Variation And Change In Tocharian B

摘要

When the archaeological expeditions led by Marc Aurel Stein, Paul Pelliot and Albert von Le Coq to eastern Turkistan in the early twentieth century returned to Europe, they brought with them a wealth of manuscripts in dozens of languages, several of which were previously unknown to scholars. Amongst these newly rediscovered languages were two that came to be known as Tocharian A and Tocharian B. Scholars now view this designation as a misnomer, since the languages in question were connected with the inhabitants of Turfan, Kucha and other cities in eastern Turkistan, not with the territory of Tocharistan, in northern Afghanistan.