The Greeks in Bactria and India c33.20

c33.20

Will the known phenomena of metathesis and shifting of the aspirate account for all these forms? These phenomena are largely dialectical variations, as for example the several forms of the Thessalian name, and belong to the formative period of the Greek language; but in our case dialectical variations do not come in question, for we are dealing throughout with one form of Greek only, the Hellenistic Koine. As regards the Koine, the interchange of τ and θ is said to be common in Egypt and Asia Minor,² and would account for the variation T—Th in the initial letter of the Tochari name; the interchange of κ and χ is also said to occur in the same countries,³ though I have not seen the evidence given.⁴ Again, the variant Τόχαροι—Thocari would represent a known form of aspirate-shifting, like κιθών for χιτών, βάθρακος for βάτραχος, Φύτιος for Πύθιος,⁵ though, once more, much of this is dialectical; and there are cases of interchange between κ and χ which are due to aspirate-shifting, like Χάλκας—Κάλχας, Καλχηδόνιοι—Χαλκηδόνιοι,¹ though the two forms may sometimes belong to different localities or dialects.² So far, the points to be noted are two. First, all these phenomena, so far as they appear in Hellenistic Greek—and we have to include yet another, the metathesis of the vowels—appear as single cases in some particular word and largely in inscriptions (or papyri); there is no authority for supposing that we can apply them all together to the same word, especially one known only from literary texts, and claim that they will explain the tremendous mix-up we find over the Tochari name, which appears to have no parallel in Hellenistic Greek.³ And secondly, interchanges like that of τ with θ or κ with χ do not enable us to say in any particular case whether the aspirated form is the original one or not.⁴