Indicderived

Indicderived is a term used in historical linguistics to describe linguistic elements that originate in the Indic language area—the languages of the Indian subcontinent—and have been transmitted or developed in other languages through contact, diffusion, or internal development. The criterion is provenance: an element is Indicderived if its origin can be traced to Indic sources (such as Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and related languages) rather than to non-Indic sources like Iranian, Turkic, or Austroasiatic.

In practice, Indicderived items include loanwords and calques that entered languages through political, religious, or cultural contact, as well as phonological or morphological patterns that scholars argue originated in Indic grammars or phonology. The term is used descriptively and is not universally standardized; different scholars may apply it with varying scope, sometimes focusing on Sanskrit-derived lexicon or on broader Indic influence, depending on the study.

Contexts in which the label might be applied include the presence of Sanskrit- and Prakrit-derived vocabulary in languages outside the Indian subcontinent due to historical trade routes, religious diffusion, or scholarly exchange; calques in neighboring regions following cultural contact; and certain structural features in languages that researchers attribute to Indic substrates or influence over extended contact periods.

See also: Indology, Indian languages, Sanskrit influence, loanword, language contact, Brahmi script.

Note: The term is not widely standardized, and its precise definition can vary by scholarly tradition. Readers should consult the specific study to understand how Indicderived is defined in that context.