Tocharian languages

In science, Tochars are divided into true (or real, who are part of Yuezhi who spoke Eastern Iranian northern dialects related to the languages ​​of the Scythians who left the Kushans to the south and gave the name Tokharistan region in modern Afghanistan ) and are not true (pseudo-tohar) - actually to whom the Chinese and others transferred this name, but speaking Tokharian dialects that have no close kinship with the Yuezhi languages ​​and did not call themselves Tokhars, unlike the true Tokhars ^[5] . The bearer of Tokharic languages ​​is considered to be a certain Caucasoid people, in science called “pseudo-teharas”, and not a tribe of Iranian origin, mentioned from the V century BC. e. in Chinese sources under the name Yuezhi ^[6] , known in science as “true” tokhars and subsequently created the powerful Kushan kingdom on the territory of Bactria . It is customary to associate Tarimas mummies found in Xinjiang , the oldest of which are 4,000 years old, with the latter ^[6] . In addition, in the caves of the Oasis of Kucha, mural paintings have been preserved with images of people of that time. This Caucasoid population appeared in the locality, which is now the northwestern part of China, 1000 years before the Mongoloid ^[6] . A likely source of migrations of speakers of the Tokharic languages ​​in Xinjiang was the Minusinsk Steppe , a zone where the Afanasyev culture was spread ^[6] .

The self-name of the carriers is not defined: in the 6th — 8th centuries according to J. P. Mallory ^[7] , it is possible that ku кучiññe is “ Kuchansky ” (Tokharsky B) and ārśi (Tokharsky A); in one of the texts of Tokharsky A there is the word ārśi-käntwā, “In the language of ārśi” (ārśi perhaps related to argenteus (Latin), i.e. “silver, silver”); in “ Britanic ”, an alternative version is given about the connection of this name with the Indo-Iranian ethnonym “ arya ”. According to Douglas Adams , the tokhars may have called themselves ākñi, which means "living on the border." All assumptions about this are speculative.

“ Tochars ” of native speakers are called conditionally; the term Τοχάριοι is borrowed from the Greek texts of Ptolemy and Strabo . The name “Tocharisch” was proposed by the German researcher FW K. Muller in 1907 and a year later was supported by the famous pair of Tocharian languages ​​researchers Sieg and Zigling. The name of these languages ​​“Tokharic” is generally inaccurate, however, it nevertheless remains in use due to the established tradition and the uncertainty of any uniform exact equivalent.

Two Tocharian languages ​​are known - “Tokhar A” (“Eastern Tokhar”) and “Tokhar B” (“Western Tokhar”), which are significantly different from each other. It can be assumed that the Prato-Khara language is separated from the time of creating known texts by an interval of about 1000 years ^[6] . The “Tocharian B” (“Kuchansky”) was the most common, although more archaic features remained in it ^[6] . “Tokhar A” (“ Turfan ”) at the time of creating the texts was supposedly already a dead language and was used by Buddhist monks exclusively for religious purposes, for fixing sacred texts.

There is an assumption that another Tokharian language (“Tokharian C”) was in use in the Loulan oasis; this is evidenced by the large number of Tokhar borrowings in the Prakrit texts found there ^[6] .

Apparently, the Tokharic languages ​​broke away from other Indo-European languages ​​quite early, since they do not show much intimacy with the Eastern Indo-European languages ​​of the Indo-Iranian branch ( V. Georgiev justified the opposite point of view), but they resemble Western Indo-European languages ^[8] .

According to TV V. Gamkrelidze and Vyach. Su Ivanova , the language of the Gutias was close to the Tokharian languages ^[9] . However, the Gutians themselves did not leave behind themselves texts other than proper names, therefore this hypothesis cannot be considered approved. Curious are some isogloss of Tocharian languages ​​with Hetto-Luvian , for example, the coincidence of voiced and deaf in one series of confidential ones.

The Tocharian texts are written in a special form of the Indian “oblique” letter to Brahmi , specially adapted to reproduce the Tokhara phonological system. Brahmi writing is neither an alphabetic nor a syllabic system (so-called akṣaras). Each character in the consonant system is a consonant sound, followed by the vowel -a by default. To change the vowel, you need to put a diacritical (modifying) sign.

Phonetics and phonology

Vowels

/ i /, / e /, / a / (transmitted as ā) / u /, / o /, / ɨ / (transmitted ä), / ə / (transmitted a)

Diphthongs: (only Tox. B): / əi / (transmitted ai), / oi / (transmitted oy), / əu / (transmitted au), / au / (transmitted āu)

Consonants

Explosive: / p /, / t /, / c /, / k /, / kʷ / (transmitted as ku)

Affricates: / ts /

Slot: / s /, / ɕ / (transmitted as ś), / ʂ / (transmitted as ṣ)

Sonanta: / w /, / j / (transmitted as y)

Shivering: / r /

Nasal: / m /, / n / (transmitted as ṃ at the end of words), / ɲ / (transmitted as ñ)

Lateral sonants: / l /, / ʎ / (transmitted as ly)

Morphology

Noun

In the Tocharian languages ​​there existed a number system characteristic of archaic Indo-European languages. There were: the singular , the dual number and the plural . A pair number (paral) should be considered as an innovation, which naturally manifested arising pairs, for example, two hands, two eyes, etc. Toh. A akäṃ , Toh. B eśane "both eyes". (IE * H₃ekʷ-iH₁ → prototoch. * Æśä + næ → Toch. A aśäṃ , toh. B eśane ). The double number, on the contrary, expressed randomly formed pairs. Also in Toch. there was another innovation - the emergence of a plume, which was formed with the help of the ending -aiwenta ← IE * oi-wo- “one” and was used to express the concept of “each separately”.

In Tocharian, the declension of nouns is completely rethought. Only the nominative, genitive and accusative forms are inherited; the latter in Tokhara is rethought as the so-called “common-state” case. In addition to them, however, each of the two Tokharian languages ​​possessed six new, poslezhnymi by origin, case forms, obtained by attaching unalterable postpositions to the basis of the common direct case.

• Agglutinative constructions in Tokhar are formed, as indicated above, by attaching poslelozhnyh constructions to the whole-body case, for example: in Tokhar And the ending -aśśäl is an indicator of a comitational, for example yuk-aśśäl “with a horse”, yukas-aśśäl “with horses”. Agglutinative endings give the following cases: instrumental, comitative (joint), locative (local), ablative ( defensive ), allatiev (guiding), perlativ (in Tokhar A ). For Tocharian languages, group flexion is typical, for example:
  • toch A poñcäṃ saṃsāris "of all, of the whole world", where poñcäṃ of "whole, whole" in the general terms. case, and saṃsāris "world" in the genitive, in contrast to the similar lat. constructions: tōtīus mundī, in which both the adjective (totus) and the noun (mundus) are matched by the case (in this case, the genitive).
  • toch And bodhisattveṃ swāreṃ rakeyo is the “sweet word of a bodhisattva ”, where the noun bodhisattve “Bodhisattva” and the adjective swāre “sweet, sweet” are in the whole case, and the rake “word” is in the instrumental case.
  • toch B kektseñ reki palskosa “through body, word and thinking”, where the last of the inclined nouns palsko “thought, thinking” is in perlativ, and the other two nouns are in indirect case.

The declension pattern of the Tokhara A noun käṣṣi "teacher":

Table of examples of declensions in Tocharian

Notes : Forms marked with an asterisk are not explicitly witnessed, but are reconstructed using the comparative historical method.

Adjective

Adverb

Pronoun

In Tocharian languages, there are two forms of personal pronouns: independent and suffixed (enclitics).

Tokharsky A. In the Tokharsky A, the singular pronoun has a masculine and feminine gender, which is uncharacteristic of other Indo-European languages.

Tokharsky B.

In addition to the independent forms of personal pronouns, Tocharian languages ​​also have enclitic forms of 1, 2 and 3 rd persons.

Secondary forms are added to these forms (agglutinative case endings), which create grammatical relations: the directional case of Toch A. -n-ac (-ṃ + -ac), Toch B. -ne-ś “to it, to it”; Toch B. a sedative case -c-meṃ "from you".

Tokharsk. A ṣñi , Tokharsk. B ṣañ .

Numeral

Toh. A / B 1 sas , se ; 2 wu , wi ; 3 tre , trai ; 4 śtwar , śtwer ; 5 päñ , piś ; 6 säk , skas ; 7 spät , sukt ; 8 okät , okt ; 9 ñu ; 10 śäk , śak ; 100 känt , kante Toh. And 10,000 tmāṃ

Verb

There are three forms of indicative mood in Tocharian languages: present tense (present), simple past (preterit) and past imperfect (imperfect).

1. Presently expresses action taking place at the moment of utterance. It also serves to express the future tense.

Examples: Toh A. Bārānasyac yäm “I will go to Varanasi” (Kashi) is a translation of the Sanskrit form of the future tense verb Bārānasīm gamiṣyāmi. Toh B. ' se cisa āpālmeṃ tākaṃ cwi aiskem "I will give it to someone who is better than you." This form is also used in the function of historical prezens. Such a “shift” of verb tenses is a rhetorical technique for a more vivid image of the events that have occurred.

2. The past imperfect performs two main functions: it expresses the past action, which is thought of as still occurring at the moment of speech, and the action that constantly occurs in the past.

Examples: Toch B. kälymiṃ läkāṣyeṃ cey kom-pirkomeṃ ipprerne ka ṣ lyakār-ne " they looked up to heaven, where they saw him in the eastern part (heaven)" Toh A. tmäṣ ptāñkät käṣṣi ... kospreṃnne ṣik tāwiṣ täprenäk sās tkaṃñkät nuṣā kälñā oki kāckeyo "whenever Buddha makes a step, the Earth roars and rattles as if from joy."

3. The simple past expresses an action that occurred in the past and was completed by the time of speech.

Example: Toh B. piṅkte meñe āra “the fifth month is over”.

• The category of grammatical pledge is represented by valid and media passive pledges, as in ancient Greek. Passive voice forms are formed from media passive forms, probably when tracing Sanskrit patterns. Some verbs are witnessed in the middle voice: trik-: toch. A trikatär, B triketär, with the ending -tär 3 l., Unit, middle collateral.
• There were 4 moods in the verbal system: indicative, subjunctive, desirable, imperative. The category of underdeveloped time - the present and the past tenses differ in the indicative mood. The future tense of indicative mood can be expressed by the subjunctive mood.

Conjugation classes:

Footnote : Forms marked with an asterisk are not witnessed, but restored by using the comparative historical method.

• An interesting fact is the presence of verbal passages with the ending in -l, which is also present in the Slavic languages ​​and in Armenian - and in this and in the other case - forming a preterit (mereal-e has also died).

Preterite in Tocharian languages ​​is a simple past tense. It expresses the action completed in the past, the verb, and at the same time, has a perfect appearance.

Conjugation classes:

I class.

A kot - B kaut - “break”

Imperfect: Valid voice. Toh. B.

Media passive.

Irregular Verbs. Present tense '

Communion

In the Tocharian A witnessed participles of the present tense of the actual pledge - ant, for example: trikant . Similarly, the participial form in the Tokhar A pekant "artist" is homologous in origin with the Latin. pingens “coloring”, but closer in meaning to lat. pictor (artist), by the way, the same i.e. we see the root in Russian “write”, “clerk”, “letter”.

Formation of verbs from verbs

Tokhara verbs are characterized by the presence of two verbal bases - basic and causative (or factual). An example from Tocharian B: the stem of the tsälpetär verb “he is freed from suffering, dies” is basic, and the stem tsalpäṣtär “he releases from suffering, he causes death” is causative. The causative meaning is underlined, especially when the verb is transitive. The distinction between the causative and basic bases extends to the present tense and claims the indicative mood, as well as the subjunctive mood of the Tokhara verb. Causative basis in Toch. And it is formed by duplication (doubling) of the root in the test. In Toch B using the palatalization of a consonant sound cf. tsalpa and tsyālpāte.

There was another way to form a causative - adding a suffix common to many ancient Indo-European languages, derived from IE * -sḱ-, which in other i.e. languages, where it is preserved, can attach to the verb inhoative (beginning of action) and iterative (repetition of action) meaning and * -s-. Toh. And only the suffix * -s- was used, which after the phonological changes acquired the form -ṣ-. Toh. B used both suffixes -ЕЕ * -sḱ- as -ṣṣ- in the ninth class of the verb and IE * -s- as -ṣ- in the eighth grade of the verb.

Many words are difficult to identify due to their isolation from the context. Here are some examples:

• A kukäl , B kokale (wheels): ancient-grech. κύκλος , Sanskrit cakráh , oset. calx
• B mit (mêl): rus. Honey , sk. Mádhu , Osset. mud (compare also. "medd" 'in Welsh, strong honey drink)
• A a B tu (you): lat. tū , sk . tvám , dr.- rusk . "T'i" it. du, arm. du, oset. du
• Numbers (A a B): 1 sas , se ; 2 wu , wi ; 3 tre , trai ; 4 śtwar , śtwer ; 5 päñ , piś ; 6 säk, skas ; 7 spät , sukt ; 8 okät , okt ; 9 ñu ; 10 śäk , śak ; 100 känt , kante

• Tocharian languages: Sat. articles / ed. and from the entry. Art. V.V. Ivanova. - M .: Publishing house of foreign literature, 1959.
• Burlak, S. A. Historical phonetics of the Tokharian languages. M., 1995.

• Konjugationstabellen für Tocharisch A und B (him.)
• Über 1000 Jahre verschollene Schrift entschlüsselt , Universität des Saarlandes , 22. August 2002. (it.)
• Auf der Spur verschollener Sprachen , campus. Zeitschrift der Universität des Saarlandes, Juni 2002. (Thema: Dr. Klaus T. Schmidt entschlüsselt Kharoshthi -Schrift mittels tocharischer Referenzen) (him.)
• Declination
• Basics, Declinations
• Verb Classes
• Saddant on A-Tokharsky with comments and grammatical explanations
• Parable about the Sunrise on Tokhar B with commentaries and grammatical explanations
• Base of texts
• Lesson Course with Explanations and Examples
• Online dictionary
• Tokhara letter
• Tokharo-English dictionary 200 words