Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 199

HELGI GUÐMUNDSSON
THE EAST TOCHARIAN
PERSONAL PRONOUN ÍST PERSON
SINGULAR MASCULINE: A CASE
OF PRONOMINAL BORROWING
i
The system of personal pronouns of the lst person in West Toch-
arian, Tocharian B, is as follows:
SINGULAR PARAL PLURAL
hds
wene
wes
The East Tocharian, Tocharian A, system, on the other hand, may
be set out in the following way:
SINGULAR PLURAL
MASC.
FEM.
Historically, the singular and plural forms have been explained as
follows:1
(a) West Tocharian wes, East Tocharian was. The forms represent
an IE lst p. pl. nom., cf., e.g., Got. weis.
(b) West Tocharian haé and East Tocharian huk can both be derived
from *ne-kw(e) < *me-kwe, cf. Got. mik, Venet. meyfi.2
Gratitude is due to Jón Gunnarsson mag. art. for constructive criticism, and to
Dr Andrew Dennis for improving the English version.
1 Wolfgang Krause und Werner Thomas, Tocharisches Elementarbuch I,
Heidelberg 1960, 162, Holger Pedersen, Tocharisch vom Gesichtspunkt der indo-
europaischen Sprachvergleichung, Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab,
Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser XXVIII, 1, K0benhavn 1941, 134-139.
2 Recently Jochem Schindler has attempted a different approach: ‘M. E. könnte
man fiir B haé von *mene-kwe oder *mene-kwis > *m(a)has ausgehen, wozu in A