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The Tocharian Palatalization (I)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2026
Abstract
[This is intended as the first of a series of detailed discussions of the so-called Tocharian palatalization. All that is attempted here is an examination of the actual appearance of the sound change, to determine what are the original and what are the secondary consonants.]
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- Copyright © 1945 Linguistic Society of America
References
1 The less obvious abbreviations used in this article are: BSB = Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin; Kl. Schr. = W. Schulze, Kleine Schriften, Göttingen, 1933; SSS = E. Sieg, W. Siegling, und W. Schulze, Tocharische Grammatik, Göttingen, 1931; WP = Walde-Pokorny, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, Berlin, 1930–32; WH = Walde-Hoffmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3d ed., vol. I, Heidelberg, 1938; BSOS = Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies of the University of London; KZ = (Kuhn's) Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung, etc.; IF = Indogermanische Forschungen; Phil. Stud. = Philologische Studien (Université Catholique, Louvain); JAs. = Journal Asiatique; MSL (BSL) = Mémoires (Bulletin) de la Société de Linguistique de Paris; AOr. = Arkív Orientálni (Prague); Frag. = S. Levi, Fragments de Textes Koutchéens, Paris, 1933. The oft cited monographs of van Windekens and Pedersen (above) are abbreviated respectively as Toch. Decl. and Toch.
2 That some of these consonants may also arise in totally different fashion is likewise recognized. For example, ts may come from t + s as in läntseñc ‘they go out’, letseñc ‘they depart(?)’, where the verbal root ends in t and the present suffix is -(ä)s (cf. Pedersen, Toch. 263, SSS 358 ff.). Likewise, inherited s always appears as ṣ before t in A as contrasted to B, e.g. A ṣtām, B stām ‘tree’ (see below).
3 Cf. WP 2.295.
4 BSOS 10.939.
5 Lang. 14.27.
6 Ibid. 26; Pedersen, Toch. 266.
7 Toch. Decl. 56; so already Holthausen, IF 39.66.
8 Phil. Stud. 183–5.
9 Meillet, JAs. 17.451 (1911), MSL 17.248.
10 Toch. 96, 251.
11 Poucha, AOr. 2.325.
12 Lang. 14.27; cf. also now Pedersen, Toch. 190, anm. 2.
13 Pedersen, Toch. 243 f.
14 Cf. SSS 481, Levi, Frag. 152.
15 L.c. ftn. 1.
16 Pedersen, Groupement des dialectes indo-européens 31.
17 But there is of course evidence for a parallel root in g-, cf. WP 1.642. The connection with Skt. śavas ‘strength’, śūra- ‘strong; hero’, etc. (WP 1.365) made by Fraenkel (IF 50.7) is much less preferable.
18 WP 1.548 f.
19 Cf. Sieg, Aufsätze Kuhn 151, lines 5–6.
20 WP 2.572, WH 1.292.
21 Van Windekens, BSOS 10.397 f.
22 Cf. WP 1.587; Sturtevant, Indo-Hittite Laryngeal 86.
23 WP 1.571.
24 Cf. Pedersen, Toch. 91.
25 For the phonology, cf. Lang. 14.26.
26 Cf. Schwentner, KZ 64.266; SSS 4.
27 Pedersen, Toch. 252.
28 Ibid. 237 f.
29 Ibid. 79 ff., 237.
30 Ibid. 242.
31 Possibly, in spite of unexplained vocalism (A o usually equals B au representing an IE u-diphthong), from ∗krus-t- : Gk. κρvos ‘frost’, κρσσταí∋ω ‘freeze’, Lat. crusta ‘rind, crust’ etc. (WP 1.479 f.).
32 Schwentner, IF 55.297.
33 IF 50.229.
34 I am not clear on the corresponding B forms. SSS 480 says merely ‘Ebenso B’ without citation, Levi, Frag. 147, gives only the causative stem ṣparkṣ- ‘détruire’ without citing any forms.
35 WP 2.377–8.
36 Ibid. 2.385.
37 Ibid. 2.381.
38 Ibid. 2.432–3.
39 Cf. Pedersen, Toch. 241.
40 Ibid. 241 f.
41 WP 2.107.
42 Kl. Schr. 243 ff.; SSS 371, ftn. 1; Pedersen 187.
43 SSS 452: ‘Ebenso B’, but without citing root or forms.
44 Pedersen, Toch. 180 f., 242; MSL 18.2.
45 Levi, Frag. 114.
46 WP 1.271 f.
47 WH 1.96.
48 WP 1.295 f.
49 Kl. Schr. 245.
50 Levi, Frag. 154.
51 L.c.
52 Meillet, JAs. 1.115 f. (1912); WP 2.468.