18.11.2019The linguistic landscape of the Tarim Basin in the first millenium

Lecturer

Dr. Michaël Peyrot (Leiden University)

Date and Time

November 18, 2019, 4 - 6 pm

Location

Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, Room ZUB 416, Zürichbergstrasse 4, 8032 Zürich

Abstract

The Tarim Basin is in between the important cultural spheres of the Iranian world in the west, India in the south and China in the east. Influence from all these spheres is felt in many domains. In this talk, the focus will be on linguistic influence and interaction in the early and mid first millennium CE. From this period, a wealth of manuscripts has been preserved in the local languages Khotanese, Tumšuqese, Tocharian B and Tocharian A, as well as in the literary and official languages Chinese, Gāndhārī and Sanskrit. The complex interaction between scripts and languages in this period will be illustrated with several selected examples.

Organisation

Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies - Sinology