Tocharian and Samoyed: on the question of Uralic substrate influence in Tocharian

Warries, A.R. (2025)

Doctoral Thesis

The Tocharian branch of the Indo-European language family is known only from the Tarim Basin in northwest China, far to the east of the original Indo-European homeland on the Pontic-Caspian steppe. Both the path and time of the Tocharian migration have been important topics of research, especially over the last decades. This dissertation investigates the possible traces of prehistoric contact between the ancestor of Tocharian and the early Uralic languages, in particular the Samoyed branch of Uralic. On the basis of this language contact, the Tocharian migration can be connected more securely with southern Siberia and the area to the north of the Tarim Basin.

• Tocharian
• Samoyed
• Indo-European linguistics
• Uralic linguistics
• Language contact
• Historical phonology
• Historical morphology
• Tocharian accent
• Participial systems
• Objective conjugation

• All authors: Warries, A.R.
• Supervisor: Lubotsky, A.M.; Peyrot, M.
• Committee: Khanina, O.; Kloekhorst, A.; Kroonen, G.J.; Zhivlov, M.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2025-06-18
• DOI: doi:10.60602/1887-4250485
• Sponsorship: European Research Council (ERC)