Tocharian A

Tocharian A
Tocharian A
Tokharian A, Eastern Tocharian, Agnean, Karashahrian, Turfanian
tkaṃ
	Tocharian inscription "This Buddha was painted by the hand of Sanketava"
Native to	Karasahr and Turfan
Region	Tarim Basin
Ethnicity	Tocharians
Extinct	850 AD
Language family	Indo-European Tocharian Tocharian A; ;
Early form	Proto-Tocharian
Writing system	Tocharian script; Brahmi script; Manichaean script;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xto
Linguist List	xto
Glottolog	tokh1242
IETF	xto
	Tocharian languages A (blue), B (red) and C (green) in the Tarim Basin. Tarim oasis towns are given as listed in the Book of Han (c. 2nd century BC), with the areas of the squares proportional to population.
	Diachronic map showing the centum (blue) and satem (red) groups of Indo-European languages. Tocharian, on the right (East), is part of the centum group which initially formed a continuum, before the "satemization" appeared in the Eurasian Steppe.
	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.

Tocharian A, also known as Tokharian A, Eastern Tocharian, Agnean (tkaṃ),^[5] Karashahrian or Turfanian^[6] is a dead language that was in use in the 1st millennium AD in the Karashahr and Turfan region of the Tarim Basin, present-day Xinjiang, Western China. First discovered from Buddhist texts dating back to around the 7th century AD,^[7] it coexisted with a related language, Tocharian B that together possibly with Kroränian form the Tocharian branch of the Indo-European languages. This language was notably used in what China's Han dynasty then called the Kiu-che Kingdom (known as the Kushan Empire).^[8] It is believed that Tocharian A died out with the other Tocharian languages when the Uyghurs and the Yenisei Kyrgyz moved into the Tarim Basin.^[9]

^ "The ASJP Database - Wordlist Tocharian A". asjp.clld.org. Retrieved 2025-05-03. extinct since 850
^ Mallory & Mair 2000, p. 274.
^ Mallory & Mair 2000, p. 67, 68.
^ André Martinet, Des steppes aux océans : l'indo-européen et les indo-européens, Payot 1986.
^ (Lejeune 1938, p. 548)
^ "Tokharian A". LINGUIST List. Archived from the original on 15 February 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2025.
^ Tadeusz Milewski (2004). Językoznawstwo (in Polish). Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. p. 136. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
^ Maillard 1973, p. 742.
^ Cite error: The named reference Mallory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1] "The ASJP Database - Wordlist Tocharian A". asjp.clld.org. Retrieved 2025-05-03. extinct since 850

[FOOTNOTEMalloryMair2000274-2] Mallory & Mair 2000, p. 274.

[FOOTNOTEMalloryMair200067,_68-3] Mallory & Mair 2000, p. 67, 68.

[4] André Martinet, Des steppes aux océans : l'indo-européen et les indo-européens, Payot 1986.

[5] (Lejeune 1938, p. 548)

[6] "Tokharian A". LINGUIST List. Archived from the original on 15 February 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2025.

[7] Tadeusz Milewski (2004). Językoznawstwo (in Polish). Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. p. 136. Retrieved 2025-05-10.

[FOOTNOTEMaillard1973742-8] Maillard 1973, p. 742.

[Mallory-9] Cite error: The named reference Mallory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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Tocharian A
Tokharian A, Eastern Tocharian, Agnean, Karashahrian, Turfanian
tkaṃ
Tocharian inscription "This Buddha was painted by the hand of Sanketava"
Native to	Karasahr and Turfan
Region	Tarim Basin
Ethnicity	Tocharians
Extinct	850 AD^[1]
Language family	Indo-European Tocharian Tocharian A
Early form	Proto-Tocharian
Writing system	Tocharian script Brahmi script Manichaean script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`xto`
Linguist List	`xto`
Glottolog	`tokh1242`
IETF	`xto`
Tocharian languages A (blue), B (red) and C (green) in the Tarim Basin.^[2] Tarim oasis towns are given as listed in the Book of Han (c. 2nd century BC), with the areas of the squares proportional to population.^[3]
Diachronic map showing the centum (blue) and satem (red) groups of Indo-European languages. Tocharian, on the right (East), is part of the centum group which initially formed a continuum, before the "satemization" appeared in the Eurasian Steppe.^[4]
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.