The Tocharian (sometimes Tokharian) languages (/təˈkɛəriən/ or /təˈkɑːriən/), also known as Arśi-Kuči, Agnean-Kuchean or Kuchean-Agnean, are an extinct branch of the Indo-European language family spoken by inhabitants of the Tarim Basin, the Tocharians.[3] The languages are known from manuscripts dating from the 5th to the 8th century AD, which were found in oasis cities on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin (now part of Xinjiang in Northwest China) and the Lop Desert. The discovery of these languages in the early 20th century contradicted the formerly prevalent idea of an east–west division of the Indo-European language family as centum and satem languages, and prompted reinvigorated study of the Indo-European family. Scholars studying these manuscripts in the early 20th century identified their authors with the Tokharoi, a name used in ancient sources for people of Bactria (Tokharistan). Although this identification is now believed to be mistaken, "Tocharian" remains the usual term for these languages.[4][3]
The discovered manuscripts record two closely related languages, called Tocharian A (also East Tocharian or Turfanian) and Tocharian B (West Tocharian or Kuchean).[5][6] The subject matter of the texts suggests that Tocharian A was more archaic and used as a Buddhist liturgical language, while Tocharian B was more actively spoken in the entire area from Turfan in the east to Tumshuq in the west. A body of loanwords and names found in Prakrit documents from the Lop Nur basin have been dubbed Tocharian C (Kroränian). A claimed find of ten Tocharian C texts written in Kharosthi has been discredited.[7]
The oldest extant manuscripts in Tocharian B are now dated to the fifth or even late fourth century AD, making it a language of late antiquity contemporary with Gothic, Classical Armenian, and Primitive Irish.[8]
^"Tocharian A | language | Britannica".
^Cite error: The named reference mallory-expedition was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ abDiringer, David (1953) [First published 1948]. The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind (Second and revised ed.). London: Hutchinson's Scientific and Technical Publications. pp. 347–348.
^Walter, Mariko Namba (1998). "Tokharian Buddhism in Kucha: Buddhism of Indo-European Centum Speakers in Chinese Turkestan before the 10th Century C.E." (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers. 85: 2–4.
^"Tocharian | the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism – Credo Reference".
^"Introduction to Tocharian".
^Adams, Douglas Q. (25 September 2019). "'Tocharian C' Again: The Plot Thickens and the Mystery Deepens". Language Log. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
^Kim, Ronald I. (2018). "One Hundred Years of Re-Reconstruction: Hittite, Tocharian, and the Continuing Revision of Proto-Indo-European". In Rieken, Elisabeth (ed.). 100 Jahre Entzifferung des Hethitischen. Morphosyntaktische Kategorien in Sprachgeschichte und Forschung. Akten der Arbeitstagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft vom 21. bis 23. September 2015 in Marburg. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag. p. 170 (footnote 44). Retrieved 13 September 2019.
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mistaken, "Tocharian" remains the usual term for these languages. The discovered manuscripts record two closely related languages, called Tocharian A (also...
The Tocharians, or Tokharians (US: /toʊˈkɛəriən/ or /toʊˈkɑːriən/; UK: /tɒˈkɑːriən/), were speakers of Tocharianlanguages, Indo-European languages known...
Tocharianlanguages, two (or perhaps three) Indo-European languages spoken by those people Tocharian script, the script used to write the Tocharian languages...
called these languages "Tocharian". This naming has remained, although the names Agnean and Kuchean have been proposed as a replacement. Tocharian A and B...
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Kuchean (also known as Tocharian B or West Tocharian) was a Western member of Tocharian branch of Indo-European languages, extinct from ninth century....
Indo-Iranian languages, the Tocharianlanguages (as they became known by modern scholars) belong to the centum group of Indo-European languages, which are otherwise...
the Tarim "Tocharian" languages were "centum" languages within the Indo-European family, whereas Bactrian was an Iranian, thus "satem" language. Bactrian...
different endings of the king names resembled case endings in the Tocharianlanguages, a branch of Indo-European known from texts found in the Tarim Basin...
Tocharian B kante. In the Germanic languages, the /k/ developed regularly by Grimm's law to become /h/, as in Old English hund(red). Centum languages...
documents. Many Prakrit terms were borrowed from Khotanese into the Tocharianlanguages. The two known dialects of Saka are associated with a movement of...
whereas the people of Kucha, Turpan and Loulan Kingdom spoke the Tocharianlanguages. Xiyu tudi renwu lüe (Brief Records of the Lands and Peoples in the...
the Tarim Basin, such as the Tarim mummies and texts recording the Tocharianlanguages, the evidence for any such link is purely circumstantial. Three pre-Han...
The Anatolian languages are an extinct branch of Indo-European languages that were spoken in Anatolia, part of present-day Turkey. The best known Anatolian...
قاراشەھەر, romanized: Qarasheher), which was originally known in the Tocharianlanguages as Ārśi (or Arshi), Qarašähär, or Agni or the Chinese derivative...
Mallory and Victor H. Mair have linked the Afanasevans to the Proto-Tocharianlanguage. A 2021 study by F. Zhang and others found that Afanasievan ancestry...
closely related languages, called Tocharian A (also East Tocharian, Agnean, or Turfanian), Tocharian B (West Tocharian or Kuchean), and Tocharian C (Kroränian...
found in the Turpan region in the Iranian languages aforementioned, Old Uyghur, and the Tocharianlanguages. In the 19th century, German expeditions discovered...
Tocharian clothing refers to clothing worn by the Tocharians. A series of murals from Kizil, Kizilgaha and Kumtura caves depicting Kuchean royalties, knights...
languages such as Hittite of Anatolia and Tocharian of (Chinese) Turkestan. A number of smaller, but important and separately distinguished language families...
Australian Aboriginal languages such as Kuku-Yalanji and Kaurna, as well as in Aymara, Inuktitut, and the extinct Tocharianlanguages. Prolative case Article...
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