Editing Tocharians (section)

==Names==
Around the beginning of the 20th&nbsp;century, archaeologists recovered a number of manuscripts from oases in the Tarim Basin written in two closely related but previously unknown [[Indo-European languages]], which were easy to read because they used [[Tocharian script|a close variation]] of the already deciphered Indian [[Middle-Brahmi script]]. These languages were designated in similar fashion by their geographical neighbours:{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC&pg=PA381 380-381]}}

* A Buddhist work in [[Old Turkic language|Old Turkic]] ([[Uyghurs|Uyghur]]), included a [[colophon (publishing)|colophon]] stating that the text had been translated from [[Sanskrit]] via ''toxrï tyly'' (''Tωγry tyly'', "The language of the Togari").<ref>{{cite web |title=Introduction to Tocharian |url=https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/tokol |website=lrc.la.utexas.edu}}</ref>{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC&pg=PA381 380-381]}}<ref name="MNW"/>
* Manichean texts in several languages of neighbouring regions used the expression "the land of the Four Toghar" (''Toγar''~''Toχar'', written ''Twγr'') to designate the area "from [[Kucha]] and [[Karashar]] to [[Qocho]] and [[Beshbalik]]."{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC&pg=PA381 380-381]}}

[[Friedrich W. K. Müller]] was the first to propose a characterization for the newly discovered languages.<ref name="Tocharian Online">{{cite web |given1=Todd B. |surname1=Krause |given2=Jonathan |surname2=Slocum |title=Tocharian Online: Series Introduction |publisher=University of Texas at Austin |url=https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/tokol |access-date=17 April 2020 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC&pg=PA381 380-383]}} Müller called the languages "[[Tocharian language|Tocharian]]" (German ''Tocharisch''), linking this ''toxrï'' (Tωγry, "Togari")<ref name="MNW">{{cite journal |last1=Namba Walter |first1=Mariko |title=Tokharian Buddhism in Kucha: Buddhism of Indo-European Centum Speakers in Chinese Turkestan before the 10th Century C.E. |journal=Sino-Platonic Papers |date=1998 |volume=85 |page=2, note 4 |url=http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp085_tokharian_buddhism_kucha.pdf}}</ref> with the ethnonym ''Tókharoi'' ({{Langx|grc|Τόχαροι}}) applied by [[Strabo]] to one of the "[[Saka|Scythian]]" tribes "from the country on the other side of the [[Jaxartes|Iaxartes]]" that overran the [[Greco-Bactrian kingdom]] (present day [[Afghanistan]]) in the second half of the 2nd&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC.{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC&pg=PA381 380-383]}}<ref>Also [[Ptolemy]] VI, 11, 6, 2nd&nbsp;century&nbsp;AD</ref>{{efn|1="Most of the Scythians, beginning from the [[Caspian Sea]], are called [[Dahae]] Scythae, and those situated more towards the east [[Massagetae]] and [[Saka|Sacae]]; the rest have the common appellation of Scythians, but each separate tribe has its peculiar name. All, or the greatest part of them, are nomads. The best known tribes are those who deprived the Greeks of [[Bactria]]na, the Asii, Pasiani, Tochari, and Sacarauli, who came from the country on the other side of the [[Jaxartes|Iaxartes]], opposite the Sacae and [[Sogdians|Sogdiani]]" ([[Strabo]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198%3Abook%3D11%3Achapter%3D8%3Asection%3D2 11-8-2])}} This term also appears in Indo-Iranian languages ([[Sanskrit]] ''[[Tushara]]''/''Tukhāra'', [[Old Persian]] ''tuxāri-'', [[Saka language|Khotanese]] ''ttahvāra''), and became the source of the term "[[Tokharistan]]" usually referring to 1st millennium [[Bactria]], as well as the [[Takhar province]] of [[Afghanistan]]. The ''Tókharoi'' are often identified by modern scholars with the [[Yuezhi]] of Chinese historical accounts, who founded the [[Kushan Empire]].{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|pp=270–297}}{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=83–84}}

Müller's identification became a minority position among scholars when it turned out that the people of [[Tokharistan]] ([[Bactria]]) spoke [[Bactrian language|Bactrian]], an [[Eastern Iranian language]], which is quite distinct from the Tocharian languages. Nevertheless, "Tocharian" remained the standard term for the languages of the Tarim Basin manuscripts and for the people who produced them.<ref name="Tocharian Online"/>{{sfnp|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=509}} A few scholars argue that the Yuezhi were originally speakers of Tocharian who later adopted the Bactrian language.{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|p=381}}

The name of Kucha in Tocharian B was ''Kuśi'', with adjectival form ''kuśiññe''. The word may be derived from [[Proto-Indo-European]] *keuk "shining, white".{{sfnp|Adams|2013|p=198}}
The Tocharian B word ''akeññe'' may have referred to people of Agni, with a derivation meaning "borderers, marchers".{{sfnp|Adams|2013|pp=2–3}} One of the Tocharian A texts has ''ārśi-käntwā'' as a name for their own language, so that ''ārśi'' might have meant "Agnean", though "monk" is also possible.{{sfnp|Adams|2013|p=57}}

Tocharian kings apparently gave themselves the title ''Ñäktemts soy'' (in Tocharian B), an equivalent of the title ''Devaputra'' ("Son of God") of the [[Kushans]].<ref>"According to linguists, the kings of Kucha called themselves "ñäktemts soy" (in Tocharian B), which is equivalent to Devaputra (an epithet commonly used by the Kuşāņa kings) meaning "Son of deva or God" in {{cite book |last1=Pande |first1=Anupa |last2=Sharma |first2=Mandira |title=The Art of Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent in Cross-cultural Perspective |year=2009 |publisher=Aryan Books International |isbn=978-81-7305-347-4 |page=133, note 22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vfZIAQAAIAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Skalmowski |first1=Wojciech |last2=Tongerloo |first2=Alois van |title=Middle Iranian Studies: Proceedings of the International Symposium Organized by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven from the 17th to the 20th of May 1982 |year=1984 |publisher=Peeters Publishers |isbn=978-90-70192-14-3 |pages=197–198 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=41SUliwjYmgC&pg=PA198}}</ref>