 Given the small geographical range of and the lack of secular texts in Tocharian A, it might alternatively have been a liturgical language, the relationship between the two being similar to that between Classical Chinese and Mandarin.However, the lack of a secular corpus in Tocharian A is by no means definite, due to the fragmentary preservation of Tocharian texts in general.The alphabet the Tocharians were using is derived from the Brahmi alphabetic syllabary (abugida) and is referred to as "slanting Brahmi".