Abstract
The two extinct languages Tocharian A and Tocharian B comprise a small text corpus that consists almost exclusively of fragments. Nevertheless, the corpus shows linguistic variation. This paper will argue that there are three reasons for genuine linguistic variation in the Tocharian corpus: diachronic variation, dialectal variation and sociolectal variation. Accordingly, it is not only possible to apply sociolinguistic methods to a fragmentary corpus, but it is even essential. Furthermore, the Tocharian material confirms patterns of sound change known from other sources and can therefore offer insights for the principles of language change.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 157-177 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Open Linguistics |
Volume | 3 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2017 |
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 602017 Indo-European studies
Keywords
- Tocharian
- Historical sociolinguistics
- Sound change