My email was not directed at anyone personally.  It was simply a response to the observation Srikanth made and from what I glanced from Wikipedia articles.[1]  In the context of linguistics, you will be hard-pressed to find reliable sources that refer to Indic languages as a generic term for all of Indian languages.

The word 'Indic' itself is a derivative of the word "Hindus" or "Indus" referring to the Indus Valley Civilization, which did not stretch as far as Deccan India where the Dravidian family of languages have been prevalent.  The distinction between the Indic languages and Dravidian languages is an important one, and they should not be confused to be one and the same.

As a movement of individuals who are dedicated to the process of building the world's largest repositories of information, we should be mindful of lingual and cultural realities and sensitivities.  This is not just about being politically correct, but also accuracy in the representation of _factual_ information.

Again, this is simply my personal opinion and observation.  :)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Aryan_languages

Cheers,

Anirudh

On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 2:20 PM, Amir E. Aharoni <amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
‪“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬


2012/11/14 Anirudh Bhati <anirudhsbh@gmail.com>:
> On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 1:02 AM, Amir E. Aharoni
> <amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
>>
>> If he didn't explain it, then you can presume that it's wrong. There's
>> nothing to discuss, and there's nothing wrong with saying "Indic
>> languages".
>
>
> The word "Indic" refers generally to the Indo-Aryan family of languages,
> which does not include Dravidian languages prevalent in Southern India.

Not necessarily.

According to Meriam-Webster, the adjective "Indic" may refer to
Indo-Aryan and to all of India. Moreover, "Indic scripts" refers to
all Brahmic scripts, and that is the most common term today.

The English Wikipedia redirected [[Indic languages]] to [[Indo-Aryan
languages]], but that was a mistake, and I just fixed it.

> Hence, bunching the entire system of Dravidian languages together with the
> Indo-Aryan languages in India may seem derogatory to some, and reasonably
> so.

No, not derogatory. At worst, it's ambiguous.

Making up bad connotations for normal words is not so constructive.

--
Amir

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