In the domain of Indo-European linguistics, Tocharian is now playing a more important role, which has been favoured by the increasing availability of the texts. The present article examines the concept of “creativity” in historical linguistics, by analysing palaeographic and linguistic matters related to hapax legomena, emendations, and conjectural readings in Tocharian manuscripts.
The article investigates the evolution of the PIE diphthong *-o in Tocharian in wordfinal position. Contrary to some previous accounts, it is argued here that *-o did not monophthongise to a palatalising front vowel in Proto-Tocharian. Rather, it remained a diphthong that then evolved into Tocharian A -e by regular sound law, while in Tocharian B it turned into -i by conditioned sound change.
Tocharian had a large number of demonstrative pronouns and determiners, whose basic element derives from the Proto-Indo-European gender-differentiated pronoun *so (masc.), *seh₂ (fem.), *tod (nt.) ‘this, that’. This article is chiefly concerned with the diachronic evolution of the endings and forms of these demonstratives, paying particular attention to the inflection of the feminine and the subsequent evolution of the category of gender.
The aim of the present article is to trace the origin and the evolution of the Tocharian A ending -äṃ, which is the plural marker of a closed class of nouns, whose Tocharian B counterparts are ranged under other inflectional classes.
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