Re: Tokharian

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "C. Darwin Goranson"
<cdog_squirrel@...> wrote:

>
> Another question might be more fitting: I read that there were no
> known examples of straight Tocharian sentences; all were based on
> Sanscrit writings. Well, the writings on herbalism surely aren't
> based on Sanscrit stuff - are they?

On the contrary, I would be surprised if the herbalist material
especially wasn't largely of Indian origin. Ancient Khotan was
similarly heavily influenced by Indian Buddhism, and its medicinal
theories were accordingly based upon those of India, including
the use of numerous terms derived from Buddhist Sanskrit.

> And are these sentences in the love poem in any clear rhythm or
> syllabic form?

Most of the Tocharian material is supposed to be in metrical form,
though I personally know nothing about Tocharian prosody and so
can't tell you anything about the particular scheme of the poem
that you uploaded.

A came across a copy of 'La métrique tokharienne' in my files,
from http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~widmer/metrique.pdf , but
have never read it myself as I don't know French. You might want
to check it out.

> Or are they a rare glimpse at what Tocharian B might have sounded
> like, from the erudite lips of a priest to his beloved?

Why do you suppose that the poet was a priest? I've never come
across that suggestion before.

David