Ricerc@Sapienza

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. I argue that the feminine plural paradigm of both Tocharian A and B can be derived directly from Proto-Indo-European, with further analogical adjustments within Tocharian B.