Prehistoric Tocharian-Turkic Linguistic Contacts

Wilkens, Jens and Nugteren, Hans and Peyrot, Michaël (2026) Prehistoric Tocharian-Turkic Linguistic Contacts. ACTA ORIENTALIA ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARUM HUNGARICAE, 79 (1). pp. 3-42. ISSN 0001-6446

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Abstract

In this paper, we focus on early Tocharian loanwords in Turkic. We argue that these can be derived from Pre-Tocharian B, an unattested precursor stage of Tocharian B, while the bulk of loanwords from Tocharian A probably only entered Turkic as Buddhist texts were translated. The early loanwords from Pre-Tocharian B must have entered Turkic before the attestation of the first Turkic sources. We compare the phonological systems of Proto-Tocharian and Proto-Turkic and discuss the phonological and phonotactic discrepancies between the two, in order to explain certain phonetic changes in the borrowing process. We attempt to establish regular sound correspondences.

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