Tocharian B, also known as Kuchean or West Tocharian, was a Western member of the Tocharian branch of Indo-European languages, extinct from the ninth century. Once spoken in the Tarim Basin in Central Asia, Tocharian B shows an internal chronological development; three linguistic stages have been detected. The oldest stage is attested only in Kucha. There is also the middle ('classicalʼ), and the late stage.

Nomenclature

According to Peyrot, the self-designation for the language was kuśi 'Kuča'. In scholarly works, it is known as Tocharian B, sometimes referred to as West Tocharian or Kuchean.

Overview

According to scholar Michael Peyrot, Tocharian B is dated between the 5th and 10th centuries AD, and was spread from Kuča to Yānqi and Turfan. Paul Widmer, following Tamai's and Adams's studies, situates Tocharian B roughly between 400 and 1200, its oldest layer dating from ca. 400 to 600, around "Kucha and environs".

Documentation

According to J. H. W. Penney, Tocharian B is reported to be documented as Buddhist religious literature, and as secular material "pertaining to everyday life".

Bibliography

Studies

  • Penney, J. H. W. (2017). "74. The documentation of Tocharian". Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. pp. 1298–1303. doi:. ISBN 978-3-11-052387-4.
  • Peyrot, Michaël (2008). Variation and change in Tocharian B. doi:. ISBN 978-90-04-35821-8.
  • Peyrot, Michaël. “Tocharian”. In: The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective. Edited by Thomas Olander. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. pp. 83–101. doi:.
  • Widmer, Paul (2017). "79. The dialectology of Tocharian". (PDF). pp. 1389–1396. doi:. ISBN 978-3-11-052387-4.

Tocharian literature

  • Lundysheva, Olga and Maue, Dieter. "An Old Uyghur text fragment related to the Tocharian B “History of Kuchean kings”". In: Religion and State in the Altaic World: Proceedings of the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC), Friedensau, Germany, August 18–23, 2019. Edited by Oliver Corff, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2022, pp. 111-124.
  • Peyrot, Michaël; Wilkens, Jens (September 2014). "Two Tocharian B fragments parallel to the Hariścandra-Avadāna of the Old Uyghur Daśakarmapathāvadānamālā". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 67 (3): 319–335. doi:. JSTOR .
  • Wilkens, Jens; Pinault, Georges-Jean; Peyrot, Michaël (March 2014). "A tocharian B parallel to the legend of kalmāṣapāda and sutasoma of the old uyghur daśakarmapathāvadānamālā". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 67 (1): 1–18. doi:. JSTOR .
  • Mallory, J.P.; Mair, Victor H. (2000), , London: Thames & Hudson, ISBN 0-500-05101-1.

Further reading

  • Adams, Douglas Q. (July 1983). "Studies in Tocharian Vocabulary II: Words Pertaining to the Lower Limbs in Tocharian B". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 103 (3): 611–613. doi:. JSTOR .
  • Adams, Douglas Q. (October 1983). "Studies in Tocharian Vocabulary III: Three Tocharian B Terms for Parts of the Upper Body". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 103 (4): 759–760. doi:. JSTOR .
  • Adams, Douglas Q. (April 1986). "Studies in Tocharian Vocabulary IV: A Quartet of Words from a Tocharian B Magic Text". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 106 (2): 339–341. doi:. JSTOR .
  • Arndt, Walter W.; Brosman Jr., Paul W.; Coenen, Frederic E.; Friedrich, Werner P., eds. (1967). "On the Interrelationship of the Tocharian Dialects". (PDF). Vol. 58. The University of North Carolina Press. pp. 105–134. doi:. hdl:. ISBN 978-1-4696-5703-5. JSTOR .
  • Chao-Jung; 慶昭蓉; Enami Kazuyuki; 江南和幸; Okada Yoshihiro; 岡田至弘 (2020). "Paper in Eighth-Century Kucha: Discovery of Cotton Fibres within Chinese and Kuchean Documents". Central Asiatic Journal. 63 (1–2): 71. doi:. S2CID .
  • Chen; 陳瑞翾 (2018). "Vignettes of Buddhist Asceticism: Jottings on Six Fragments in Tocharian B". Central Asiatic Journal. 61 (2): 217. doi:. S2CID .
  • Hilmarsson, Jörundur (1988). "West Tocharian lyauto 'hole, opening' and related words". Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics. 101 (1): 166–169. JSTOR .
  • Kim, Ronald I. (2009). "Another Look at Tocharian B ṣarya". Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics. 122: 111–117. doi:. JSTOR .
  • Malzahn, Melanie (2012). "Now you see it, now you don't – Bewegliches -o in Tocharisch B". Multilingualism and History of Knowledge, Vol. 2: Linguistic Developments Along the Silkroad: Archaism and Innovation in Tocharian. Vol. 12. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. pp. 33–82. doi:. ISBN 978-3-7001-7304-5. JSTOR .
  • Ogihara, Hirotoshi (2018). "Two Fragments of Tocharian B laissez-passers Kept in the Berlin Collection". Great Journeys across the Pamir Mountains. pp. 33–45. doi:. ISBN 978-90-04-36222-2.
  • Pinault, Georges-Jean. "Surveying the Tocharian B Lexicon". In: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, vol. 114, no. 2, 2019, pp. 91–97.
  • Stumpf, Peter (1976). "Westtocharisch se-seṃ: zwei Paradigmen oder nur eines?". Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung. 90 (1/2): 114–127. JSTOR .
  • Winter, Werner (October 1955). "A Linguistic Classification of 'Tocharian' B Texts". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 75 (4): 216–225. doi:. JSTOR .
  • Winter, Werner (August 1961). "Lexical Interchange between 'Tocharian' A and B". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 81 (3): 271–280. doi:. JSTOR .
  • Woolner, A. C. (1925). "Sanskrit Names of Drugs in Kuchean". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 57 (4): 623–638. doi:. JSTOR . S2CID .

External links