkarni-Joshi (2017a) have casted doubt upon the substratum theory. In this presentation, the substratum theory is tested using Thomason’s (2011) and Robbeets’ (in press) five-step methodology. Marathi, Old Marathi and Hindi are analyzed for presence or absence of prototypical Dravidian features. Here, Hindi is used to represent a prototypical Indo-Aryan language as a point of comparison. Additionally, lexical borrowings from Dravidian in Marathi are analyzed. Since Marathi seems to have borrowed a significant number of Dravidian words into its core vocabulary, yet contains many structural features prototypical of Dravidian, it is concluded that though the substratum theory remains highly likely, Kulkarni-Joshi’s (2017a) theory of lexical change through diglossia is likely at the same time. Thus, a new timeline of Marathi's evolution is proposed in which the two theories coexist together.