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Based on the linguistic evidence, we (Rau & Sidwell) argue that pre-Proto-Munda arose in Mainland Southeast Asia after the spread of rice agriculture in the late Neolithic period, sometime after 4,500 years ago. A small Austroasiatic population then brought pre-Proto-Munda by means of a maritime route across the Bay of Bengal to the Mahanadi Delta region – an important hub location for maritime trade in historic and pre-historic times. The interaction with a local South Asian population gave rise to proto-Munda and the Munda branch of Austroasiatic. The Maritime Hypothesis accounts for the linguistic evidence better than other scenarios such as an Indian origin of Austroasiatic or a migration from Southeast Asia through the Brahmaputra basin. The available evidence from archaeology and genetics further supports the hypothesis of a small founder population of Austroasiatic speakers arriving in Odisha from Southeast Asia before the Aryan conquest in the Iron-Age… The Munda Maritime Hypothesis consists of two separate claims: The Proto-Munda homeland is situated in the Mahanadi Delta and adjacent coastal plains and was spoken by a rice and millet growing culture consisting of South and Southeast Asian components at around 4 to 3.5 kya.1 The Southeast Asian pre-Munda reached this location via a maritime route around or across the Bay of Bengal from an unknown area in Southeast Asia… Currently, Munda languages are spoken in the Eastern Ghats and on the Chota Nagpur Plateau in most of the districts of Odisha (formerly called Orissa) and Jharkhand as well as in many of the districts of Chattisgarh and West Bengal (see Figure 1). Korku is located in the Satpura Hills on the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. There are settlements of several Munda speakers around the tea estates of Assam, but these are the result of 20th century labor migration. Furthermore, there are Kherwarian speakers in the Indo-Gangetic plain of Bihar and West Bengal stretching north as far as Nepal … Syntax and morphology of modern Munda languages show influence of contact with Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages, although Donegan and Stampe (2002) attribute most features of modern Munda languages to an internal shift in phrase and word rhythms rather than contact. The restructuring in Munda includes superficial changes such as the introduction of retroflex consonants, while significant changes include simplification to a five-vowel system and reduction of the Austroasiatic syllable canon *CCVC to CVC. The latter resulted in the splitting of initial clusters in inherited Austroasiatic etyma; for example, Austroasiatic *klaʔ (MKCD4 197) became proto-Munda *kəla ‘tiger’ (Sidwell and Rau 2014). .. Cluster-splitting as a regular sound change only occurs in a language contact setting where speakers of a language that lacks initial consonant clusters acquire a language with these clusters (Blevins 2017:8). We take this as strong evidence that proto-Munda was an Austroasiatic language that went through a substantial contact situation with a very high percentage of second language speakers in the population. Analysis of loan vocabulary can throw some light on the historical situation. The lexicons of Munda languages contain numerous loans from Indo-Aryan languages as well as some Dravidian loans. … evidence suggests an early maritime contact that supports a maritime linkage between the proto-Munda homeland and the Southeast Asia…. The Maritime Munda Hypothesis suggests that the Munda languages originate with a small population of Southeast Asian Austroasiatic speakers interacting with a South Asian population in the Mahanadi Delta in the Eastern Coastal Plains around 2000–1500 BCE. The pre-Munda speakers reached the Mahanadi Delta via a maritime route around the Bay of Bengal and brought rice agriculture and their language with them. The interaction with the local population created an Austroasiatic language with a substantially altered phonology and lexicon. The resulting proto-Munda language and culture dispersed from the coastal plains along the major rivers into the Eastern Ghats, the Chota Nagpur Plateau and from there as far west as the Satpura Hills..."
https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/52454/1/02RauSidwell2019_2Munda.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3DbPcptNbyiX4MFDRnVDvkWwZ33_AtjKCuaUEvTQzlk3gaNPuZ0Cub02E
These linguistic analyses signify the presence of proto-Munda words in Indian sprachbund, 'language union' of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and Munda vocabulary. This interactive set of vocabulary explain the rebus Meluhha readings of Indus Script hieroglyphs/hypertexts, exemplified by the word kola'tiger' with variant pronunciations in Munda dialects. The word get the pronunciation of kola in Telugu in the expression: కోలు kōlu. [Tel.] adj. Big, great, huge పెద్ద. కోలుపులి or కోల్పులి a royal tiger. read rebus: kol 'working in iron' kole.l 'smithy, forge', kolhe 'smelter'. Ta. kol working in iron, blacksmith; kollaṉ blacksmith.
Ma. kollan blacksmith, artificer. Ko. kole·l smithy, temple in Kota village. To. kwala·l Kota smithy. Ka. kolime, kolume, kulame, kulime, kulume, kulme firepit, furnace; (Bell.; U.P.U.) konimi blacksmith; (Gowda) kolla id. Koḍ. kollë blacksmith. Te. kolimi furnace. Go. (SR.) kollusānā to mend implements; (Ph.) kolstānā, kulsānā to forge; (Tr.) kōlstānā to repair (of ploughshares); (SR.) kolmi smithy (Voc. 948). Kuwi (F.) kolhali to forge.(DEDR 2133)
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blacksmith.Te. kolimi furnace. Go. (SR.) kollusānā to mend implements; (Ph.) kolstānā, kulsānā to forge; (Tr.) kōlstānā to repair (of ploughshares); (SR.) kolmi smithy (Voc. 948). Kuwi (F.) kolhali to forge.(DEDR 2133)
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Based on the linguistic evidence, we (Rau & Sidwell) argue that pre-Proto-Munda arose in Mainland Southeast Asia after the spread of rice agriculture in the late Neolithic period, sometime after 4,500 years ago. A small Austroasiatic population then brought pre-Proto-Munda by means of a maritime route across the Bay of Bengal to the Mahanadi Delta region – an important hub location for maritime trade in historic and pre-historic times. The interaction with a local South Asian population gave rise to proto-Munda and the Munda branch of Austroasiatic. The Maritime Hypothesis accounts for the linguistic evidence better than other scenarios such as an Indian origin of Austroasiatic or a migration from Southeast Asia through the Brahmaputra basin. The available evidence from archaeology and genetics further supports the hypothesis of a small founder population of Austroasiatic speakers arriving in Odisha from Southeast Asia before the Aryan conquest in the Iron-Age… The Munda Maritime Hypothesis consists of two separate claims: The Proto-Munda homeland is situated in the Mahanadi Delta and adjacent coastal plains and was spoken by a rice and millet growing culture consisting of South and Southeast Asian components at around 4 to 3.5 kya.1 The Southeast Asian pre-Munda reached this location via a maritime route around or across the Bay of Bengal from an unknown area in Southeast Asia… Currently, Munda languages are spoken in the Eastern Ghats and on the Chota Nagpur Plateau in most of the districts of Odisha (formerly called Orissa) and Jharkhand as well as in many of the districts of Chattisgarh and West Bengal (see Figure 1). Korku is located in the Satpura Hills on the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. There are settlements of several Munda speakers around the tea estates of Assam, but these are the result of 20th century labor migration. Furthermore, there are Kherwarian speakers in the Indo-Gangetic plain of Bihar and West Bengal stretching north as far as Nepal … Syntax and morphology of modern Munda languages show influence of contact with Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages, although Donegan and Stampe (2002) attribute most features of modern Munda languages to an internal shift in phrase and word rhythms rather than contact. The restructuring in Munda includes superficial changes such as the introduction of retroflex consonants, while significant changes include simplification to a five-vowel system and reduction of the Austroasiatic syllable canon *CCVC to CVC. The latter resulted in the splitting of initial clusters in inherited Austroasiatic etyma; for example, Austroasiatic *klaʔ (MKCD4 197) became proto-Munda *kəla ‘tiger’ (Sidwell and Rau 2014). .. Cluster-splitting as a regular sound change only occurs in a language contact setting where speakers of a language that lacks initial consonant clusters acquire a language with these clusters (Blevins 2017:8). We take this as strong evidence that proto-Munda was an Austroasiatic language that went through a substantial contact situation with a very high percentage of second language speakers in the population. Analysis of loan vocabulary can throw some light on the historical situation. The lexicons of Munda languages contain numerous loans from Indo-Aryan languages as well as some Dravidian loans. … evidence suggests an early maritime contact that supports a maritime linkage between the proto-Munda homeland and the Southeast Asia…. The Maritime Munda Hypothesis suggests that the Munda languages originate with a small population of Southeast Asian Austroasiatic speakers interacting with a South Asian population in the Mahanadi Delta in the Eastern Coastal Plains around 2000–1500 BCE. The pre-Munda speakers reached the Mahanadi Delta via a maritime route around the Bay of Bengal and brought rice agriculture and their language with them. The interaction with the local population created an Austroasiatic language with a substantially altered phonology and lexicon. The resulting proto-Munda language and culture dispersed from the coastal plains along the major rivers into the Eastern Ghats, the Chota Nagpur Plateau and from there as far west as the Satpura Hills..."
https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/52454/1/02RauSidwell2019_2Munda.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3DbPcptNbyiX4MFDRnVDvkWwZ33_AtjKCuaUEvTQzlk3gaNPuZ0Cub02E
These linguistic analyses signify the presence of proto-Munda words in Indian sprachbund, 'language union' of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and Munda vocabulary. This interactive set of vocabulary explain the rebus Meluhha readings of Indus Script hieroglyphs/hypertexts, exemplified by the word kola'tiger' with variant pronunciations in Munda dialects. The word get the pronunciation of kola in Telugu in the expression: కోలు kōlu. [Tel.] adj. Big, great, huge పెద్ద. కోలుపులి or కోల్పులి a royal tiger. read rebus: kol 'working in iron' kole.l 'smithy, forge', kolhe 'smelter'. Ta. kol working in iron, blacksmith; kollaṉ blacksmith.
Ma. kollan blacksmith, artificer. Ko. kole·l smithy, temple in Kota village. To. kwala·l Kota smithy. Ka. kolime, kolume, kulame, kulime, kulume, kulme firepit, furnace; (Bell.; U.P.U.) konimi blacksmith; (Gowda) kolla id. Koḍ. kollë blacksmith. Te. kolimi furnace. Go. (SR.) kollusānā to mend implements; (Ph.) kolstānā, kulsānā to forge; (Tr.) kōlstānā to repair (of ploughshares); (SR.) kolmi smithy (Voc. 948). Kuwi (F.) kolhali to forge.(DEDR 2133)
blacksmith.Te. kolimi furnace. Go. (SR.) kollusānā to mend implements; (Ph.) kolstānā, kulsānā to forge; (Tr.) kōlstānā to repair (of ploughshares); (SR.) kolmi smithy (Voc. 948). Kuwi (F.) kolhali to forge.(DEDR 2133)
