Misplaced Pages

Kuchean
Tocharian B
Kuśiññe
Tocharian inscription "This Buddha was painted by the hand of Sanketava"
Native to	Kucha
Region	Tarim Basin
Ethnicity	Tocharians
Extinct	9th century AD
Language family	Indo-European Tocharian Kuchean
Early form	Proto-Tocharian
Writing system	Tocharian script Manichaean script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	txb
Linguist List	xtb Tocharian B
Glottolog	tokh1243
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Part of a series on
Indo-European topics
Languages List of Indo-European languages Extant Albanoid Albanian Armenian Balto-Slavic Baltic Slavic Celtic Germanic Hellenic Greek Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Nuristani Italic Romance Extinct Anatolian Tocharian Paleo-Balkan Dacian Illyrian Liburnian Messapic Mysian Paeonian Phrygian Thracian Reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language Phonology: Sound laws, Accent, Ablaut Hypothetical Balkanic Daco-Thracian Graeco-Albanian Graeco-Armenian Graeco-Aryan Graeco-Phrygian Indo-Hittite Italo-Celtic Thraco-Illyrian Grammar Vocabulary Root Verbs Nouns Pronouns Numerals Particles Other Proto-Albanian Proto-Anatolian Proto-Armenian Proto-Germanic (Proto-Norse) Proto-Italo-Celtic (Proto-Celtic · Proto-Italic) Proto-Greek Proto-Balto-Slavic (Proto-Slavic · Proto-Baltic) Proto-Indo-Iranian (Proto-Iranian)
Philology Hittite inscriptions Hieroglyphic Luwian Linear B Rigveda Avesta Homer Behistun Greek epigraphy Phrygian epigraphy Messapic epigraphy Latin epigraphy Gaulish epigraphy Runic epigraphy Ogham Gothic Bible Bible translations into Armenian Tocharian script Old Irish glosses Albanian Kanun
Origins Homeland Proto-Indo-Europeans Society Religion Mainstream Kurgan hypothesis Indo-European migrations Eurasian nomads Alternative and fringe Anatolian hypothesis Armenian hypothesis Beech argument Indigenous Aryanism Baltic homeland Paleolithic continuity theory
Archaeology Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Pontic Steppe Domestication of the horse Kurgan Kurgan stelae Kurgan culture Steppe cultures Bug–Dniester Sredny Stog Dnieper–Donets Samara Khvalynsk Yamnaya Mikhaylovka culture Novotitarovskaya culture Caucasus Maykop East Asia Afanasievo Eastern Europe Usatovo Cernavodă Cucuteni Northern Europe Corded ware Baden Middle Dnieper Bronze Age Pontic Steppe Chariot Yamnaya Catacomb Multi-cordoned ware Poltavka Srubnaya Northern/Eastern Steppe Abashevo culture Andronovo Sintashta Europe Globular Amphora Corded ware Bell Beaker Únětice Trzciniec Nordic Bronze Age Terramare Tumulus Urnfield Lusatian South Asia BMAC Yaz Gandhara grave Iron Age Steppe Chernoles Europe Thraco-Cimmerian Hallstatt Jastorf Caucasus Colchian India Painted Grey Ware Northern Black Polished Ware
Peoples and societies Bronze Age Anatolian peoples (Hittites) Armenians Mycenaean Greeks Indo-Iranians Iron Age Indo-Aryans Indo-Aryans Iranians Iranians East Asia Wusun Yuezhi Europe Celts Gauls Celtiberians Insular Celts Cimmerians Hellenic peoples Italic peoples Germanic peoples Paleo-Balkan/Anatolia Thracians Dacians Illyrians Paeonians Phrygians Scythians Middle Ages East Asia Tocharians Europe Albanians Balts Slavs Norsemen/Medieval Scandinavians Middle Ages Indo-Aryan Medieval India Iranian Greater Iran
Religion and mythology Reconstructed Proto-Indo-European mythology Proto-Indo-Iranian paganism Historical Vedic religion Ancient Iranian religion Historical Hittite Indo-Aryan Vedic Hinduism Buddhism Jainism Sikhism Iranian Persian Zoroastrianism Kurdish Yazidism Yarsanism Scythian Ossetian Others Armenian European Paleo-Balkan (Albanian · Illyrian · Thracian · Dacian) Greek Roman Celtic Irish Scottish Breton Welsh Cornish Germanic Anglo-Saxon Continental Norse Baltic Latvian Lithuanian Slavic Practices Fire rituals Horse sacrifice Sati Winter solstice/Yule
Indo-European studies Scholars Marija Gimbutas J. P. Mallory Institutes Copenhagen Studies in Indo-European Publications Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture The Horse, the Wheel, and Language Journal of Indo-European Studies Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch Indo-European Etymological Dictionary
v t e

Kuchean (also known as Tocharian B 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".

References

1. Peyrot 2008, p. .
2. Peyrot, Michaël (2015). "Tocharian Language". Encyclopædia Iranica.
3. Peyrot, Michaël. “Tocharian”. In: The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective. Edited by Thomas Olander. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. p. 83. doi:10.1017/9781108758666.006.
4. Fortson, Benjamin W. (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture. Blackwell Publishing. p. 351. ISBN 1-4051-0316-7.
5. Peyrot, Michaël. “Tocharian”. In: The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective. Edited by Thomas Olander. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. p. 83. doi:10.1017/9781108758666.006.
6. Widmer, Paul (2017). "79. The dialectology of Tocharian". Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics (PDF). pp. 1392–1393. doi:10.1515/9783110523874-034. ISBN 978-3-11-052387-4.
7. Penney, J. H. W. (2017). "74. The documentation of Tocharian". Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. p. 1299. doi:10.1515/9783110523874-029. ISBN 978-3-11-052387-4.

Bibliography

Studies

• Penney, J. H. W. (2017). "74. The documentation of Tocharian". Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. pp. 1298–1303. doi:10.1515/9783110523874-029. ISBN 978-3-11-052387-4.
• Peyrot, Michaël (2008). Variation and change in Tocharian B. doi:10.1163/9789004358218. 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:10.1017/9781108758666.006.
• Widmer, Paul (2017). "79. The dialectology of Tocharian". Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics (PDF). pp. 1389–1396. doi:10.1515/9783110523874-034. 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. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110730562-010
• 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:10.1556/aorient.67.2014.3.6. JSTOR 90004169.
• 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:10.1556/aorient.67.2014.1.1. JSTOR 90004088.

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:10.2307/602042. JSTOR 602042.
• 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:10.2307/602235. JSTOR 602235.
• 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:10.2307/601599. JSTOR 601599.
• Arndt, Walter W.; Brosman Jr., Paul W.; Coenen, Frederic E.; Friedrich, Werner P., eds. (1967). "On the Interrelationship of the Tocharian Dialects". Studies in Historical Linguistics in Honor of George Sherman Lane: Festschrift for George S. Lane (PDF). Vol. 58. The University of North Carolina Press. pp. 105–134. doi:10.1353/book.75772. hdl:20.500.12657/39808. ISBN 978-1-4696-5703-5. JSTOR 10.5149/9781469657035_arndt.13.
• 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:10.13173/centasiaj.63.1-2.0071. S2CID 236875646.
• Chen; 陳瑞翾 (2018). "Vignettes of Buddhist Asceticism: Jottings on Six Fragments in Tocharian B". Central Asiatic Journal. 61 (2): 217. doi:10.13173/centasiaj.61.2.0217. S2CID 198766202.
• Hilmarsson, Jörundur (1988). "West Tocharian lyauto 'hole, opening' and related words". Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics. 101 (1): 166–169. JSTOR 40848921.
• Kim, Ronald I. (2009). "Another Look at Tocharian B ṣarya". Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics. 122: 111–117. doi:10.13109/hisp.2009.122.1.111. JSTOR 41430701.
• 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:10.2307/j.ctt3fgk5q.5. ISBN 978-3-7001-7304-5. JSTOR j.ctt3fgk5q.5.
• 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:10.1163/9789004362253_004. 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. https://doi.org/10.1515/olzg-2019-0030
• Stumpf, Peter (1976). "Westtocharisch se-seṃ: zwei Paradigmen oder nur eines?". Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung. 90 (1/2): 114–127. JSTOR 40848492.
• Winter, Werner (October 1955). "A Linguistic Classification of 'Tocharian' B Texts". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 75 (4): 216–225. doi:10.2307/595385. JSTOR 595385.
• Winter, Werner (August 1961). "Lexical Interchange between 'Tocharian' A and B". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 81 (3): 271–280. doi:10.2307/595658. JSTOR 595658.
• 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:10.1017/S0035869X00168807. JSTOR 25220813. S2CID 162418763.

External links

• A dictionary of Tocharian B by Douglas Q. Adams
• Tocharian B lemmas in Wiktionary

• Extinct languages of Asia
• Tocharian languages
• Indo-European languages
• Languages of Xinjiang