Tocharian, a. and n.
(təˈkɛərɪən, -ɑːrɪən)
Also Tokharian.
[ad. F. tocharien (or next), f. Gr. τοχάροι (Strabo) a Central Asiatic people formerly thought to speak Tocharian; see -ian.]
A. adj. Of, pertaining to, or designating an extinct Indo-European language spoken in the latter half of the first millennium a.d., of which remains have been discovered in Chinese Turkestan. B. n. This language; also, a member of the people or peoples speaking the language.
Two dialects of Tocharian are recognized: an eastern, Tocharian A (= Turfanian), and a western, Tocharian B (= Kuchaean, Kuchean).
| 1927 Peake & Fleure Peasants & Potters 134 The Tocharian language of parts of Turkestan. 1934 A. Toynbee Study of Hist. I. i. iii. 113 One isolated language in the far north-east (the now extinct ‘Tokharian’, which has become known to Western scholars through the discovery..of documents in this language.) 1950 Trans. Philol. Soc. 1949 9 The system of r-endings found in the verbal paradigms of various I[ndo-] E[uropean] languages..is clearly attested in Hittite, Indo-Iranian, Tocharian, Phrygian and Armenian, Italic, Celtic. 1960 Partridge Charm of Words 170 The -k- variation attested by Lett aka, a water-spring, and Hittite eku-, to drink, and dubiously Tokharian yoko, (a) thirst, should perhaps be aligned with certain OE and ON -g- words. 1966 G. S. Lane in Birnbaum & Puhvel Anc. Indo-European Dial. 218 If we could ever find out what non-Indo-European influence brought about the distinction in gender in A, we might know considerably more about the wanderings and contacts of the ‘Tocharians’. 1975 Language LI. 141 Tocharian -tsi..is regularly added to a verbal stem, the present stem in East Tocharian and the subjunctive stem in West Tocharian. 1977 Word 1972 XXVIII. 1 We have on one side Latin and Keltic, on the other Indo-Aryan, Iranian..and Tocharian. |