2019/12/02 by Michaël Peyrot · 5 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Linguistics and language evolution #Linguistics and Cultural Studies #Lexicography and Language Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1163/22125892-00701007
openalex publication_date 2019/12/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Abstract Tocharian agglutinative case inflexion as well as its single series of voiceless stops, the two most striking typological deviations from Proto-Indo-European, can be explained through influence from Uralic. A number of other typological features of Tocharian may likewise be interpreted as due to contact with a Uralic language. The supposed contacts are likely to be associated with the Afanas’evo Culture of South Siberia. This Indo-European culture probably represents an intermediate phase in the movement of speakers of early Tocharian from the Proto-Indo-European homeland in the Eastern European steppe to the Tarim Basin in Northwest China. At the same time, the Proto-Samoyedic homeland must have been in or close to the Afanas’evo area. A close match between the Pre-Proto-Tocharian and Pre-Proto-Samoyedic vowel systems is a strong indication that the Uralic contact language was an early form of Samoyedic.