Page:An introduction to Dravidian philology.djvu/121

Rh attempt had been made to suggest that the so-called Dravidian languages are the representatives in South India of the original Paisaci tongues. But this suggestion is not so easy to work out, for the whole question is complicated by the diffusion into this substratum of many of the later Prakrit languages To disentangle all these elements and present them in their proper perspective would be a task that would take much time and study. The utmost that we can do in the present state of our knowledge is to point out the general features of the Dravidian languages which bring them into intimate relationship with the Indo-Iranian languages.

We shall begin with the language of the Avesta and note where it differs from Sanskrit and presents parallels with the Dravidian languages. In the Avesta, all final vowels are shortened