Middle Persian
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| Middle Persian | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Iran | |
| Language extinction: | evolved into Modern Persian by the 9th century | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Southwestern Middle Persian |
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | pal (see text left) | |
| ISO 639-3: | pal | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Middle Persian is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times (224-654 CE) became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as Western Iranian language. It descends from Old Persian and is the nominal ancestor of Modern Persian.
The native name for Middle Persian (and perhaps for Old Persian also) was Pārsik, "(language) of Pārs", present-day Fārs Province. The word is consequently (the origin of) the native name for the Modern Persian language.
Middle Persian was most frequently written in the Pahlavi writing system, which was also the preferred writing system for other Middle Iranian languages. Other forms of written Middle Persian include Pazend, a system that - unlike Pahlavi - did not have Aramaic logograms and also has a different script. Middle Persian should also not be confused with Manichean Middle Persian, which is a geographically and historically distinct development.
The ISO 639 language code for Middle Persian is 'pal', which reflects the confusion resulting from the post-Sassanid-era use of 'Pahlavi' (a writing system) as the name for Middle Persian (a language). "Most texts, which include translated versions of the Zoroastrian canon, are 14th century transcriptions of texts from the 9th to the 11th century, when it had long ceased to be a spoken language." This late form "is thus not representative of the real state of Middle Persian."[1]
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[edit] Transition from Old Persian
In the classification of the Iranian languages, the Middle Period includes those languages which were common in Iran from the fall of the Achaemenids in the 3rd century BCE up to the fall of the Sassanids in the 7th century CE.
The most important and distinct development in the structure of Iranian languages of this period is the transformation from the synthetic form of the Old Period (Old Persian and Avestan) to an analytic form:
- nouns, pronouns, and adjectives lost their case inflections
- the dual was lost
- prepositions were used to indicate the different roles of words.
- many tenses began to be formed from a composite form
One can imagine that these developments had to do with the fact that Old Persian, as it appears in the inscriptions of Bistun and Persepolis, could have not possibly been the language of conversation, and it could not have been simplified so much in only 500 years. Thus, one can conclude that Old Persian had been the language of literary writing, which was very different from the spoken language.[citation needed] On the other hand, written Middle Persian was greatly influenced by the spoken form of the language and it could then be said that written Middle Persian is only an indirect continuation of written Old Persian.[citation needed]
[edit] Transition to New Persian
The modern-day descendant of Middle Persian is New Persian. The changes between late Middle and Early New Persian were very gradual, and in the 10th-11th centuries, Middle Persian texts were still intelligible to speakers of Early New Persian. However, there are definite differences that had taken place already by the 10th century:
- Sound changes, such as
- the dropping of unstressed initial vowels
- the epenthesis of vowels in initial consonant clusters
- the loss of -g when word final
- change of initial w- to either b- or (gw- → g-)
- Changes in the verbal system, notably the loss of distinctive subjunctive and optative forms, and the increasing use of verbal prefixes to express verbal moods
- Changes in the vocabulary, especially the substitution of a large number of Arabic loanwords for words of native origin
- The substitution of Arabic script for Pahlavi script.
Pahlavi Middle Persian is the language of quite a large body of Zoroastrian literature which details the traditions and prescriptions of the Zoroastrian religion which was the state religion of Sassanid Iran (224 to ca. 650) before Iran was invaded by the Arab armies that spread Islam.
[edit] Instances
Below is transliteration and translation of the first page of the facsimile known as Arda Wiraz Namag or The Book of the Righteous Wiraz, originally written in Pahlavi script.[2]
| “ |
Edon guyand ke yew-bâr ahlâw (righteous) Zartosht den padiroft, andar jahân ravâ be-kard. Tâ bowandegih i sesad sâl, den andar bezagih (holiness, purity) , u mardom andar be-gumânih budand. U pas, gujasteh (sinful) , gannâ (foul, corrupt) minu druwand, gumân kardan i mardomân be in den râ, an gujasteh Aleksandar i Arumyi (Roman) i Muzrâyi-mânishn (Egyptian; resident of Egypt ) wiyâbânid (illusioned; led astray) u be grân sezd u nabard u bishe be Eran-shahr frestâd. Oy Eran-dehibud ozad (murdered) , u dar (court) u khodâih beshoft u wirân kard; u en den chon hame Avestâ u Zand [ke] bar gâv-pustihâ i wirâsteh, be âb i zarr nebeshteh, andar Stakhr i Pabagân be diž i 'nibisht' nahâdastad, oy, patiyârah i bad-bakht i ahlomog (heretic) i druwand i andar-kerdâr, Aleksandar i Arumyi Mu..." |
” |
| “ |
Thus they have said that once the righteous Zoroaster accepted a religion, he established it in the world. After/Within the period of 300 years (the) religion remained in holiness and the people were in peace and without any doubt. But then, the sinful, corrupt and deceitful spirit, in order to cause people doubt this religion, illusioned/led astray that Alexander the Roman, resident of Egypt, and sent him to Eran with much anger and violence. He murdered the ruler of Eran and ruined court, and the religion, as all the Avesta and Zand (which were) written on the ox-hide and decorated with water-of-gold (gold leaves) and had been placed/kept in Stakhr of Papak in the 'citadel of the writings.' That wretched, ill-fated, heretic, evil/sinful Alexander, Roman, (resident of) Eg..." |
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[edit] See also
- Old Persian
- History of Persian language
- Pahlavi Literature
- Iranian Languages vocabulary comparison table
[edit] References and bibliography
- ^ Linguist List - Description of Pehlevi. Eastern Michigan University (2007).
- ^ http://www.sfu.ca/~rmehri/Parsik/index.htm retrieved 28 January 2008
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