That this book, a collection of writings related to
Tocharian by Emil Sieg (1866-1951), should appear more than sixty years after his death underscores the continuing value of his work.
Fragments of the
Tocharian A Maitreyasamiti-Nataka of the Xinjiang Museum, China, Transliterated, Translated and Annotated.
The Yuezhi/Tocharians--The Kushans were descended from a tribal confederation known as the Yuezhi to the Chinese, and as the
Tocharians to a number of others, because they probably spoke the Indo-European language of
Tocharian.
It is interesting to note, in fact, that the practice of writing can be ascribed to the common period (as uncontroversially documented by the pan-dialectal diffusion of the root pei-k/pei-g ("to write, to paint, to decorate") in Indo-Iranian,
Tocharian, Balto-Slavic, Greek, Latin, and Germanic languages.
Historical Indo-European linguists explore language and meter in diachrony and synchrony from such perspectives as phonological evidence for pada cohesion in Rigvedic versification; aede, ea and the form of the Homeric word for goddess; Indo-European origins of the Greek hexameter; from proto-Indo-European to Italic meter; the Homeric formulary template and a linguistic innovation in the epics, a comparison of the
Tocharian A and B metrical traditions.
The manuscripts, hailing from various sites around Khotan on the southern branch of the Silk Road and around Kucha on the northern branch, were primarily written in Brahmi script and in the Sanskrit, Khotanese, Tumshuqese, and
Tocharian languages.
The 10 academic essays consider such topics as three additions to the
Tocharian B aviary,
Tocharian AB kwar- to grow old, silk in ancient Kucha and the
Tocharian B word kaum* found in the documents of the Tang period,
Tocharian B nouns with an oblique singular in -a,
Tocharian Vinaya fragments in the London and Paris collections, and vowel lengthening before distinctively voiced consonants in
Tocharian.
The assumption by Laut, that an account of the foundation of the order of nuns can be found in the Maitrisimit, an assumption followed by Pinault for a
Tocharian counterpart, cf.
*[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] after him) and of the Vogul word (*sat) on the other hand, separately: *[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] being of Aryan or Proto-Tocharian origin and *sat reflecting early
Tocharian B *[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] (Blazek 1999 : 94).
This second volume covers Italic, Germanic, Armenian, Celtic, and
Tocharian. The pages are numbered continuously across the volumes, and though the third volume is not yet published, it presumably will contain the index for the entire Handbook.