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INDIAN BRANCH
347
Central Asian Slanting Gupta (Fig. 157) In 1890, the first manuscripts written in this script and in a new language were found, which were published in 1893 by Dr. Hærnle.
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Fig. 157-The Central Asian Slanting Gupta
Later, many other documents were discovered. Their decipherment, facilitated by some bilingual manuscripts (one of the two languages, that is Sanskrit, being known), was soon accomplished, thanks to the labours of Hærnle, Leumann, Sieg, Siegling, and other scholars.
Agnean and Kuchean
The decipherment of the new documents revealed that in the latter part of the first millennium A.D., the population living between the river Tarim and the mountains Tien-shan, including the territories of Turfan, Qarashahr and Kucha, spoke a language belonging to the centum group of the Indo-European family of languages. The new language, however, presents several features not paralleled in the other Indo-European languages, and its relationship with the other groups has not yet been sufficiently cleared up. Some scholars suggest affinities with Thracian-Phrygian-Armenian, others with Itulo-Celtic, and others with Hittite. Other theories suggest that the new language may hold an intermediate position between Italo-Celtic, Slavonic and Armenian, or between Balto-Slavonic and Greek, or else between Armenian and Thraco-Phrygian.
The language of the documents extant is not uniform; two dialects can be distinguished. It was assumed, at first, that the new language was the language
