Tocharian Trekkers

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TOC"'~"'T"«,",
""ltlcm"nl5dndc<"",~[i"'()f'hc:SibaculfUre.3nE ..lyBronz<Asecul,ure
who«phy.i"allYpeWOUld3ppeortc,hc:Mongolo1d,lntheS<lmererri,ory
where we would lare, expectthe Yuc>hi. The only wa~ we can d'5<1W Yuozhi
"",<l<,end tbe name over much hro.der area. of ,heT.tlrn and Turpan
!>,,,,n' ,han 'he h..ro",:,,1 record,aUow. We.re engaged In mOl'mgMme.
aero" a map wlIhou, any evid=of 'he people. If 'he Chine.., histo,,,,s
had never mtnnoned rhe YueUl1 on the bord... of Ch,n., noorchacologi"
wouldhavehadtheshgh'''''reasonropo'lUlarc,heirexiSfenco TheYue,h,
"re'ghosr.".uromonedupbyh"rorian,rorormentarchaeolosm,.'Weh.ve
no need to look for ghost>; we have the remain' of ",.1 ~ople w!th ade"",
,omeeviden"eof,hn,m.to,ia]cuJEbre.
Lingui.ticPrehi.wry
Embedded m a"" language is evid""ce of iu p"-'t, The prec<ding,enrenc.
of
word. contain. five word. whICh are denved from GermanIc (i".
any,IS,of",.).dueewluchden vefromult1nvlaF"'nch(ianguage...·,dence.
p",') and one which combm~. a latin prefIx wlfh • GermanIc roar
(emb.dded).Tharrhemos,ba.icv<rbs"rnde.andpreposlfIonsa",all
GermanI' would ,usse" a ",)a,iv. chronology In which Engh'h w••
"riguully a German,c bnguage ,har w,," lar~r heavily mtluenced by a
Romance language.
Anexam,n"tlOnoi rhe Tocharian language. (we can now come up for
airandrev.."orlu.d."gnanonr.lfherthanKA)alsoreveal..ometh,ngof
th.irpo"althoughwec.nno,workbockt""f"h~"'.Cu"o ... lyenough.,ru.
impacrofChin"",onToch.rl.n"norv«y.,gnific.nt(e.g.lochan.nB
cdne 'pro,e' denves from the Ch,nese word for 'money', Ibe (modern) qia~
WIth the medieval pmnun";a"on 'd~"an; a)'o me.suremen{$ of capoClt!\
and,a.D. Q. Adarru;h •• recenrly Indlca'M"he word for 'flee') nor does
TurklShprov.dca.ignifiean'KlurceofToch.roanrocabula'l'On,heorher
hand,M,dclle lran,anl.nguagescurrent III dteTarim Ba"nand.urmundmg
arta. in rhe hrmillennium ADprov,ded.ma)orandpred"table,ourceoi
10anwordsroth~Toch.ri.nl.nguage•. FromKhorane.. S.ka"helanguage
of ,he ,ourhern Tarlm Ba'Jn,wefindIoanword•• ucha.dsa~a- 'worthy'
borrowed",Toehan3l1B"1arr>'wortby',whoietheSog<iian.who<ICrecla'
one of the principalmtddlemen m ,he transpo"""on of good,along,he
S;Ik Road contriburecllhe word mwll 'wlIle' (cognate with OUI Engh.h m.ad')
wInch wa. taken up a, Tocharian B mOl 'alcohol'. Somewhat earlie, conracts
With I,anl.n languages"on be...,nin word. ouch a' Isam, 'arrow', which waS
app.renrlyborrowedfromano"bea'tlranianI3ngu.g,'"eb .. A~".n
("""""-'we.pon'). Not all borrowmgs came by way of I,aru'n Slncethere
"al.oe.,denceof IndJc borrowing. (a, well a, thed,rect impOrt3tIOn of
San,l<rlrln Tochar",nrehgwu,li"rarure). These ,ermS refe,ro.,pecrs of
"in.
Buddhl"hfewhu:hwoujdha~b..,nfo""gn,orhep",-Buddht"Tocha''''''''
e,g. Toclt.tlan B airy4 'nun" asarj're<IChe,·.nd samane 'monk' whICh all
fmd ,heir ongm. in word. f'om Gnndhlrl (rhe language of ASok.·,
m,criptlom) of thelnd century BCtO rhe4,hcenrury AD,
Tochnn.n'pocinli.ts.rege ner.llyre!uc,an,ro.dm",har,h.",wa.
any flow of Indo-Iranian vocabulary Into Tochan.n e.rlier than the
1" millenmum Be,. mnewhen words such as Tochanan A porat, Tocha"an
Bperel'a",,'ruayhavebeenborrowedfmmKlmelranlanlanguage(wehnd
O,serle fariit 'axe')_ Tochari.:!n al,o employs a word for 'oron' (A ancu, B
"ricUIlIO) whICh 'Ome compare wah .imilar word, .uch os O.. otic ~~d4n
'stU:I'.While.u,hev,deoceeanonlybeemployedpo.invely,i.o.i,cannor
demonstrate'h.t~on ..c.. didnotexl..,rhe",ha~beenfewto.ugge",ha,
,hoancestorso[,hoTochar""uW<:relndo>econ",,,with,ho,,lndo-lranian
netghboun;beforec.l000--500ac.Togobackanyearlierrake.u,inroone
oflh.mostd"pured~<ea.ofTocharian"udies
Real 'Europeans"
The ",Iationsh,pberweenToch.rr.nand theothe,Indo_European otod.
or.ubfamlh.. ,nd ,be i..ue of how 'Europe.n-the Tochanan language.
a"u.lly orc hn. dogged Toch.rr.n "udle, ..nee i,.mcep,ion. If.,.., ",!l"",
ogamon,hevartou,lndo_Europeanlanguagestock.,w< ... ,hat,ha,whi,h
embraces ,he IncilC (and Nuri",ni) and lraman languages i. ,hemo" ..r",m
higher-order group inlndo"European. By ,his we meon ,horwe c;n
recon.rrue,ahng",,,jc,,.gehe,weentbedevdopmen,of l<anian.nd Indo ­
Ary.non rheonehand ••nd Pro,o_lndo_Europeanon ,heorher, namely,
Proro-lndo-lran,.n.lnshorr.wegetfromProto-lndo-Europeanro5an,l:m
orA,...,anonlybvw:>yofProro-lndo-lrani.n,.nd.nydi<cussionoflndo­
Aryan Or Irani.n orig,in.will 'ndud. the geographical sr.gingareaof
Proro-Indo-lr~nian. The malorilyof,<11rhough noralI,lndo-Europeau15 ..
wouldal.oaccepraBalro-51.vic"agebefo'"theind.:pendenrde~lopmenr
of rhe Bal{tc and 5lovlClanguages. Now borh lhe.e.ubgroup. of lndo­
European are.atem languages (I.e. rhey changed a 'hard'gorkroj,.or.)
andlheexJ"enceofodteruruquelingnlSticfea,u",.,ha",db.twttn,he..
,atem languages.uggests ,omedegree of proximity berween rho 'WO group.,
I.e. in ,orne way there was acontlnuum of Balro·Sbv,,-lndo-lr.ruan which
expenencedanumberofcommoninnoyltfionsnor.xpeflencedby,heorb",
Indo-Eumpean.ro,k•. ToehatJsn,a,wehave •..,nlnChaptl',Throe.belong.
'0 the cen'um langu.ge, whicb are dcfmed by 'h"'rhordpronunciarion of
wh.rwereconsrruc,.,palaral vetars ('g, "/f.,erc.). I,i. generally, alrhough
norun,~"ally,pro,um.d,ha,rhecen,umlanguage,dldno'partic,pa,ein
the ,nnovatlon. exp~rrenced by ,he .arem language.; being a cen'um
langu.ge,however,doesno,te))youanymoreabout,"preh1Srotlc ",Jation •.
Forrhar,JjnguJS"ba~.oughrorhercm.riaamongrheV3"o",centum
Iangu.gcs,oderermlIlerbe!,cotrtcrpositton,onthelndo-EuropeanfamJly
'",e, And
"uly ama>ing atr"l' of modd. 'ha' ,hey havt: proposed. We
hsr rheuputatlvt:,e!at!on,hip' below on a wesr roea,taxi..
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could ent.. tho Tarim B..,n from eIther the we., or the n"rrh. Of
tWo
potentlal,ou=sthe""'''l,.urelytheprefe,redopuonbecau,ethemain
.ourceofSak.,ox"i.Khotanonthe,outhemS,lkRoad,whichwosnoE
rW'\Y3pproacltabled"""tlyfromthenorrhotherlhanalong.de.enn>ad
W'.,h""".lso,eenth.!rilephY'1Calevldencealongrheenrj"""urhem rou,"
ofth.$J!kRoadback,ntoBacm33ppe;l,..tobem.rkedbyth''''''''~neraJ
phy,ical type. Tho ,raJ=<>ry of th,.lndo·Afghantype,the",fon:, i.mo,r
...ily ... ignedtoth""e",hocarnedlnd1Co'I'.ni~n(S.kal\.nguage.fmm
the we&!, and Ih"" f"rrh.. con["'t1ed by rhe .urvlv~1 of Sob'. doses,
lingu"u< rdations in rhePa,mr•• ThU5, by 0 crude proces. of ehminatlon,
rh .. leav<. ,heearlieratteo'edPrmo_Eur<>pold. (orHemphll!"peflpheral
Qawrighul people) .s the mor~ ltkely <andida,.. to he ldenl1fied wlm the
TochartanC.ubnr.to.Thcrei..,.dmi,tedly.ach,onologic.lgaplxtween
thelaro", mumm,es.ndKrotani3!l tex" but we should rec.ll 'hat the
mummie< from. fur example. Zaghunluq ('Ur·DOI'ld·, tM baby in 'he blue
I>onnet.,he,dpartllewoman"he'ScreamBaby·••!C.jdarotoc.60011C and
wo are only,ugge>,ing,ha"heybeassodatedwilhalmgu1Stlcsub,rrale
th.tmu"ha.ebeen ..",bh.hedb.foretlte3rdcenturyAD.AsTochanan
loartwor<l. a,. atru,ed in ChInese. few c.ntutles before fhe Kroranian
docum.nrs.wecanperhap.narrowtltegapstlllfurtlterlxtweenrhep,ehUit_
oncmummies.nd,heTocharianlanguage..
TheTurpangroupwitb".bu[]al,danngtoal>outmeStltor4thcentun..
scfaU.wi,hlnarernrorywherehi.to!lcalevl<kncoreveal.l>otltToch.r1.n
AandBdOCllmen,.. Wlnlei,,,diff,,,ul'toknowhowfarbaokwecanextr.­
polare eithu of ,he,e langt1'g., a' 'M vernacularlangu"P' of the region.
TocharJan at le.sr supplies a plau51bl. candidate for the Turpan group 0 f
mumrni..... nceweh""'noOfherlanguagem'h.. regKIn'h.toffe.. acred,ble
alrern.t1ve. In ,.rms of generol phrsical'yp«.hereroollreProto·Europoid
,ype.ppe."bur.long.;Jde,helndo·Afg!tantype.with,MPamir_Ferghana
type apparendy the most re.:en'.
Lop"u,
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PhyslulTyp.
und"""mined
Proro-EuroprndiQiiwrilllml"",I",:
Indo.Afghan
Qumul
Pr",o-Eu"'l""d
Tu'pan
Proto.Europ",cl
Indo-Afghon
""mr~P<:rgh.n.
_
alsonow",caUWernerWin="'uggestionrh",thelanguall"whlch~merged
In wrltt.n ,ources 3S Tochan.n A may bave boen .poke. ra"her to the
norrheast.i.e.inthedifOcllonoftbelaror T"rki,hpen.",monofEasr
Cent<aIA.ia.hefo<enhad heentaken up~.a'd""d· htuWcall.nguage
When_"""minelhe general physical type of the moreeasurlypopula,j"".
iuch a. tho.efrom ¥anbulaq. It is,he •• me ,IS ,hat found "' Q:iwrighol. The
chronologtcal gap b.twet'n the Qumul mumm", .. dared rO abou, 1000 Be,
.ndTocharian'ext.ofabou'the7Ih~nturyAD",ndeedg<eatbufherew.
may rec.1l fhat with respect '0 Toohanan A we an: d.:ahngwJth an already
deadlanguasewh,ch,houldh.""prr:.:ededi.. h"ronc.latt~"anonmth"
r~glDn by a matter of cenruries, fhus uarrowlng fhe gap be,wc:t:n the
mummr.. and our language horizon. Here '00 rhen one migh, p«>pose B
north-,outhnwvem.I1Iof.arlyToohanon•.
Tho """knee of a crud. ,I.. h from Occam', rator would seem rO ,ugge..
tha' ,he malOnty of our earlre" p<ehlSlotlc mummies may be «garded ao
aOC<itou of the I"•• Tochari.n,. The5e conc\u.ions should. however. be
'<mpetedwith'heob.. rvationtltat,.~ceptonlh.b3",ofmed,evalw.1I
pain,ings.we oanno',poak of th<phYSlcal type of tbo•• popularion, who
occupied ,h. terri'ory most do.ely a,""c,aced Wltlt our Tooharian B doc·
umen... i,e.aroundKucha.lnOlhe.-wor<l,.w<:canno, ...,lyrelatetheBronze
Age populations witlt ,he laroc oa'" ".,", mentIOned in Han documen ..
tltatproduc.d the Tooharran documents of the hlOto!1calpenod.Wha' we
have proposed i,merdy,ha,on,bo""idenceof phy"cal typo!ogy and
geog:raph,cal d;stribu"on, ,be T<>ch..riana would appear to denv<: from Ihe
notthand,helndo--lraman,l~rgolyfromth.we",hown>bU5'a"'such
conclu"onswhenWe3ddinto,beequatlon,h<"ld enc oofarch.eology?
TheFlrstFarmus
Mummygroup5,languagesandbacl<groundphyficalcypef
Gro"
Charcho"
Frnally. ahhaugh the Qumul mummies lie beyond aur documen,ary
.vtd.ncofo'llre""rnacularl.ngu~geoofEa"C'I1I"'IAsia._.ullhavea
f..... hin .... 'awhallangu.geth.ymayhave.poken.Wedo.fo,.xample.
h",,< Tocharran documenrs a mere 150 km 193 miles) rO ,h. woo<- We mighr
Wehaveseenhowourearhe"arch••oJogical""ideneeforhumanoccuparion
of E.stCenffal As!alSexrremely meagre and i,i. lmpoooible ",derermine
withanr ce"31nty from wh,chdu-ecrion rheTatlm and neighbouringreglo!!$
we"'lmtlaliy..,rrledifcolon"""ronpre«dedrheBronzeAge.l.e. c .2000BC.
Ftonlrhebeginning.;ofth.Sron:oeAge"'OU,MO",:um,tanriaIOYldence
tltaf we havc surveyed would rend"r" more hkely tha' it Wa' ,."led from
enhertltenortltorlhewesrralher thanfhe"'''th or •• st. The p.udty of a
Mongolo,d phYSical type .mong rho e3di." human remains .nd il>
conf,nement to fhe far east of East Central As.ia ,ugg~,,' ,ha' MongolOId
population,enreredl.feandfrom,heeastand",",heaot.Futtbermore.we
h..... goOdidea"fthe'.nlemen.. andcemet..... oftheNeohtlllc¥angohao
cuhureofno"h.rnChlRawhlchexpandedwestword"n,onelghbouring
cIlIa is
U LEE.. ,pn.,
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II
W"OWe"'H'M~"''''''<l
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The Linguiscic Srratigraphy of Tocharian
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We Imve ",en in the pre<ecling 'e<tions tnat one "f ,hecmical is,u.. " ,h.
«>,,,"ctorderongofourev,deru;e,beir,narofpopul.tioruorarcnoeologlcal
:1,"
mfl"enco •. Thepmblemheforeus n ow15arraoginginC<ltrec<chronologjeal
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orclorthediff.",ntptehi.lOriclangu.ges.pokenlnlhcT.rimBosin.V.rion.
deg=' of diff,cultyo<xomp.ny,uch,ne",.tcise bu,!romou'perspecti""
,he ptimarf goal is to arrangc corre<rJy the ,elotion,hlp between th.
To<hari.n.ndlran"",langu.g•• a,rhe•• ar.'h.langu.g~mo"likelyto
nave""rvecla,thevernacularscf,t>pr.hj,rorlcp<>pulatlons.
As we h.ve.l",ady ..en,.very language COmalO. s<lmething of "'OWn
cultural h"tory in "'vo<abuJar), Some oi Ih. rocab111ary will he tnbemea
from ProtO-incio·E:ump<on, some wIll b. new word. created [,om olde,
Inhe",.dd.men".The.. donorholdthesamemt~n:stfotu.herethat
loanword. do, sioce borrowed vocabulary, paruculariy d,ao;;dtlc cultural
vocabular)l, rnay poll1rcothet!lneandplaceoffore,gnconta~ ...
A.wehav~re<narkedbefore,Chin=appea"toha""had.veryminimal
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Impact on the Tocn.rian language. To !x ,ure, we have th< odd loanword,
o.g. T""harian klu 'rice' from Old Sininc 'glow (mo.rern Chinese Mol and
IUmo,for units of m....urement,e.g. lank,lOw (=lO,ank)and cak ('"10
tow), all tran.parently fcom Ch,n""". Bm the nnpacl her. IS m'nim~l,
<ul,urallyptethcr.bleandcomporativolyr.cent. Otherwise, Ihere" no
"idence ,hat the Tocban.n. ga,n.d tbelr'lOc.bula,y rortn.,na"veflora
and faun. of the Tanm B.Sln from earlier Chme.e inhbitan", nor do they
app<3r to have gamed the" agrl~ulrur.l vocabulary from thi ••o"rce. Till,
rend. addinonal.upport 10 the argument that the Chinese were bath
la,ecomersintoth.T.nmBa,mandd,dnotha""a"gnlflCantlmp.<tuntti
... Iativelylatelnthoeaswwm<>stregion,.
Now many of the other loanword, found m Tochar...n are connet:ted
withtherelog;ousand,.,,,,alloleassoc,.tedwithBuddhl5Inancihence,M
.ourco.here.reBuddhtstHybridS.n.knt,Prakm,.ndotherlndic
languages,o<casionallyperhap.f,lrered,hroughlran,an,ntermedi.ries.
The,. ",ay be eaSliy ...ough ... ""c,.ted wlth the n:i.tlvely I.te.p",ad of
Buddhl.m amO}ngalrady.stabl"hed popul."on., both TO}ch~".n and
lran,on-speaktng.
Byfarthegre.testn~mberoflo.nword.inTo<h31"lJ1wo"id.pp ...rto
derJVe from S.ka or some other E.... Ir.ruan Jang""ge and Ih• ..,fiU outa
larger",m.nncrange.ln,omeln".n=theyappeartohaveb""nloanworo,
a,,,,,datedwlthexchange,e.g.Toch31JanBp,to'price'm.yderivefromS.ka
piho."price',andTochananA""""To<harianBperi'debt'wouldb.de"ved
from Sob pl",_ 'th.t wh,ch ,,'0 be patd'. Th.re are other word. wh,ch
nughralsobo.",gnedrothegen."r .....lmofcammerce,e.g.unn.ofwdght
andmeasu",. lranlOn m,Utary t.rms al.o had an ,mpacr nn Tomanan and
wh.n one co,,,,d.rscl<ptcrion. ,n Buddhi$t temples of Tocharian knlgh"
kiue<1 om hke SasMn,.n. with long sword., one mIght recall ,h"the
Tocha,ian B word for ,word, kerrlt:, "domed from ,arne East Iran,an
1'lJguagc,e.gAves'anlwr"a-'da~·Bact"anal.o,uppliedlo.nword.
fiUingoutSlm,larpo[,tkalconte>tt',e.g.k.amrMo'head','m,ef'(go<!)glves
Tochanan A kakmor/,k 'ruler'. It is .1,0 Impo'tant to no", that the
TocbOtion word for ',ron' (Toc:h."."encuwo or ~ncu) would appear to be
relatw '" .ome way to Iranian (O...,tlc). In .ome ms",nceo the loanword.
arc connected with exotic .nlmals, e.g. Tocha.,.n B mew,yo '"g.r' f,om
Saka m"y<,- ',ige", Or Tom.".n B ,k,mek.. 'pigeon' which ,eem, related
toS.ka,wa""k.a·'plgeon'.Bynndla,gc,howeve",twouldbeexceed!ngly
diffICult Imgu""caUy 10 make ~ny case fo' the "'mpornl pnomy of Sak. In
'he Ta,im Ba'In WIth "'speCt to Toc:hanan. 01 tho approxi"",,,,1y 2S or 30
loanword., moot could be ea,ily .xpl~med as later bormwmg, pa,sed
betweencommunitiosalong,kSllkRoadconnectedwlth,h.,iseofurban
orBuddh,stln'tim'ion,.M,,",'importandy,th~re"noe\"idencethatthe
vocabularyof.grlculture,n,heTarimBa,,,,,pecificaHydorivesfromSalr.o.
A... s,CanaJ~andBricks
AlthoughSakaandSogd,ano.rctheear"mo£th.lr.n,anlanguagesdirectly
anested In the Ta.,m s.."n, there are ""me ['an'an loanword. In Toman.n
tha, may dOti"" from a ,tilleadier period. Two of th .... have only recently
com.toligh'mtheformofaTocMrianBttxt,hatdocumentsthetran.fer
ofan ..tatt.1XIithinthotexttherc"",f.ten<;etothe oro l.411<Wry,,'gre.t
canal'.nd,heiirfe,som.formofwa'e,"ou",o,hat,an,.rvea,.n.state
boundary< Douglas Adnm, has recently .uggo.tcd tha' bath of the,e word,
areoarlylo.nsfromanEa"bamanlangtlagc(o'proto-langU'ge).nd,whde
there an: a numbor "f ways to explain how th ..o loan, could have taken
place, only On... not probiomatlC. A. "ngation ag,ieulture " tMonly type
of agriculrure ,hat one can p'""",e in tl>c Tartm Ba.in, It ISd,fficu!t to see
how tM Tochanan. could ha""ekod out a hYing there bofore they knew of
irrigation. Ir"al.., unhkrly thot ,h. Iranl~n;andTocha"an' both am"""
at prtc"elyrhe.ametlmc, thelran'~n,p ...ingonto th.Toch.,i.n, the
...chnolagyofagrkulrurcbeforcthelarterh.dstarvedtodeath.The,impleg,
expbn.rlOn wculd be topl.ce tho Ironian. in po",ion fi"l and thon have
,heT""harlans,larg.lypastorali.ts,wander,nancladop,agtlcul,u"';thi>1,
precioely the type of pattern wo have e.rherencountercd m Wesr Central
ASIa where .reppe pa5lorah". moved 'nto ,heoa.e. andadopred the
agrkulruralrechmquesofth...rloerinhabuants.But, •• wehave.lrcady
seen, we do not ,eally have ,yp'cally West Central A.i.n BMAC farmo"
o<cupYlngthe Tanm Basin, nor doe, ollrrevu,w of thcphy.",al eVIdence
,uggest that population' from We" Centra! A.ia .rrived in. ,ho Tarim and
Turpan ba,i", earhor tban th""" from ,he north. None of our u,ual model,
will do,
Adorn' suggests that the most convemem ""planation would Involve
rhe ndap,ion of irrigation redtniq""" and E... Iranian tertnJnoiogy by ,ho
_SLUL)2 :'LSi
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