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婆罗谜文拼写的吐火罗语有两种方言。一种流行于焉耆和高昌（今焉耆和吐鲁番），称“东部吐火罗语”“焉耆语”，也有称“吐火罗语A方言”或“吐火罗语甲方言”。另一种流行于龟兹（今库车），称“西部吐火罗语”“龟兹语”，也有称“吐火罗语B方言”或“吐火罗语乙方言”。吐火罗语虽然远在新疆，但却是一种印欧语，和北印度的印地语、伊朗的波斯语，以及欧洲的法语、英语、德语等都有亲缘关系。
印欧语的祖先最早生活在欧亚大草原上，在掌握了骑马和金属冶炼技术后迅速向着各个方向扩张，占据了大半个欧亚大陆。在一些基本的词汇中，千年前已经灭绝的吐火罗语竟然和不列颠岛上的英语类似，如公牛在英语中是ox，在焉耆语里是ops-，在龟兹语里则是okso。
A fragment of Tocharian B from a Buddhist kingdom at Tarim Basin edge. 19世纪末20世纪初，在西方国家“丝绸之路”探险的高潮中，普鲁士科学院的考察队和法国考察队在新疆天山以南的库车与焉耆绿洲分别发现了吐火罗语（Toγri）文献，约写于公元6—8世纪，主要为唐代遗物。这种文献以源于北印度的音节字母书写，被称之为婆罗米字母（Brāhmī）。经研究，学者们将这种语言分为两个方言，分别以吐火罗语A与吐火罗语B（或焉耆语、库车语）称呼之。吐火罗语是一种印欧语系的语言。但非常令人惊异的是，这种语言并非如人们所期望的那样，属于与之邻近的印欧语系中的印度—伊朗系统的语言，而是与印欧语系与波罗的—斯拉夫语（Balto-Slavic）、日耳曼语（German）及意大利—凯尔特语（Italo-Celtic）有关，说明它很早便与印欧语系的其他语言分离。通过词汇的分析，学者们还发现这种语言曾经与古代散布于乌拉尔山至波罗的海地区的芬—乌戈尔语（Finno-Ugric）、突厥语与汉—藏语（Sino-Tibetan）有过接触。这说明吐火罗人的祖先大约起源于东欧或中欧某地，经长途跋涉才抵达塔里木盆地。It is believed that Yuezhi spoke a language, related to the extinct Indo-European language Tocharin, found on the documents of Dun-Huang, which the explorers brought back in the early twentieth century. The documents were mostly Buddhist sutras, which are also known from other languages, that is why Tocharin was fairly easy to explore.
The language Tocharian A has some words in common with Danish, such as "ko" (cow), "malke" (to milk), "nu" (now) and "samme" (same). "Son" is called "se" in Tocharian A, it recalls the "suffix" in traditional Danish surnames, Han-sen, Niel-sen, Mad-sen and so on. The final "n" can be a grammatical inflection ending, they are many in Indo-European languages. (in Danish we ad -n or -en to make a noun definite, then "-sen" can mean "the son"). The word "se" (son) also recalls the widely used Chinese suffix "-zi" - pronounced something like "ze'e", which also is the basic Chinese words for "son".https://www./eng-dan11.htm
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