Re: a Tocharian theory (was Re: Kentum/satem)

J Y S Czhang scripsit:

>     In recent years the Uyghurs (Uighurs) have been claiming that they ar=
> e
> descendants of the Tocharians. Personally I find this highly doubtful. If
> anything, the Uyghurs' ancestors were Turkic and if these Turkic people had
> any thing at all to do with the Tocharians, it maybe that they wiped them out
> as a people - either by genocide or by interbreeding... or some combination
> thereof.
Not a safe assumption, really, any more than it's safe to assume that
all anglophones are of British descent.  The Uighurs in particular are
very clearly an ethnic mixture, despite their purely Turkic language.
For that matter, it's a fair bet that the average Turk of Turkey has
more than a little IE-speaking (mostly Greek) ancestry.
After all, Turkey is a Turkic colonization of formerly IE-speaking
territory.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_