Decipherment of the Indus script: new angles and approaches, part 4

These are remarks by Ron Vara from here:

ᱮᱞᱚᱱ ᱨᱤᱣ ᱢᱩᱥᱠ ( /ˈiːlɒn/ EE-lon; ᱡᱟᱱᱟᱢ ᱡᱩᱱ ᱒᱘, ᱑᱙᱗᱑) ᱩᱱᱤ ᱫᱚ ᱢᱤᱫ ᱵᱮᱯᱟᱨᱤᱭᱟᱹ ᱠᱟᱱᱟᱭ ᱚᱠᱚᱭ ᱫᱚ ᱩᱱᱤᱭᱟᱜ ᱢᱩᱲᱩᱫ ᱵᱷᱩᱢᱤᱠᱟ Tesla, Inc., SpaceX, ᱟᱨ ᱴᱩᱭᱴᱚᱨ (ᱡᱟᱦᱟᱸ ᱩᱱᱤ ᱮᱠᱥ ᱞᱮᱠᱟᱛᱮ ᱧᱩᱛᱩᱢ ᱵᱚᱫᱚᱞ ᱮᱱᱟ) ᱨᱮ ᱵᱟᱰᱟᱭᱚᱜ ᱠᱟᱱᱟ᱾

This is the first sentence in the article Elon Musk in Santali alphabet (Ol Chiki). Yes, it's an alphabetic writing system, not an abugida. What makes the Santali alphabet really elusive is that it resembles the shapes of the undeciphered Indus Valley script. Soviet archaeologists once tried to decipher IVC seals using Santali alphabet. Sounds ridiculous, but it's a sad truth that Santali is a unique language with little to no academic attention having been paid to it.

What makes Santali language itself stand out is the lack of "indianization" as compared to even Southeast Asian Austroasiatic languages like Mon and Khmer. Its phonology is still archetypically East Asian with a superimposed South Asian areal layer. Its morphology is somewhat mixed between SEA Austroasiatic prefixing and (self-innovative) highly polysynthetic verb akin to the Kiranti languages (spoken ~20 kilometres away in Nepal), so Santali is not remotely influenced by Sanskrit, except for a few Austroasiatic loanwords in early Vedic Sanskrit.

 

Selected readings

• "Decipherment of the Indus script: new angles and approaches, part 3" (3/28/25)
• "Decipherment of the Indus script: new angles and approaches" (3/6/25) — with useful bibliography
• "Decipherment of the Indus script: new angles and approaches, part 2" (3/22/25)