Tocharian or Tokharian is considered one of the most obscure branches of the group of Indo-European languages. The name of the language is taken from people known to the Greek historians (Ptolemy VI, 11, 6) as the Tocharians (Greek: Τόχαροι, "Tokharoi"). Claudius Ptolemaeus ( Greek: Klaúdios Ptolemaîos; after 83 &ndash ca The Tocharians were the Tocharian -speaking inhabitants of the Tarim basin, making them the easternmost speakers of an Indo-European language in antiquity Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly These are sometimes identified with the Yuezhi and the Kushans, while the term Tokharistan usually refers to 1st millennium Bactria. The Yuezhi or Rouzhi ( Chinese: 月支 Pinyin: yuè zhī or ròu zhī; also 月氏 Pinyin: yuè shì The Kushan Empire (c 1st &ndash 3rd centuries) was a Bactrian state that at its cultural zenith Circa 105 &ndash 250 The first millennium is a period of time that commenced on January 1, 1, and ended on December 31, 1000, of the Julian calendar. "Bactrian" redirects here For the camel see Bactrian camel. A Turkic text refers to the Turfanian language (Tocharian A) as twqry. Interpretation is difficult, but F. W. K. Müller has associated this with the name of the Bactrian Tokharoi.

Tocharian consisted of two languages; Tocharian A (Turfanian, Arsi, or East Tocharian) and Tocharian B (Kuchean or West Tocharian). These languages were spoken roughly from the sixth to ninth centuries; before they became extinct, their speakers were absorbed into the expanding Uyghur tribes. The 6th century is the period from 501 to 600 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era. The 9th century is the period from 801 to 900 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era. The Uyghur (also spelled Uygur, Uighur, Uigur, Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر) are a Turkic people of Central Asia. Both languages were once spoken in the Tarim Basin in Central Asia, now the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. The Tarim Basin ( is a large Endorheic basin occupying an area of more than 400000 km² Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east and from southern Russia in the north to northern Pakistan in the south Xinjiang ( Uyghur: شىنجاڭ Shinjang;; Postal map spelling: Sinkiang; Turkish: Sincan, Sincan Uygur Özerk China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National

Phonemes

Phonetically, Tocharian is a "centum" Indo-European language, characterized by the merging of palato-velar consonants with plain velars (*k, *g, *gh), which is generally associated with Indo-European languages of the West European area (Italic, Celtic, Germanic, Greek). The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly In that sense, Tocharian seems to have been an isolate in the "Satem" phonetic world of Indo-European-speaking East European and Asian populations.

Vowels

• /i/, /e/, /a/ (transcribed <ā>) /u/, /o/, /ɨ/ (transcribed <ä>), /ə/ (transcribed <a>)
• Diphthongs (Tocharian B only): /əi/ (transcribed <ai>), /oi/ (transcribed <oy>), /əu/ (transcribed <au>), /au/ (transcribed <āu>)

Consonants

• Stops: /p/, /t/, /c/, /k/, /kʷ/ (transcribed <ku>)
• Affricates: /ts/
• Fricatives: /s/, /ɕ/ (transcribed <ś>), /ʂ/ (transcribed <ṣ>)
• Approximants: /w/, /j/ (transcribed [y])
• Trills: /r/
• Nasals: /m/, /n/ (transcribed <ṃ> word-finally), /ɲ/ (transcribed <ñ>)
• Lateral approximants: /l/, /ʎ/ (transcribed <ly>)

Note that the above consonantal values are largely based on the writing of Sanskrit/Prakrit loanwords. A retroflex value for /ʂ/ is particularly suspect as it is derived from palatalized /s/; it was probably a low-frequency sibilant /ʃ/ (like German spelling <sch>), as opposed to the higher-frequency sibilant /ɕ/ (like Mandarin Pinyin spelling <x>).

Writing system

Wooden plate with inscriptions in Tocharian. Kucha, China, 5th-8th century (Tokyo National Museum)

Tocharian is documented in manuscript fragments, mostly from the 8th century (with a few earlier ones) that were written on palm leaves, wooden tablets and Chinese paper, preserved by the extremely dry climate of the Tarim Basin. Kucha or Kuche (also Kuçar, Kuchar) Uyghur ( كۇچار) Chinese Simplified 库车; Traditional 庫車 China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Established 1872 the, or TNM, is the oldest and largest Museum in Japan. The 8th century is the period from 701 to 800 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era. Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon printing upon or packaging Samples of the language have been discovered at sites in Kucha and Karasahr, including many mural inscriptions. Kucha or Kuche (also Kuçar, Kuchar) Uyghur ( كۇچار) Chinese Simplified 库车; Traditional 庫車 Karasahr or Yanqi (also Karashahr, meaning 'black city' in Uyghur languages

Tocharian A and B are not intercomprehensible. In Linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between Languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand Properly speaking, based on the tentative interpretation of twqry as related to Tokharoi, only Tocharian A may be referred to as Tocharian, while Tocharian B could be called Kuchean (its native name may have been kuśiññe), but since their grammars are usually treated together in scholarly works, the terms A and B have proven useful. A common Proto-Tocharian language must precede the attested languages by several centuries, probably dating to the 1st millennium BC. The 1st millennium BC encompasses the Iron Age and sees the rise of successive empires Given the small geographical range of and the lack of secular texts in Tocharian A, it might alternatively have been a liturgical language, the relationship between the two being similar to that between Classical Chinese and Mandarin. A sacred language, or liturgical language, is a Language that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of Written Chinese based on the Grammar and Vocabulary of ancient Chinese Standard Mandarin, also known as Standard Spoken Chinese, is the official modern Chinese spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan It must be noted however that the lack of a secular corpus in Tocharian A is by no means definite, due to the fragmentary preservation of Tocharian texts in general.

The alphabet the Tocharians were using is derived from the Brahmi alphabetic syllabary (abugida) and is referred to as slanting Brahmi. An abugida ( from Ge‘ez አቡጊዳ ’äbugida or Amharic አቡጊዳ ’abugida is a segmental Writing system which It soon became apparent that a large proportion of the manuscripts were translations of known Buddhist works in Sanskrit and some of them were even bilingual, facilitating decipherment of the new language. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Besides the Buddhist and Manichaean religious texts, there were also monastery correspondence and accounts, commercial documents, caravan permits, and medical and magical texts, and one love poem. Manichaeism (in Modern Persian fa-Arab آیین مانی Āyin e Māni; Chinese zh 摩尼教 was one of the major Gnostic Religions originating Many Tocharians embraced Manichaean duality or Buddhism.

In 1998, Chinese linguist Ji Xianlin published a translation and analysis of fragments of a Tocharian Maitreyasamiti-Nataka discovered in 1974 in Yanqi. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) Ji Xianlin (季羡林 born August 6, 1911) is a Chinese Linguist, Paleographer, Historian, and Writer Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. Yanqi Hui Autonomous County ( Simplified Chinese: 焉耆回族自治县 Pinyin:Yānqí Huízú Zìzhìxiàn is an Autonomous county in the Xinjiang ^[1],^[2],^[3]

Morphology

Tocharian has completely re-worked the nominal declension system of Proto-Indo-European. In Linguistics, declension (or declination) is the occurrence of Inflection in Nouns Pronouns and Adjectives indicating The only cases inherited from the proto-language are nominative, genitive, and accusative; in Tocharian the old accusative is known as the oblique case. The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive In addition to these three cases, however, each Tocharian language has six cases formed by the addition of an invariant suffix to the oblique case. For example, the Tocharian A word käṣṣi "teacher" is declined as follows:

Cultural significance

"Tocharian donors", with light hair and light eye color, dressed in Sassanian style, 6th century CE fresco, Qizil, Tarim Basin. In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another An oblique case (casus generalis in Linguistics is a Noun case of Synthetic languages that is used generally when a Noun is the object The instrumental case (also called the eighth case) is a Grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the Perlative case "expresses that something moved 'through' 'across' or 'along' the referent of the noun that is marked" The comitative case, also known as the associative case, is a Grammatical case that denotes companionship and is used where English would use "in company with" Allative case ( abbreviated ALL, from Latin allāt-, afferre "to bring to" is a type of the locative In Linguistics, ablative case ( abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic Locative (also called the seventh case) is a Grammatical case which indicates a location The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty or Sassanian Dynasty (ساسانیان) is the name used for the third Iranian dynasty and the second Persian empire The Kizil Caves (also romanized Qizil Caves; Uyghur Qizil Ming Öy Simplified Chinese 克孜尔千佛洞 are a set of 236 Buddhist rock-cut caves located 75 The Tarim Basin ( is a large Endorheic basin occupying an area of more than 400000 km² These frescoes are associated with annotations in Tocharian and Sanskrit made by their painters. Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical

The existence of the Tocharian languages and alphabet was not even guessed at, until chance discoveries in the early 20th century brought to light fragments of manuscripts in a then-unknown alphabetic syllabary (abugida) that turned out to belong to a hitherto unknown branch of the Indo-European family of languages, which has been named 'Tocharian'. An abugida ( from Ge‘ez አቡጊዳ ’äbugida or Amharic አቡጊዳ ’abugida is a segmental Writing system which

Tocharian has upset some theories about the relations of Indo-European languages and is revitalizing linguistic studies. The Tocharian languages are a major geographic exception to the usual pattern of Centum branches, being the only one that spread directly east from the theoretical Indo-European starting point in the Pontic steppe. The term Pontic-Caspian steppe summarizes the vast Steppelands stretching from north of the Black Sea as far as the east of the Caspian Sea, from central One theory, however, suggests that the Satem isogloss represents a linguistic innovation within the heart of the Proto-Indo-European home range, which would thus see the distribution of the Centum languages as simply representing linguistic conservatism along the eastern and western peripheries of the Proto-Indo-European home range.

Tocharian probably died out after 840, when the Uyghurs were expelled from Mongolia by the Kyrgyz, retreating to the Tarim Basin. Events By Place Europe After the death of Louis the Pious, his sons Lothar, Charles the Bald and Louis the German The Uyghur (also spelled Uygur, Uighur, Uigur, Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر) are a Turkic people of Central Asia. The Kyrgyz (also spelled Kirgiz, Kirghiz) are a Turkic Ethnic group found primarily in Kyrgyzstan. This theory is supported by the discovery of translations of Tocharian texts into Uyghur. During Uyghur rule, the peoples mixed with the Uyghurs to produce much of the modern population of what is now Xinjiang. Xinjiang ( Uyghur: شىنجاڭ Shinjang;; Postal map spelling: Sinkiang; Turkish: Sincan, Sincan Uygur Özerk

Comparison to other Indo-European languages

¹ = Cognate, with shifted meaning
² = Borrowed cognate, not native. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Irish (ga ''Gaeilge'' is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c Vedic Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language, the language of the Vedas, the oldest Shruti texts of Hinduism. Cognates in Linguistics are words that have a common origin They may occur within a language such as shirt and skirt as two English words descended from
³ = English meaning, unrelated word

See also

• Language families and languages
• Tocharians
• Tocharian and Indo-European Studies

References

1. ^ "Fragments of the Tocharian", Andrew Leonard, How the World Works, Salon.com, January 29, 2008
2. ^ "Review of 'Fragments of the Tocharian A Maitreyasamiti-Nataka of the Xinjiang Museum, China. In Collaboration with Werner Winter and Georges-Jean Pinault by Ji Xianlin'", J. Albanian (sq ''Gjuha shqipe'' ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ is an Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million peoplewhile others claim that it derives from Daco - The Armenian language (hy հայերեն լեզու hajɛɹɛn lɛzu —, conventional short form) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages The Indo-Aryan languages (within the context of Indo-European studies also Indic) are a branch of the Indo-European language family The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian. The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) a group of closely related Languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language The Paleo-Balkan languages were the Indo-European languages that were spoken in the Balkans in Ancient times. The Dacian language was spoken by the ancient inhabitants of Dacia. The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians a people from Thrace who later migrated to Asia Minor. The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe } Albanians (Shqiptarët are an Ethnic group and a Nation, in the sense of sharing a common Albanian culture speaking the Albanian language The Armenians (Հայեր Hayer) are a Nation and Ethnic group originating in the Caucasus and in the Armenian Highlands A large The Balts or Baltic peoples (People who live by the Baltic Sea) defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European Modern Celts are those peoples who are speakers of Celtic languages, or who consider themselves or have been considered by others to participate in a Celtic culture This is a list of Germanic peoples. Classical philosophy The Greeks assigned names to populations they considered distinct based on the city-state ( The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions The Iranian people are a collection of Ethnic groups defined along linguistic lines as speaking Iranian languages. Latin is the name of various peoples or ethnicities related to the Latium region in the Italian Peninsula, to the Latin language, or to its descendants Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic Illyrians has come to refer to a broad ill-defined " Indo-European " group of peoples who inhabited the western Balkans ( Illyria, roughly Ancient peoples of Italy are all those peoples that lived in Italy (including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia) before the Roman domination The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae ( Old Iranian Sarumatah 'archer' Σαρμάτες The Scythians or Scyths (Σκύθες Σκύθοι were an Iranian speaking people of horse-riding Nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic "Thracians" also refers to modern inhabitants of Thrace, regardless of ethnicity The Tocharians were the Tocharian -speaking inhabitants of the Tarim basin, making them the easternmost speakers of an Indo-European language in antiquity Indo-Iranian peoples consist of the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Dardic and Nuristani peoples that is speakers of Indo-Iranian languages The Indo-Aryan tribes mentioned in the Rigveda are described as semi- Nomadic pastoralists subdivided into temporary settlements ( vish, viś and headed Ancient Iranian peoples who settled Greater Iran in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC. The Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, who likely lived around 4000 BC, during the Copper Age and the The society of the Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE existed during the Bronze Age (roughly fifth to fourth millennium BC and has been reconstructed The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European (IE peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European The question of the homeland ( Urheimat) of the Proto-Indo-European peoples and their Proto-Indo-European language has been a recurring topic in Indo-European The Kurgan hypothesis (also theory or model) is a model of early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the Kurgan culture of the Pontic steppe The Anatolian hypothesis is also called Renfrew's NDT; it proposes that the dispersal ( Discontinuity) of Proto-Indo-Europeans originated in Neolithic The Armenian hypothesis of the Proto-Indo-European Urheimat, based on the Glottalic theory suggests that the Proto-Indo-European language The Out of India theory ( OIT, also called the Indian Urheimat Theory) is the proposition that the Indo-European language family originated in The Paleolithic Continuity Theory (or PCT,Italian La teoria della continuità) is a Hypothesis suggesting that the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies is a field of Linguistics dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Tocharians were the Tocharian -speaking inhabitants of the Tarim basin, making them the easternmost speakers of an Indo-European language in antiquity Tocharian and Indo-European Studies ( TIES) is a scholarly journal on Tocharian in the Indo-European context, established in 1987 by the Icelandic Saloncom, part of Salon Media Group ( often just called Salon, is an online C. Wright, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. The University of London is a university based primarily in London, England, UK. 62, No. 2 (1999), pp. 367-370
3. ^ "Fragments of the Tocharian a Maitreyasamiti-Nataka of the Zinjiang Museum, China", Ji Xianlin, Werner Winter, Georges-Jean Pinault, Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs

• "Tokharian Pratimoksa Fragment Sylvain Levi". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 1913, pp. 109-120.
• Mallory, J. P. and Victor H. Mair. The Tarim Mummies. London: Thames & Hudson, 2000. (ISBN 0-500-05101-1)
• Schmalsteig, William R. "Tokharian and Baltic. " Lituanus. v. 20, no. 3, 1974.
• Krause, Wolfgang and Werner Thomas. Tocharisches Elemantarbuch. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1960.
• Malzahn, Melanie (Ed. ). Instrumenta Tocharica. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 2007. (ISBN 978-3-8253-5299-8)

External links

• Conjugation tables for Tocharian A and B
• Tocharian alphabet (from Omniglot)
• TITUS: Tocharian alphabets& Manuscripts from the Berlin Turfan Collection
• Mark Dickens, 'Everything you always wanted to know about Tocharian'
• A Tocharian-to-English dictionary with nearly 200 words
• Tocharian Online from the University of Texas at Austin