Tocharian

Tocharian alphabet

Origin

The existence of the Tocharian language and alphabet only came to light
in the early 20th century, when fragments of manuscripts in a then unknown
alphabet were discovered in Xinjiang in north-western China.

Once the manuscripts were deciphered, they proved, much to the amazement
of linguists, to be in an hitherto unknown branch of the Indo-European
group of languages, which they called ‘Tocharian’. The alphabet they
were written in is derived from the Brahmi
alphabet
.

Notable features

  • Tocharian is a syllabic alphabet in which each consonant has an
    inherent vowel /a/. Other vowels are indicated with independent vowel
    letters or vowel diacritics.

Used to write:

Tocharian, an extinct Indo-European language which
was spoken between the 6th and 8th centuries AD, and probably earlier,
in what is now north-western China.

Tocharian alphabet

Consonants

Tocharian consonants

Vowels

Tocharian vowels

Vowel indication

Tai Lue numerals

Fragment of a Tocharian manuscript

Fragment of a Tocharian manuscript

Links

Tocharian alphabet
http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/didact/idg/toch/tochbr.htm

Everything you always wanted to know about Tocharian
http://www.oxuscom.com/eyawtkat.htm

Images of Tocharian Manuscripts
http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/tocharic

  • Categoria dell'articolo:Lingue
  • Tempo di lettura:2 minuti di lettura