Agnean language

{{further|Tocharian script}}

Agnean is known from around the 2000 manuscripts found.{{Cite web |title=Tocharian Language |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tocharian-language/|access-date=2025-05-09| publisher = Encyclopædia Iranica |date=2015-07-27}} From these series of texts which are majority Buddhist liturgical texts are transcribed in a script derived from Brahmi. Unlike Kuchean, there are no secular texts in Agnean. One possible explanation is that at the time these texts were written, Agnean survived only as a liturgical language and Kuchean would still have been a living language.{{Cite periodical | issn=0014-4738| last=Mallory |first=J. P. |date=2010 |title=Bronze Age Languages of the Tarim Basin |url=https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/bronze-age-languages-of-the-tarim-basin/ |magazine=Expedition Magazine |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=44–53 |access-date=2025-05-06 |archive-date=2021-01-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109090710/https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/52-3/mallory.pdf |url-status=live | publisher = Penn Museum}}

Another hypothesis, however, is that this absence is simply explained by the very fragmentary attestation of Tocharian languages in general.

From the work of Georges-Jean Pinault and Melanie Malzahn in 2007, it is now recognized that it was also a living, spoken language.{{cite book|author = Doug Hitch |title = Review of Variation and Change in Tocharian B, Michaël Peyrot |publisher = Journal of the American Oriental Society |url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7817/jameroriesoci.132.3.0508?seq=1 |date = 2012 |access-date = 2025-05-10 |issn = 0003-0279 |volume = 132 |number = 3 |pages = 508–512 |doi = 10.7817/jameroriesoci.132.3.0508 |jstor=10.7817/jameroriesoci.132.3.0508}}

The Agnean word for horse (yuk) is declined as follows:{{Cite web |last1=Krause |first1=Todd B. |last2=Slocum |first2=Jonathan |title=Tocharian Online: Series Introduction |url=https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/tokol |access-date=10 May 2025 |publisher=University of Texas at Austin}}

One of the innovations of Agnean is the presence of a sibilant consonant ṣ.{{sfn|Levet|2006|p=18}}

The following are some examples of Agnean words with English words:{{Cite web |last1=Krause |first1=Todd B. |last2=Slocum |first2=Jonathan |title=Tocharian A: Base Form Dictionary |url=https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol_base_form_dictionary/tokol/3 |access-date=11 May 2025 |publisher=University of Texas at Austin}}

The following is also a comparison of some numbers in Agnean and other Indo-European languages:{{cite book |author=J. P. Mallory |date=1989 |pages=13 |url=https://ia600600.us.archive.org/32/items/189942876InSearchOfTheIndoEuropeansJPMallory/189942876-In-Search-of-the-Indo-Europeans-J-P-Mallory_text.pdf|access-date=2025-05-12|title=In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth|publisher=Thames & Hudson}}

File:焉耆文《弥勒会见记》.jpg.]]

{{main|Maitreyasamitināṭaka}}

The Maitreyasamitināṭaka is a Buddhist drama about the life of the Maitreya written in Agnean and is the most well-known Tocharian text about Maitreya.{{cite book |author=Athanaric Huard |date=2020 |url=https://hal.science/hal-03500015|access-date=2025-05-11|archive-date=2024-09-06|title=The end of Mahākāśyapa and the encounter with Maitreya Two Leaves of a Maitreya-Cycle in Archaic TB |publisher=HAL |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240906153532/https://hal.science/hal-03500015|url-status=dead}} It was translated into Old Uyghur (which is named Maitrisimit), which has been used to interpret Agnean. The Maitrisimit is not an exact translation as it was adapted to meet the requirements of Old Uyghur and the Maitreyasamitināṭaka was written in the campū style, which has a mixture prose and verse.{{cite book |author1=Michaël Peyrot|author2=Ablet Semet |date=2016 |pages=355–356 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/288478437.pdf|access-date=2025-05-11|title=A comparitive study of the beginning of the 11th act of the Tocharian A Maitreyasamitināṭaka}}

The following is one of the translations of the Tocharian A manuscript of Maitreyasamitināṭaka:{{cite book |author=Tatsushi Tamai |date=2019 |pages=288–289 |url=https://www.academia.edu/38553405/The_Tocharian_Maitreyasamitina%E1%B9%ADaka|access-date=2025-05-12|title=The Tocharian Maitreyasamitinaṭaka}}

klā k. SA (23 syllables) (me)trakṣināṃ opṣlyā plāc weñeñc¨ˎkāvvintu yāmeñc¨ˎ///

: [… through Metrak’s opṣly they would tell a speech (and) make verses. ///:]

ñ¨[ˎ]•klyoMA[nT]ˎ (20 syllables) (k)ly(o)MAnTˎ metraKAṃ oñantyo tri ñemintwaṃ KAlymeyā spārtwe(ñc¨ˎ) ///

: [•noble /// beginning with noble Metrak in three jewels they would turn in the right manner ///:]

Pˎ metRAkyāp [w]. (18 syllables) ps. lāntuneṣi [abhi]ṣeKˎ artantRA•kus pat nu tanā SArki tu .i///

: [of Metrak /// they praise anointing of sovereignty•hereafter ///:]

s weñeñc¨ˎ klyo(señc¨ˎ klyoMAnt metra) ◯[k]ṣ(i)nā(ṃ) plāc¨ˎ metRA(kyāPˎ) yärkanTˎ ārtantRA

pālantRA anumodin yāmeñc¨ˎ pukāk ṣakk ats [c]e ///

: [they would speak (panegyric(?) and hear) the speech (of noble Metrak,) praise (much) the

respect (of) Metrak, make gratification absolutely (and) surely ///:]

t pi koriSˎ ṢAk-KAnTˎ (w)r(asañ¨ˎ taṃ)◯ne KAtkeñc¨ˎ kātka[ṣ PA](lketSˎ?) ārkiśoṣṣaṃ PAttāñKATˎ: śmantRA cem wrasañ¨ˎ tām praṣṭaśśä[l] ..///

: [(9)600 millions (people) would go across (in such a way). The brilliant(?) Buddha would stand

in the world : The people would come in (proper?) time ///:]

kyo napeṃsaṃ : ṣo«me» metRA[ky](āPˎ) (kl)[yo]señc¨ ˎ MArkampaL*ˎ tSAlpeñc¨ˎ kloPA(ṣ ṣome?) yomneñc¨ˎ puttiśparnac¨ˎ vyākariTˎ: TAmyo metRAkyāp kā /// (PA)-

: [with … in (the world of?) people : Some would hear Dharma of Metrak, would be free (from)

suffering, (some?) would get the prophecy for the worth of Buddha : Then Metrak's ///:]

ls[k]asuntāPˎ skaMˎ skenaLˎ : 1 (4x25) || sātāgiri tRAṅKAṢˎ kāsu weñā(ṢTˎ)++Rˎ TAmyo TAṣ metRAkyāp waSA[mp]ātṣiṃ opṣlyac poñcäṃ ārki(ṣṣaṃ) ///

: [one should endeavor always mindful … :•|| Sā tagiri says, “You said good … then so for opṣ aly

of attainment of Metrak (in) complete world:]

(purṇak)e t(RA)ṅKAṢˎ ceṣ ṣome ñäktañ¨ˎ epreRAṢˎ kāKArpuRAṢ*ˎ dak(ṣ)i(ṇāpapatha)[c]¨ˎ yiñc¨ˎ ṣome nu pāṣānak [ṣu]lac¨ˎ yiñc¨ˎ || sātā(giri tRAṅKAṢˎ dakṣiṇāpathˎ KAlymeyaṃ bādhari prāmne)

: [(Pūrṇaka) says, “Some these gods, having descended from air space, go to Dakṣināpatha, some

also go to the mount Pāṣānaka” || Sāta(giri says, “In Dakṣiṇāpatha region(← direction) Brahmin Bādhari is):]

{{reflist}}

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{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |author=Melanie Malzahn |date=2007 |volume=103 |pages=255–297 |url=https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/the-most-archaic-manuscripts-of-tocharian-b-and-the-varieties-of-|title=The Most Archaic Manuscripts of Tocharian B and the Varieties of the Tocharian B Language |publisher=Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH}}
• {{cite book|author1=Georges-Jean Pinault|author2=Klaus T. Schmidt|author3=Werner Winter|author4=Michaël Peyrot|author5=Jens Elmegård Rasmussen|author6=Thomas Olander|archive-date=2011-09-27|access-date=2025-05-10|volume=10|url=http://www.mtp.hum.ku.dk/tidsskrift.asp?teln=900016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927140559/http://www.mtp.hum.ku.dk/tidsskrift.asp?teln=900016|title=Tocharian and Indo-European Studies|issn=1012-9286|url-status=live|date=2003|publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press}}
• {{cite book|author1=Klaus T. Schmidt|author2=Werner Winter|author3=Jens Elmegård Rasmussen|author6=Thomas Olander|access-date=2025-05-11|volume=13|url=https://books.google.com.au/books?id=yWJ2EPXiAG0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=1012-9286&source=gbs_navlinks_s|title=Tocharian and Indo-European Studies vol.13|issn=1012-9286|date=27 September 2012|publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press}}
• {{cite book|author1=Emiel Sieg|author2=Wilhelm Schulze|author3=Wilhelm Siegling|access-date=2025-05-11|url=https://books.google.com.au/books?id=_7bWMgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y|title=Tocharische Grammatik|language=German|date=1931|publisher=Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht (Druck von Hubert)}}
• {{cite book|author1=Wolfgang Krause|author2=Werner Thomas|volume=1|access-date=2025-05-11|url=https://archive.org/details/krausethomastocharischeselementarbuchvol.i1960/page/n7/mode/2up|title=Tocharisches Elementarbuch: Grammatik|language=German|date=1960|publisher=Carl Winter}}

{{refend}}

• Tocharian A lemmas in Wiktionary

{{Indo-European languages}}

Category:Extinct languages of Asia

Category:Indo-European languages

Category:Languages of Xinjiang

Category:Languages extinct in the 9th century