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{{Short description|Language of the Bronze Age civilization of the Indus Valley}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Harappan
| altname = Indus Valley, Mohenjo-Daro
| region = [[Indus Valley]]
| extinct = {{circa|1300 BC}}, or later
| familycolor = unclassified
| family = unclassified
| dia1 =
| script = [[Indus script]]
| iso3 = xiv
| linglist = xiv
| glotto = hara1272
| glottorefname = Harappan
}}
[[File:Indus seal impression.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Impression of an Indus [[stamp seal]], showing a string of five "[[Indus script]]" symbols; the Indus script is interpreted by some scholars as the writing system of the Harappan language.]]
[[File:Akkadian cylinder seal with inscription Shu-ilishu, interpreter of the Meluhhan language, Louvre Museum AO 22310.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Impression of an [[Akkadian Empire]] [[cylinder seal]] with inscription: ''"Shu-ilishu, interpreter of the language of Meluhha"'';<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parpola |first=Asko |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DagXCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT353 |title=The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780190226930 |page=353 |language=en}}</ref> [[Louvre Museum]], reference AO 22310.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Meluhha interpreter seal. Site officiel du musée du Louvre |url=http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not&idNotice=12071 |website=cartelfr.louvre.fr}}</ref>]]

The '''Harappan language''' is the unknown language or languages of the [[Bronze Age]] ({{circa|2nd millennium BC}}) [[Harappan civilization]] (Indus Valley civilization, or IVC). The Harappan script has long defied attempts to read it, and therefore the language remains unknown.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-06 |title=India - Agriculture and animal husbandry {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Agriculture-and-animal-husbandry#ref46830 |access-date=2023-06-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306022746/https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Agriculture-and-animal-husbandry#ref46830 |archive-date=2023-03-06 }}</ref> The language being unattested in any readable contemporary source, hypotheses regarding its nature are reduced to purported [[loanword]]s and [[Substratum (linguistics)|substratum]] influence, notably the [[substratum in Vedic Sanskrit]] and a few terms recorded in [[Sumerian cuneiform]] (such as ''[[Meluhha]]''), in conjunction with analyses of the undeciphered [[Indus script]].

There are a handful of possible loanwords from the language of the Indus Valley civilization. Sumerian ''Meluhha'' may be derived from a native term for the Indus Valley civilization, also reflected in Sanskrit ''[[mleccha]]'' meaning ''non-Vedic'' or ''native'', and Witzel (2000) further suggests that Sumerian <sup>GIŠ</sup>''šimmar'' (a type of tree) may be cognate to [[Rigvedic]] ''śimbala'' and ''śalmali'' (also names of trees).<ref>An Indus loanword of "para-Munda" nature in Mesopotamian has been identified by Michael Witzel, A first link between the Rgvedic Panjab and Mesopotamia: śimbala/śalmali, and <sup>GIŠ</sup>šimmar? In: Klaus Karttunen and Petteri Koskikallio (eds.) Vidyarnavavandanam. Essays in Honour of Asko Parpola. 2000 (Studia Orientalia, published by the Finnish Or. Soc. 94): 497–508. See also Witzel, [http://compling.ai.uiuc.edu/2007Workshop/Slides/witzel.doc The language or languages of the Indus civilization] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720084908/http://compling.ai.uiuc.edu/2007Workshop/Slides/witzel.doc |date=2011-07-20 }}, July 2007.</ref>

==Identification==
There are a number of hypotheses as to the nature of this unknown language:
*One hypothesis places it within or near the [[Dravidian languages]], perhaps identical with [[Proto-Dravidian language|Proto-Dravidian]] itself. Proposed by [[Henry Heras]] in the 1950s,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heras |first=Henry |title=Studies in Proto-Indo-Mediterranean Culture |date=1953 |publisher=Indian Historical Research Institute |location=Bombay, IN}}</ref> the hypothesis has gained some plausibility and is endorsed by [[Kamil Zvelebil]], [[Asko Parpola]] and [[Iravatham Mahadevan]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rahman |first=Tariq |title=Peoples and languages in pre-islamic Indus valley |url=http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/subject/peoplesandlanguages.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509053921/http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/subject/peoplesandlanguages.html |archive-date=2008-05-09 |access-date=2008-11-20 |website=utexas.edu |publisher=[[University of Texas]] |place=Austin, TX |quote=... who was the first to suggest that the language of the Indus Civilization was Dravidian. |department=Asian Studies Network Information Center (ASNIC)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Cole |first=Jennifer |title=The Sindhi language |url=http://www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/jscole/Sindhi_Elsevier_encyl.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106015921/http://www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/jscole/Sindhi_Elsevier_encyl.pdf |archive-date=January 6, 2007 |access-date=2008-11-20 |quote=... Harappan language, the ancient script is as yet undeciphered, but a prevailing theory suggests a Dravidian origin.}}</ref> A 2021 research paper published in [[Nature (journal)|''Nature'']] clarifies that Proto-Dravidian was spoken in Indus Valley based on the ultraconserved Dravidian tooth-word and genetics.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ansumali Mukhopadhyay |first=Bahata |date=2021-08-03 |title=Ancestral Dravidian languages in Indus Civilization: ultraconserved Dravidian tooth-word reveals deep linguistic ancestry and supports genetics |journal=Humanities and Social Sciences Communications |language=en |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=1–14 |doi=10.1057/s41599-021-00868-w |issn=2662-9992 |s2cid=257091003 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
* A "lost phylum", i.e. a language with no living continuants (or perhaps a last living [[Reflex (linguistics)|reflex]] in the moribund [[Nihali language]]). In this case, the only trace left by the language of the Indus Valley civilization would be historical substratum influence, in particular the [[substratum in Vedic Sanskrit]].

Hypotheses that have gained less mainstream academic acceptance include:
* An [[Indo-European language]], close or identical to [[Proto-Indo-Iranian]]: suggested by archaeologist [[Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao]].{{efn|
Indo-Iranian presence is likely only from the [[Late Harappan]] period (20th century BC) at the earliest.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parpola |first=Asko |title=Archaeology and Language |date=1999 |publisher=Routledge |editor-last=Blench |editor-first=Roger |volume=III: Artefacts, languages and texts |location=London, UK and New York, NY |chapter=The formation of the Aryan branch of Indo-European |author-link=Asko Parpola |editor-last2=Spriggs |editor-first2=Matthew}}</ref>
}}
* A [[Semitic language]]: [[Malati Shendge]] (1997) identified the Harappan culture with an "[[Asura]]" empire, and these Asura further with the [[Ancient Assyrians|Assyrians]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shendge |first=M. |title=The Language of the Harappans |date=1997 |publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=978-81-7017-325-0 |author-link=Malati Shendge}}</ref>

=== Multiple languages ===
The Indus script only indicates that it was used to write one language (if any), but it is quite possible that multiple languages were spoken in the IVC, much as [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] and [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] co-existed in [[Mesopotamia]] for centuries. Jane R. McIntosh suggests one such possibility: Para-[[Munda languages|Munda]] was originally the main language of the civilization, especially in the Punjab region. Later, the [[proto-Dravidian]] immigrants introduced their language to the area in the 5th millennium BC. The Dravidian language was spoken by the new settlers in the southern plains, while Para-Munda remained the main language of those in Punjab.{{sfn|McIntosh|2008|p=355-356}}

=== Other theories ===
[[Michael Witzel]] suggested as an alternative, that an underlying, prefixing language similar to [[Austroasiatic]], notably [[Khasi language|Khasi]]; he called it "para-[[Munda languages|Munda]]" (i.e. a language related to the Munda subgroup or other Austroasiatic languages, but not strictly descended from the last common predecessor of the contemporary Munda family). Witzel argued that the [[Rigveda]] showed signs of this [[substratum in Vedic Sanskrit|hypothetical Harappan influence]] in the earliest historic level, and Dravidian only in later levels, suggesting that speakers of Austroasiatic were the original inhabitants of [[Punjab (region)|Punjab]] and that the Indo-Aryans encountered Dravidian speakers only in later times.<ref>{{Cite conference |last=Witzel |first=M. |author-link=Michael E. J. Witzel |date=2000-02-17 |editor-last=Kenoyer |editor-first=J. |editor-link=Jonathan Mark Kenoyer |title=The Languages of Harappa |url=http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/IndusLang.pdf |access-date=2007-07-18 |book-title=Proceedings of the conference on the Indus civilization |place=Madison, WI}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Witzel |first=M. |author-link=Michael E. J. Witzel |date=August 1999 |title=Substrate languages in old Indo-Aryan |url=http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com |journal=EJVS |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=1–67}} cf. reprint in: {{cite journal |title={{grey|[no title cited]}} |journal=International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics (IJDL) |date=2001 |issue=1 |at=sqq.}}</ref>
The theory was since further supported by Franklin Southworth.{{cn|date=July 2022}}

As of 2019, Witzel prefers to leave the question of the original Indian language(s) open until better reconstructions for Dravidian and Munda substrate components in Indo-Aryan languages have been done.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mukhopadhyay |first=Bahata Ansumali |date=December 2021 |title=Ancestral Dravidian languages in Indus Civilization: Ultraconserved Dravidian tooth-word reveals deep linguistic ancestry and supports genetics |journal=Humanities and Social Sciences Communications |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=193 |doi=10.1057/s41599-021-00868-w |s2cid=236901972 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Elamo-Dravidian languages]]
* [[Indus–Mesopotamia relations]]
* [[Megalithic graffiti symbols]]

== Footnotes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==

*{{Cite book |last=Olivelle |first=Patrick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=efaOR_-YsIcC |title=Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BC to AD 400 |date=13 July 2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199775071 |author-link=Patrick Olivelle}}
*{{Cite book |last=McIntosh |first=Jane R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1AJO2A-CbccC |title=The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives |date=2008 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781576079072 |location=Santa Barbara, California}}
*{{Cite web |last=Kohari |first=Alizeh |date=8 February 2022 |title=An ancient language has defied translation for 100 years, can AI crack the code? |url=https://restofworld.org/2022/indus-translation-ai-code-script}}

{{Indus Valley Civilization}}
{{Languages of India}}
{{Eurasian languages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harappan Language}}
[[Category:Extinct languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Indus Valley civilisation|Language]]
[[Category:Unclassified languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Unattested languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Pre-Indo-Europeans]]
[[Category:Linguistic history of India]]
[[Category:Linguistic history of Pakistan]]

Harappan language - Revision history

Aman Mehta: adjusted section to improve readability and fixed typos

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article