Tocharian languages facts for kids

Quick facts for kidsTocharian
	Tocharian B manuscript, c. 7th century AD
Native to	Agni, Kucha, Turfan and Krorän
Region	Tarim Basin
Ethnicity	Tocharians
Extinct	9th century AD
Language family	Indo-European Tocharian;
Dialects	Agnean (Tocharian A) Kuchean (Tocharian B) Kroränian (Tocharian C)
Writing system	Brahmi script (Tocharian alphabet); Manichaean script;
Linguist List	xto Tocharian A
	txb Tocharian B
	This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
	This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

The Tocharian languages were a branch of the Indo-European languages. They are now extinct. They were spoken on the northern side of the Tarim Basin (now in Xinjiang, China). Writing was found from around the 5th century to the 8th century AD. There were three known languages in the branch, named A, B and C.

Images for kids

The geographical spread of Indo-European languages
Tocharian royal family (King, Queen and young blond-hair Prince), Kizil, Cave 17 (entrance wall, lower left panel). Hermitage Museum.
Tocharian B inscription from the Kizil Caves, in the Tocharian version of the Brahmi script, reading:𑀲𑁂𑀧𑀜𑀓𑁆𑀢𑁂 𑀲𑀡𑁆𑀓𑁂𑀢𑀯𑀝𑁆𑀲𑁂 𑀱𑀭𑁆𑀲 𑀧𑀧𑁃𑀬𑁆𑀓𑁅(Traditional Ashokan Brahmi)Se pañäkte saṅketavattse ṣarsa papaiykau"This Buddha, by Sanketava's hand, was painted".
Wooden tablet with an inscription showing Tocharian B in its Brahmic form. Kucha, Xinjiang, 5th–8th century (Tokyo National Museum)
Ambassador from Kucha (龜茲國 Qiuci-guo) at the Chinese Tang dynasty court. Wanghuitu (王会图), circa 650 CE
Tocharian B Love Poem, manuscript B496 (one of two fragments).