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

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

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