Kuchean language

Short description: Extinct Indo-European languages in Asia

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 alphabet
* Manichaean script

Language codes
ISO 639-3| `txb`

Linguist List

| `xtb` Tocharian B
Glottolog| `tokh1243`[1]
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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.[2] The oldest stage is attested only in Kucha. There is also the middle ('classicalʼ), and the late stage.[3]

## Contents

* 1 Nomenclature
* 2 Overview
* 2.1 Documentation
* 3 References
* 4 Bibliography
* 5 Further reading
* 6 External links

## Nomenclature

Acorrding to Peyrot, the self-designation for the language was kuśi 'Kuča'.[4] In scholarly works, it is known as West Tocharian or Kuchean.[5]

## 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.[6] Paul Widmer, following Tamai's and Adams's studies, situates Tocharian B roughly between 400 CE to 1200 CE, its oldest layer dating from ca. 400 to 600 CE, around "Kucha and environs".[7]

### 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".[8]

## References

1. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). "Tokharian B". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/tokh1243.
2. ↑ Peyrot 2008, p. [page needed].
3. ↑ Peyrot, Michaël (2015). "Tocharian Language". Encyclopædia Iranica. https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tocharian-language.
4. ↑ 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.
5. ↑ Fortson, Benjamin W. (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture. Blackwell Publishing. p. 351. ISBN 1-4051-0316-7.
6. ↑ 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.
7. ↑ Widmer, Paul (2017). "79. The dialectology of Tocharian". Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. pp. 1392–1393. doi:10.1515/9783110523874-034. ISBN 978-3-11-052387-4. https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/140805/1/Widmer2017.pdf.
8. ↑ 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. pp. 1389–1396. doi:10.1515/9783110523874-034. ISBN 978-3-11-052387-4. https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/140805/1/Widmer2017.pdf.

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.
* 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.

## 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Arndt, Walter W.; Brosman Jr., Paul W.; Coenen, Frederic E. et al., eds (1967). "On the Interrelationship of the Tocharian Dialects". Studies in Historical Linguistics in Honor of George Sherman Lane: Festschrift for George S. Lane. 58. The University of North Carolina Press. pp. 105–134. doi:10.1353/book.75772. ISBN 978-1-4696-5703-5. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/39808/1/9781469657035_WEB.pdf.
* 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.
* 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.
* Hilmarsson, Jörundur (1988). "West Tocharian lyauto 'hole, opening' and related words". Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics 101 (1): 166–169.
* 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.
* 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. 12. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. pp. 33–82. doi:10.2307/j.ctt3fgk5q.5. ISBN 978-3-7001-7304-5.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.

## External links

* A dictionary of Tocharian B by Douglas Q. Adams

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