Editing Tocharian languages (section)

==Phonology==
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=330|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=
| image1   = QizilDonors.jpg
| image2   = The Painter Tutuka ("Citrakara Tutukasya") Cave of the Painters, Kizil Caves, circa 500 CE.jpg
| footer='''Left:''' So-called "[[Tocharians|Tocharian]] donors" fresco, [[Kizil Caves|Qizil]], [[Tarim Basin]]. These frescoes are associated with annotations in Tocharian and [[Sanskrit]] made by their painters. They were [[carbon dated]] to 432–538 AD.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Muzio|first=Ciro Lo |date=2008 |title=Remarks on the Paintings from the Buddhist Monastery of Fayaz Tepe (Southern Uzbekistan) |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute |volume=((22: Zoroastrianism and Mary Boyce with Other Studies))|page=202, note 45 |issn=0890-4464 |jstor=24049243}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Waugh |first=Daniel C. |publisher =University of Washington |title=MIA Berlin: Turfan Collection: Kizil |url=https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/museums/mia/kizil.html |website=Silk Road Seattle}}</ref> The style of the swordsmen is now considered to belong to the [[Hephthalites]], from [[Tokharistan]], who occupied the Tarim Basin from 480 to 560 AD, but spoke [[Bactrian language|Bactrian]], an [[Eastern Iranian language]].<ref name="EK200">{{Cite journal |last=Kageyama |first=Etsuko |date=2016 |title=Change of suspension systems of daggers and swords in eastern Eurasia: Its relation to the Hephthalite occupation of Central Asia |url=https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/209942/1/zinbun_46_199.pdf |journal=ZINBUN |volume=46 |pages=200–202}}</ref><ref name="AK324">{{Cite journal |last=Kurbanov |first=Aydogdy |date=2014 |title=The Hephthalites: Iconographical Materials |url=http://oaji.net/articles/2017/4586-1488311404.pdf |journal=Tyragetia |volume=8 |page=324}}</ref><br>
'''Right''': One of the painters, with a label in Tocharian: ''Citrakara Tutukasya'' "The Painter Tutuka". Cave of the Painters, Kizil Caves, circa 500 AD.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hertel |first=Herbert |url=https://archive.org/details/AlongtheAncientSilkRoutesCentralAsianArtfromtheWestBerlinStateMuseums/page/n55/mode/2up |title=Along the Ancient Silk Routes: Central Asian Art from the West Berlin State Museums |year=1982 |pages=55–56}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rowland |first=Benjamin |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/291810602/The-Art-of-Central-Asia-Art-of-the-World |title=The Art of Central Asia |date=1970 |page=104 |access-date=2020-11-19 |archive-date=2023-01-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115041309/https://www.scribd.com/document/291810602/The-Art-of-Central-Asia-Art-of-the-World |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>The label at his feet reads: "The Painter Tutuka" in {{Cite book |last1=Härtel |first1=Herbert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BLuaphht8XwC&pg=PA74 |title=Along the Ancient Silk Routes: Central Asian Art from the West Berlin State Museums : an Exhibition Lent by the Museum Für Indische Kunst, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany |last2=Yaldiz |first2=Marianne |last3=Kunst (Germany) |first3=Museum für Indische |last4=N.Y.) |first4=Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |year=1982 |isbn=978-0-87099-300-8 |page=74}}</ref>
}}
Phonetically, Tocharian languages are "[[Centum and satem languages|centum]]" Indo-European languages, meaning that they merge the [[palatovelar]] consonants {{PIE|(*ḱ, *ǵ, *ǵʰ)}} of [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] with the plain [[velars]] (*k, *g, *gʰ) rather than palatalizing them to affricates or sibilants. Centum languages are mostly found in western and southern Europe ([[Greek language|Greek]], [[Italic languages|Italic]], [[Celtic languages|Celtic]], [[Germanic language|Germanic]]). In that sense Tocharian (to some extent like the [[Hellenic languages|Greek]] and the [[Anatolian languages]]) seems to have been an isolate in the "[[Centum-Satem isogloss|satem]]" (i.e. [[palatovelar]] to [[sibilant]]) phonetic regions of Indo-European-speaking populations. The discovery of Tocharian contributed to doubts that Proto-Indo-European had originally split into western and eastern branches; today, the centum–satem division is not seen as a real familial division.{{sfnp|Renfrew|1990|p=107}}<ref name="baldi">{{Cite book |last=Baldi |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Baldi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gWY7-DBWPW4C&pg=PA39 |title=The Foundations of Latin |date=1999 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-016294-3 |language=en |page=39}}</ref>

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! &nbsp;
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Central vowel|Central]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| ''i'' {{IPA|/i/}}
| ''ä'' {{IPA|/ɨ/}}
| ''u'' {{IPA|/u/}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| ''e'' {{IPA|/e/}}
| ''a'' {{IPA|/ə/}}
| ''o'' {{IPA|/o/}}
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| &nbsp;
| ''ā'' {{IPA|/a/}}
| &nbsp;
|}

Tocharian A and Tocharian B have the same set of vowels, but they often do not correspond to each other. For example, the sound ''a'' did not occur in Proto-Tocharian. Tocharian B ''a'' is derived from former stressed ''ä'' or unstressed ''ā'' (reflected unchanged in Tocharian A), while Tocharian A ''a'' stems from Proto-Tocharian {{IPA|/ɛ/}} or {{IPA|/ɔ/}} (reflected as {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/o/}} in Tocharian B), and Tocharian A ''e'' and ''o'' stem largely from monophthongization of former diphthongs (still present in Tocharian B).

===Diphthongs===
Diphthongs occur in Tocharian B only.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! &nbsp;
! Closer component<br />is front
! Closer component<br />is back
|-
! Opener component is [[roundedness|unrounded]]
| ''ai'' {{IPA|/əi/}}
| ''au'' {{IPA|/əu/}}<br>''āu'' {{IPA|/au/}}
|-
! Opener component is rounded
| ''oy'' {{IPA|/oi/}}
| &nbsp;
|}

===Consonants===
[[File:Tocharian.JPG|thumb|upright=1.5|Wooden tablet with an inscription showing Tocharian B in its Brahmic form. [[Kucha]], [[Xinjiang]], 5th–8th century ([[Tokyo National Museum]])]]
The following table lists the reconstructed phonemes in Tocharian along with their standard transcription. Because Tocharian is written in an alphabet used originally for Sanskrit and its descendants, the transcription reflects Sanskrit phonology, and may not represent Tocharian phonology accurately. The Tocharian alphabet also has letters representing all of the remaining Sanskrit sounds, but these appear only in Sanskrit loanwords and are not thought to have had distinct pronunciations in Tocharian. There is some uncertainty as to actual pronunciation of some of the letters, particularly those representing palatalized obstruents (see below).

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
!| &nbsp;
! [[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]
! [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Alveolo-palatal consonant|Alveolo-palatal]]
! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]

|-
!| [[Stop consonant|Plosive]]
| ''p'' {{IPA|/p/}}
| ''t'' {{IPA|/t/}}
|
| &nbsp;
| ''k'' {{IPA|/k/}}
|-
!| [[Affricate consonant|Affricate]]
| &nbsp;
| ''ts'' {{IPA|/ts/}}
| ''c'' {{IPA|/tɕ/}}?<sup>2</sup>
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
!| [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
| &nbsp;
| ''s'' {{IPA|/s/}}
| ''ś'' {{IPA|/ɕ/}}
| &nbsp;''ṣ'' {{IPA|/ʃ/}}?<sup>3</sup>
| &nbsp;
|-
!| [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| ''m'' {{IPA|/m/}}
| ''n'' {{IAST|''ṃ''}} {{IPA|/n/}}<sup>1</sup>
| &nbsp;
| ''ñ'' {{IPA|/ɲ/}}
| ''ṅ'' {{IPA|/ŋ/}}<sup>4</sup>
|-
!| [[Trill consonant|Trill]]
| &nbsp;
| ''r'' {{IPA|/r/}}
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
!| [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
| ''y'' {{IPA|/j/}}
| &nbsp;''w'' {{IPA|/w/}}
|-
!| [[Lateral consonant|Lateral approximant]]
| &nbsp;
| ''l'' {{IPA|/l/}}
| &nbsp;
| ''ly'' {{IPA|/ʎ/}}
| &nbsp;
|}

# {{IPA|/n/}} is transcribed by two different letters in the [[Tocharian alphabet]] depending on position. Based on the corresponding letters in Sanskrit, these are transcribed {{IAST|''ṃ''}} (word-finally, including before certain [[clitic]]s) and ''n'' (elsewhere), but {{IAST|''ṃ''}} represents {{IPA|/n/}}, not {{IPA|/m/}}.
# The sound written {{IAST|''c''}} is thought to correspond to a alveolo-palatal affricate {{IPAslink|tɕ}} in Sanskrit. The Tocharian pronunciation {{IPA|/tɕ/}} is suggested by the common occurrence of the cluster ''śc'', but the exact pronunciation cannot be determined with certainty.
# The sound written {{IAST|''ṣ''}} seems more likely to have been a palato-alveolar sibilant {{IPAslink|ʃ}} (as in English "'''''sh'''ip''"), because it derives from a palatalized {{IPAslink|s}}.<ref name="ringe-proto-tocharian">Ringe, Donald A. (1996). ''On the Chronology of Sound Changes in Tocharian: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Tocharian''. New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society.</ref>
# The sound ''ṅ'' {{IPA|/ŋ/}} occurs only before ''k'', or in some clusters where a ''k'' has been deleted between consonants. It is clearly phonemic because sequences ''nk'' and ''ñk'' also exist (from [[Syncope (phonology)|syncope]] of a former ''ä'' between them).