Structural Development of Persian: Lecture 1B Ancient Iran, Ancient Iranian Languages

Indo-European Languages Indo-European (Indo refers to the Indian subcontinent) has the largest numbers of speakers of the recognized families of languages in the world today, with its languages spoken by approximately three billion native speakers. See the Indo-European languages map.

Indo-Iranian Languages Persian belongs to Indo-Iranian languages, which is a branch of Indo- European languages. The Indo-Iranian languages form the largest sub- branch of Indo-European in terms of the number of native speakers as well as in terms of the number of individual languages. It consists of four language groups: the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Nuristani, and Dardic.

Ancient Iranian Languages There are 4 documented languages: 1: Median 2. Scythian/Saka 3. Old Persian 4. Avestan

Ancient Iran (Persia) At the beginning of 1000 BC Iranian Median and Parthian were living in western part of Iran. Gradually, Parthian inhibited in an area where is called “Pars”. At the same time, another group of Iranian settled in eastern part of Iran.

Ancient Iran (Persia) In 550 BC, Cyrus established the Achaemenid dynasty by defeating the last Median king “Astiagus”. Cyrus ruled over other countries and his decedents increased the territory of Persian Empire. The standard language of this vast territory was Aramaic which was written by alphabetical orhography. In addition to Aramaic, Achaemenid dynasty was spoken in Old Persian, Achadian and Greek too.

Median It is classified as the Northwestern Iranian language of Median tribe. It is less well-known Old Iranian languages. The only available written documents are some glosses, place and personal names which are found in Old Persian and Greek.

Scythian It is the language of the tribe Saka. This tribes were always present adjacent to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. This language belongs to the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD. There are some Personal names of this language in Latin and Greek.

Old Persian (525 BC - 300 BC) One of the languages of Achamanid dynasty used for recording the achievements and glories of the kings. Examples of Old Persian have been found in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt. In Iran, it is found in the inscriptional text in Persis, Behistun, Naghshe Rustam.

Avestan Avastanone of the Eastern languages of Old Iran is the language of the Avesta or sacred writings of Mazdayasnians, known also as Parsis (i.e. Persians) and as Zoroastrians or followers of Zoroaster, the prophet who proclaimed the religion. It consists linguistically of two parts: an older part (Old Avestan) containing the Gââ’s or metrical semons of Zoroaster himself, and the Later Avesta (Young Avestan), differing in a number of linguistic features from Gââ’s.

Other Less Known Old Iranian Languages There are other less known Old Iranian languages: 1. Carduchi, presumably the linguistics ancestor of Modern Kurdish, 2. Parthian, the language of the great empire, 3. Sogdian in the Northeast, the ancestor of the Midieval Sogdian.

Which of the Old Iranian Languages are our focus in this course? 1. Avestan -Old Avestan A-Young Avestan 2. Old Persian

Avastan Avastan falls into two chronologically distinct layers: 1. Old Avestan (OAv.) 2. Young Avestan (YAv.) Young Avestan represents a more developed form of the language than Old Avestan, especially in sound system (Phonology), word formation (Morphology), and sentence structure (syntax). Young Avestan is closer to Old Persian (OPers.)

Avestan Alphabet (Background) Some time during Sassanian period a phonetic alphabet was invented, which was used to write down the known Avestan texts to ensure their correct recitation, crucial to the success of the rituals in which they were used. The alphabet was based on the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) script.

Avestan Alphabet (1) Avestan alphabet contains 55 letters. Some being, apparently, only scribal and/or local and chronological variants. Each letter is usually written separately, although ligatures like those of Pahlavi are also found. ASee Table 1.

Avestan Alphabet (2) Words are separated by a dot (with or without spaces) and sentences often by more elaborate punctuation, e.g. multicoloured floral design. Individual words and components of compounds are not distinguished.

Old Persian Script The script of the Old Persian inscriptions was written from left to right. This script is, the cuneiform type: that is, the characters are made of strokes which can impressed on soft materials by a stylus having an angled end. The old Persian script has 3 vowel signs <a, i, u>, 33 consonants signs <C(V)>, 8 Ideograms/logograms, numerals, and a word separator.

Ideogram/logogram Ideogram: An ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea, rather than a group of letters arranged according to the sounds of a spoken language, as is done in alphabetic languages, or a strictly representational picture of a subject as may be done in illustration or photography. Logogram: A logogram, or logograph, is a grapheme which represents a word or morpheme (smallest meaningful unit of language).

A sample of Ideogram

A Sample of Logogram

A Sample of Old Persian Script: Found in the Palace of Darius I in Persepolis