"The colophon recorded that the text had been translated from the 'Indian language' into 'Twghry' and from 'Twghry' into Uighur. 'Twghry,' Sieg and Siegling concluded, had to be the Uighur name for the unknown language. Since the ... text existed only in Uighur and the newly discovered language, it was a brilliantly plausible identification.
"Sieg and Siegling went on to argue that Twghry was the Uighur spelling of Tocharian, the language of the Tocharoi, the ancient people known to the Greeks who lived in the Bactrian region of Afghanistan, around the city of Balkh in today's Pakistan. ...
"Although Sieg and Siegling were mistaken in linking the Twghry language with the Tocharoi peoples of Afghanistan, their name for the new language caught on."
chained_bear commented on the word Twghry
"The colophon recorded that the text had been translated from the 'Indian language' into 'Twghry' and from 'Twghry' into Uighur. 'Twghry,' Sieg and Siegling concluded, had to be the Uighur name for the unknown language. Since the ... text existed only in Uighur and the newly discovered language, it was a brilliantly plausible identification.
"Sieg and Siegling went on to argue that Twghry was the Uighur spelling of Tocharian, the language of the Tocharoi, the ancient people known to the Greeks who lived in the Bactrian region of Afghanistan, around the city of Balkh in today's Pakistan. ...
"Although Sieg and Siegling were mistaken in linking the Twghry language with the Tocharoi peoples of Afghanistan, their name for the new language caught on."
December 30, 2016