In this thesis I investigated the hypothesis that the Tocharian agglutinative case system was influenced by Uralic – in particular by the Samoyedic branch of Uralic. The language contact between...Show moreIn this thesis I investigated the hypothesis that the Tocharian agglutinative case system was influenced by Uralic – in particular by the Samoyedic branch of Uralic. The language contact between Tocharian and Samoyedic would have happened in prehistoric times, which means that the attested languages cannot directly be used as the basis for a reliable comparison: reconstructions of both case systems were needed. I discussed (i) the structure of the Proto-Tocharian and Proto-Samoyedic case systems, (ii) the reconstructible functions of the individual cases, as well as (iii) the way in which the two case systems developed, and compared Tocharian and Samoyedic on these three points. Finally, I evaluated whether an explanation based on prehistoric language contact is able to account for the linguistic facts.Show less
