Hittite and Tocharian share an interrogative pronominal stem in m-next to the well known Proto-Indo-European interrogative *kʷi-, *kʷe-, *kʷo-. In Tocharian, the m-interrogative is especially... Show moreHittite and Tocharian share an interrogative pronominal stem in m-next to the well known Proto-Indo-European interrogative *kʷi-, *kʷe-, *kʷo-. In Tocharian, the m-interrogative is especially frequent as a formative element in several interrogative, relative and indefinite stems. In this paper, these stems are investigated in detail, and it is argued that the Tocharian A interrogative stem ā-posited by Sieg, Siegling & Schulze in their Tocharische Grammatikis a ghost. Although the reconstruction of the m-interrogative for the oldest stage of Proto-Indo-European is beyond any doubt, it is difficult to use this Anatolian-Tocharian isogloss as an argument for the phylogenetic structure of the Indo-European family tree since in the other branches the m-interrogative may have been lost independently. Show less
Barros Damgaard, P. de; Marchi, N.; Rasmussen, S.; Peyrot, M.; Renaud, G.; Korneliussen, T.; ... ; Willerslev, E. 2018
We recount the evidence for the so-called “Steppe Hypothesis” discussed in Damgaard et al. 2018 and offer a revised linguistic and historical model for the prehistoric dispersal of three important... Show moreWe recount the evidence for the so-called “Steppe Hypothesis” discussed in Damgaard et al. 2018 and offer a revised linguistic and historical model for the prehistoric dispersal of three important Indo-European language subgroups—the Anatolian Indo-European languages into Anatolia, the Tocharian languages into Inner Asia, and the Indo-Iranian languages into South Asia—based on the newly analysed archaeogenetic data. Show less
This article is an edition of thirty-one Sanskrit–Tocharian bilingual fragments of the Udānavarga: twenty-three Sanskrit–Tocharian B fragments and eight Sanskrit–Tocharian A fragments. Most of... Show moreThis article is an edition of thirty-one Sanskrit–Tocharian bilingual fragments of the Udānavarga: twenty-three Sanskrit–Tocharian B fragments and eight Sanskrit–Tocharian A fragments. Most of these are edited for the first time. The edition yields a number of notable words: of some the meaning could be established more exactly, and some others are completely new. Show less
The majority of the Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts from the northern part of the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang (China) were found in an area where the local languages Tocharian A and B were... Show moreThe majority of the Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts from the northern part of the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang (China) were found in an area where the local languages Tocharian A and B were spoken. In this article, the interplay of Sanskrit, the religious language, and Tocharian, the popular language, is investigated based on the example of the relationship between the Sanskrit Udānavarga and the Tocharian B Udānastotra. To this end, a reconstruction of the text of the introduction to the Udānastotra is attempted, which forms the transition from the Udānavarga to the Udānastotra proper. It is argued that this Tocharian B text was found in otherwise Sanskrit manuscripts, which suggests that speakers of Tocharian preferred certain doctrinal texts in Sanskrit. Show less
The Tocharian A Maitreyasamitināṭaka, a long dramatic text about the future Buddha Maitreya that is translated into Old Uyghur prose as the Maitrisimit, is one of the most important texts of... Show moreThe Tocharian A Maitreyasamitināṭaka, a long dramatic text about the future Buddha Maitreya that is translated into Old Uyghur prose as the Maitrisimit, is one of the most important texts of Tocharian and Old Uyghur Buddhism. It is of crucial importance for Tocharian studies because even smaller fragments can often be interpreted successfully with the help of the better preserved Old Uyghur parallels. In this paper, the beginning of the 11th act about the birth of Maitreya is studied, comparing the Tocharian A and Old Uyghur fragments which are in part parallel and in part complementary. Show less
Many Sanskrit manuscripts from the Tocharian area stretching from the Kuča to the Turfan regions bear witness of use by speakers of Tocharian. Some contain glosses translating separate words or... Show moreMany Sanskrit manuscripts from the Tocharian area stretching from the Kuča to the Turfan regions bear witness of use by speakers of Tocharian. Some contain glosses translating separate words or clarifying difficult notions and passages. In others, a Sanskrit text may be concluded with a colophon in Tocharian, or sometimes with later additions such as pious wishes or notes of ownership. In this article, material from the Paris, London and Berlin collections is presented. Show less
