This book investigates archaisms and innovations in Tocharian nominal morphology: it provides a comprehensive treatment of the morphology of Tocharian grammatical gender, describing how it historically derived from the Indo-European proto-language and why it typologically deviates from most of the other Indo-European languages. The approach is both synchronic and diachronic, with a heavier focus on diachrony. The volume features a thorough study of a large number of nominal classes and pronominal forms, which are analysed from a derivational and an inflectional point of view in order to clarify their origin and development from the perspective of Indo-European comparative reconstruction. With its wide coverage of intricate phonological and morphological patterns, The Tocharian Gender System is an important contribution to the study of Tocharian nominal morphology as a whole.
Alessandro Del Tomba, Ph.D. (2020) in Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (Leiden University) and Linguistics (Sapienza University of Rome), is currently Research Fellow at Sapienza University of Rome. He has published on Proto-Indo-European phonology, morphology, and morphosyntax, with a focus on Tocharian and Eastern Middle Iranian languages.
Preface and Acknowledgments Abbreviations and Symbols List of Tables
1 Introduction
â1.1âTocharian
â1.2âTocharian Grammatical Gender
â1.3âAim
â1.4âStructure and Outline of the Book
2 The Gender System of Tocharian
âA Synchronic and Typological Overview
â2.1âGrammatical Gender: Methodological and Theoretical Background
â2.2âThe Gender System of Tocharian
â2.3âThe Gender Assignment System of Tocharian
â2.4âThe Gender System of Proto-Indo-European: State of the Art and Open Questions
â2.5âSummary and Conclusions
3 Gender in the Inflection of the Noun
â3.1âTocharian Nominal Categories
â3.2âTocharian Noun Declension
â3.3âAim and Structure of the Chapter
â3.4âNouns Denoting Female Entities
â3.5âGrammatical Gender and the Development of Inflectional Classes from class vi (nom.pl. -ñ)
â3.6âThe Evolution of the PIE Neuter in the Noun Inflection of Tocharian
â3.7âSummary and Conclusions
4 Gender in the Inflection of the Pronoun and Adjective
â4.1âGeneral Aim, Methodology and Structure of the Chapter
â4.2âOverview of the Tocharian Pronominal System
â4.3âEvolution of the Tocharian Demonstrative Pronouns
â4.4âEvolution of the Pronominal Adjective TB allek, TA Älak âotherâ
â4.5âConclusion
â4.6âOverview of the Tocharian Adjectival System
â4.7âReconstruction of the Proto-Tocharian Adjectival Paradigms
â4.8âEvolution of the Gender System: From Proto-Indo-European to Tocharian
5 Retrospective and Conclusion
â5.1âSynchronic Analysis
â5.2âDiachrony of the Masculine
â5.3âDiachrony of the Feminine
â5.4âDiachrony of the Genus Alternans
â5.5âOutlook
Bibliography Index Verborum
The book will appeal to scholars and students from a wide range of backgrounds, including Indo-European studies, Tocharian linguistics and philology, historical linguistics, linguistic typology, and morphosyntax.