Tocharian languages, or Tokharian languages, Two extinct Indo-European languages, Tocharian A and Tocharian B, formerly spoken in the Tarim River Basin in China. Documents date back to ad 500–700. Tocharian literature, written in a northern Indian syllabary derived from Brahmi (see Indic writing systems), was preserved in Buddhist monasteries. Spoken at the eastern frontier of the Indo-European world, Tocharian shows the influence of Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages but seems closer to western Indo-European languages in vocabulary and grammar.
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