This dictionary describes Tocharian A, one of two Tocharian languages documented in manuscripts of Buddhist texts from the second half of the 1st millennium CE, excavated in the oases of the Tarim basin. The dictionary contains also a thesaurus, based on all the identified texts in Tocharian A, including previously published and unpublished texts from various collections (Paris, Berlin). All forms of words, including variants occurring in the texts, are listed separately with reference to all occurrences and a sample of passages in transcription and translation. The meaning of a number of words has been better defined and, when necessary, corrected against previous glossaries. Much focus has been laid on phraseology and literary parallels with other Buddhist texts in Sanskrit and Uighur. The description of the verbal forms has been listed according to the stems of the paradigms. The sources of loanwords, e.g., from Tocharian B, Old and Middle Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Old Turkic, and Chinese, as well as the corresponding words in Tocharian B, are also given.

The second edition of A Dictionary of Tocharian B includes substantially all Tocharian B words found in regularly published texts, as well as all those of the London and Paris collections published digitally (digital publication of the Paris collection is still incomplete), and a substantial number of the Berlin collection published digitally. The number of entries is more than twenty per cent greater than in the first edition. The overall approach is decidedly philological. All words except proper names are provided with example contexts. Each word is given in all its various attested morphological forms, in its variant spellings, and discussed semantically, syntactically (where appropriate), and etymologically. New to the second edition is the assignment, where possible, of the examples of the word’s use to their exact chronological period (Archaic, Early, Classical, Late/Colloquial). This dating provides the beginning of the study of the Tocharian B vocabulary on a historical basis. Included are also a reverse English-Tocharian B index and, another innovation to this edition, a general index verborum of Indo-European cognates.

Tocharian and Indo-European Studies is the central publication for the study of two closely related languages, Tocharian A and Tocharian B. Found in many Buddhist manuscripts from central Asia, Tocharian dates back to the second half of the first millennium of the Common Era, though it was not discovered until the twentieth century. Focusing on both philological and linguistic aspects of this language, Tocharian and Indo-European Studies also looks at it in relationship to other Indo-European languages. This issue addresses topics such as the function and origin of the present suffix "-sk," verbal endings, the words for "fear" and "perfume," secular documents, and Tocharian glosses in Sanskrit manuscripts. Birgit Anette Olsen is a researcher and instructor at the University of Copenhagen and author of Derivation and Composition and The Noun in Biblical Armenian. Michaël Peyrot is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vienna. Georges-Jean Pinault is professor at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris. Thomas Olander is a researcher and instructor at the University of Copenhagen.

What do linguistics, philology and even cultural studies have in common? There can be many answers for this question; certainly, however, they all have to deal with the new technologies and methods that go by the name of “Digital Humanities”. Today, all human sciences are facing new challenges both from the methodological point of view and from their very scientific contents. Accordingly, the number of research fields and approaches represented in this volume is large, reflecting the complexity of the problems of formalization, computation and digitalization of data and resources. The future of human sciences will be marked by the ever-increasing importance of formal models and computational tools, and the effective communication among the specialists of different fields is crucial for the scientific success of every single area of research. This collection of cutting-edge, high-quality papers is a fundamental step towards a better definition of the role the “Digital Humanities” will play in the next years.

Tocharian and Indo-Eu­ropean Studies is the central publication for the study of two closely related languages, Tocharian A and Tocharian B. Found in many Buddhist manuscripts from central Asia, Tocharian dates back to the second half of the first millennium of the Common Era, though it was not discovered until the twentieth century. Focusing on both philological and linguistic aspects of this language, Tocharian and Indo-Eu­ropean Studies also looks at it in relationship to other Indo-European languages.

Drawing upon numerous manuscripts from China and Central Asia, the articles presented in this volume by leading scholars in the field examine a broad range of topics on the multi-lingual, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic communities along the Silk Road in the medieval period, and cover such topics as the social history of Kucha, book history in Dunhuang, the spread of Manichaeism, the political history of Turkic and Khotanese Kingdoms, and the travelogue of the Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang. They demonstrate that Han Chinese, Khotanese, Sogdians, Tocharians, Tibetans, and Uyghurs have all contributed to constructing a sophisticated international network across Asia. Contributors are: Bi Bo, Chao-jung Ching, Jean Pierre Drège, Ogihara Hirotoshi, Xiaohe Ma, Nicholas Sims-Williams, Xinjiang Rong, Tokio Takata, Xiaofu Wang, Wenkan Xu, Yutaka Yoshida, Lishuang Zhu, Peter Zieme.