alt=The Elamo-Dravidian family|thumb|300x300px|The hypothesized tree of the Elamo-Dravidian family
The Elamo-Dravidian language family (also known as the Zagrosian language family) is a hypothesised language family that links the Elamite language of ancient Elam (present-day southwestern Iran and southeastern Iraq) to the Brahui language of Pakistan and to the Dravidian languages of India. Later versions (2015–) of the hypothesis entail a reclassification of Brahui as being more closely related to Elamite than to the remaining Dravidian languages. Linguist David McAlpin has been a chief proponent of the Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis, followed by Franklin Southworth as the other major supporter.
History of the proposal
The concept that Elamite and Dravidian are in some way related dates from the beginnings of both fields in the early nineteenth century. Edwin Norris was the first to publish an article in support of the hypothesis in 1853. Further evidence was proposed by Robert Caldwell when he published a comparative linguistics book in 1856 about the Dravidian languages. He also speculated that the Harappan language (the language of the Indus Valley Civilization) might also have been part of this family.
Later, McAlpin investigated the relationship between Elamitic, Brahui, and the rest of the Dravidian languages with more care, and came to the conclusion that Brahui is closer related to Elamitic than to the others. He even proposed that Brahui should rather be considered as 'modern Elamitic' than as a Dravidian language: