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Language
The Tocharians appear to have originally spoken two distinct languages of the
Indo-European Tocharian family, an Eastern ("A") form and a Western ("B") form.
According to some, only the Eastern ("A") form can be properly called
"Tocharian", as the native name for the Western form is referred to as Kuchean
(see below). Commonalities between the Tocharian languages and various other
Indo-European language families (as with Celtic, Germanic, Balto-Slavic, even
Italic or Greek) have been suggested, but the evidence does not support any
close relationship with any other family. The only consensus is that Tocharian
was already far enough removed, at an early date, from the other eastern
Indo-European proto-languages (Proto-Balto-Slavic and Proto-Indo-Iranian), not
to share some of the common changes that PBS and PII share, such as early
palatalization of velars.
Tocharian A of the eastern regions seems to have declined in use as a popular
language or mother tongue faster than did Tocharian B of the west. Tocharian A
speakers probably yielded their original language to Turkic languages of
immigrating Turkic peoples, while Tocharian B speakers were more insulated from
outside linguistic influences. It appears that Tocharian A ultimately became a
liturgical language, no longer a living one, at the same time that Tocharian B
was still widely spoken in daily life. Among the monasteries of the lands
inhabited by Tocharian B speakers, Tocharian A seems to have been used in ritual
alongside the Tocharian B of daily life.
Besides the religious Tocharian texts, the texts include monastery
correspondence and accounts, commercial documents, caravan permits, medical and
magical texts, and a love poem. Their manuscript fragments, of the 8th
centuries, suggest that they were no longer either as nomadic or "barbarian (hu)"
as the Chinese had considered them.
According to the theory of former USSR scholar ü.A. Zuev the Tocharians in the
Kidan state in the territory of Manchuria spoke proto-Mongolian language, the
medieval Tochars (Dügers) in the future Turkmenia spoke Oguz, and the Tochars (Digors)
in the Northern Caucasus spoke in Alanian, i.e. in Sogdian-Türkic per Biruni.
Meanwhile, Zuev concludes, their ideological traditions in many respects
remained similar.
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