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

From:Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
Date:Friday, May 3, 2002, 17:00
Chang wrote:
> I thoroughly agree with you on all counts, but my pessimistic soul >says >option #1 more than Option #2 based purely on the gut-feeling that the >Tocharians must have been wiped out over a period of a few centuries (My >rough theory: At first, the Tocharians resisted being surrounded and >overwhelmed by these hostile, nomadic Turkic peoples. But the sheer numbers >of the Turkic peoples gradually moving east changed Central Asia forever. >Later, the Turkic tribespeople - settling down to semi-nomadic, agarian >"civilization" - intermarried with what remaining Tocharian survivors were >left, by which time there was no longer a living Tocharian culture or >language to speak of).
Turkic peoples moving _east_? I thought it was established that they came to modern Xinjiang from Mongolia, that is moving roughly _southwest_? Andreas _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com