Of course you don't have to spit fire first to learn Tocharian (Part 2)

Site where Tocharian texts were found

Tocharian B is mainly found in the Kuqa area of Xinjiang. Around the 7th century, Tocharian B was the official language of the Kucha Kingdom. The most important site in the Kuqa area is the Ming-öy "Thousand-Buddha Cave" near Kizil, which has about 230 Buddhist caves (1000 of course are virtual). Many of the fragments that exist in Berlin and all of the London fragments probably came from this site. Another major site is the Duldur Aqur, where many fragments from Paris have been found. Smaller sites include Subeši, Qumtura and Qizil Qaγa near Kuqa.

A large number of manuscripts have been found at a smaller site north of the village of Šorčuq and south of the village of Šigšin in the Korla region. In the Turpan region, most of the manuscripts were found at the Siŋgim site, but some were also found in other places, such as Bezäklik (Murtuq = Murtuq) and the old city of Gaochang (Xočo). A few manuscripts were found in Maralbeši, between Kashgar and Aksu.

Age of Tocharian

At present, the academic world cannot determine the exact age of the use of Tocharian B, and it is certain that someone said it before the original text was produced. In contrast, no one may have spoken shortly after the last text, as there is a clear Uighur script. There are three methods of dating the Tocharian B document:

1. By paleography, compare with other texts using the same alphabet:

In addition to the Tocharo B manuscript, there are also Sanskrit manuscripts that describe the same content and use the same alphabet. The process of the development and change of these letters is very important, from the 1st to the 9th century AD. According to the Sanskrit alphabet, the alphabet used in the Tocharian B manuscripts is generally dated from the 6th to the 8th century. But in fact the oldest Tocharian B manuscript can be traced back to the 5th century, and the latest may be later than the 8th century. That said, it's possible that the oldest texts predate the oldest manuscripts in which they were recorded. This dating method is not precise enough, and in Sanskrit philology, there are not many reference points that can correspond the relative age of ancient writing to the absolute age. The problem of dating the Sanskrit manuscripts also exists in the dating of the Tocharian B manuscripts.

2. Very few texts explicitly mention dates:

Some crossings (that is, the transportation certificate that must be presented when passing through water and land passes in ancient times) and inscriptions can be accurately dated. Because these passages and inscriptions mention the years of the reign of Kuqa King Sufa Bohen and his son Sufadie (his younger brother is Helibu Shidi). Due to the existence of the Kizilgaha inscriptions, the reigns of the above-mentioned kings can be matched with the Chinese calendar.

"On the 8th of June of the 19th year of King Suvarti, the Year of the Tiger... Komnmaikamkauske and Caitika came here."

If the method of recording the month and day is the same as that of the Chinese lunar calendar, then these inscriptions were written on August 8, 624 AD. According to historical records, Sufadier reigned from 624 to 646.

3. By carbon-14 dating of manuscript paper.

Scholars have also used the carbon-14 method to date some manuscripts, but the results are imprecise, and some results are far away from the previous text interpretation. The oldest fragment measured by carbon-14, B558, is from about 400 AD. Although it has Chinese writing on the back, it should be a reuse of paper, and the Tocharian on the front does not seem to be that old. Both fragments B333 and B240 are dated to the 5th century. B333 has archaic features, but B240 does not. B178, B352, B367 and B601 are dated to the seventh and eighth centuries, and these fragments are more representative of most manuscripts. B483 is dated to the 9th century, and the fragment is indeed a record of the monastic administration, but the writing has late characteristics. Therefore, the more accurate carbon-14 in archaeology is often in conflict with the text itself in determining the specific use time of this ancient language.

Tocharian script

Both Tocharian languages A and B use a Brahmi alphabet. "Brahmi" is a generic term for the North Indian alphabet, while Tocharian uses a variant "italic", used only north of the Tarim Basin; it corresponds to "straight" used in the south.

For example, this word, transliterated into Latin letters, is pañäkte, and translated into Chinese is "Buddha". One of the joys of learning Tocharo is to recognize these letters, and to discover some words in modern Chinese that we are familiar with, but may not know the source of.

Tocharian loanwords in Chinese

The relationship between ancient Sino-Tibetan and Proto-Indo-European languages has long been an area of interest in historical linguistics. Although most people believe that there is no homologous relationship between the two, it is very clear that they have influenced each other for a long time. Especially in terms of words. For example, a word "honey" commonly used in our daily life is homologous to medhu- in Proto-Indo-European. The "mediator" of this word from Proto-Indo-European to Chinese is Tocharian ḿət(ə) .

Although in the long history of human language, the use of Tocharian is too late to be a good benchmark for comparison, it still has important reference significance and value.

In addition to the typical "honey" in Chinese now, the Tocharian language we can see mainly appears in place names and Buddhist terms. A few examples can be given:

1. "Ku'si" ku'si and Yanqiien-k'. The name of the country "Qiuzi" was first seen in Bangu's "Hanshu". In Qiuzi (that is, Tocharian B), it is pronounced ku'si. The pronunciation in Uighur is very similar. In the orthophonic work after liberation, the two characters Qiu ci were pronounced as qiu ci. Of course, wouldn't it be impossible to pronounce them as gui zi? The similarity between the two pronunciations and ku'si is different. If someone pronounces the latter, they don't have to laugh too much at the white character. In contrast, the area now called Kuqa is closer to the pronunciation of ku'si. In the same way, Yanqi's place name comes from the Tocharian language ien-k', "Agni" in "Da Tang Western Regions", meaning "white", and the Greek áργο's (shiny), áργυροs ( Silver) is homologous, and was one of the common words used to name oasis in Central Asia and Iran at that time.

2. "Dunhuang" dwǝn-wang, in the Hexi area of the Han Dynasty, four counties of Zhangye, Wuwei, Jiuquan and Dunhuang were established, of which Zhangye, Wuwei and Dunhuang were all Tocharian Chinese characters. As a place name, "Dunhuang" (dwǝn-wang, twǝn-wang) was first seen in Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian: The Biography of Dayuan", which was mentioned by Zhang Qian when he introduced the Da Yuezhi to Emperor Wu after he returned from his mission to the Western Regions. In the Sogdian letter (No. 313) found under the beacon of the Great Wall of Dunhuang, the name "Dunhuang" is written as δrw'n. In the past, the origin of this place name was mostly believed to be related to Middle Persian, but in recent years, some scholars believe that it is derived from drumga in the Kalu language, meaning "steady", and is homologous to Dher in the Proto-Indo-European language.

In addition to these place names, "Qilian" in Qilian Mountain also comes from Tocharian, meaning "glory, light"; Da Yuezhi is also very likely to be Tocharian, and in terms of pronunciation, "Yuezhi" "The word yue zhi is closer to the Tocharian pronunciation, rather than the so-called "gravy" in the mouths of many "understanders".

3. Words used in Buddhism: Some linguists who used to think that they were borrowed words from Sanskrit were actually borrowed from Tocharian language, such as "Sramana" from ṣamāne, "Xumi" from suner, " The word "Maitreya" comes from metrak/maitrāk.

Due to trade, Tocharian also borrowed some words from Chinese, mainly those related to currency and measurement, such as cāk (hundred catties), tau (dou), cāne (money) and so on.

From an academic point of view, the correlation between these two languages is not high, but at least it shows that they have had relatively close contact for a certain period of time. In addition, when interpreting the various languages of the Silk Road, they may become a kind of medium to help language and historians to understand more accurately what happened in that period.

To conclude with a Tocharian rhyme, to express reverence for the predecessors of Tocharian scholars: śaulanmaṣṣe pitosa ce pernerñe kraupātai (You have gathered these rays of light with the value of life).