Parthian language

The Parthian language, also known as Arsacid Pahlavi and Pahlawānīg, is an extinct ancient

Parthian had a significant impact on Armenian, a large part of whose vocabulary was formed primarily from borrowings from Parthian, and had a derivational morphology and syntax that was also affected by language contact but to a lesser extent. Many ancient Parthian words were preserved and now survive only in Armenian. The Semnani or Komisenian languages may descend from Parthian directly or be a Caspian language with Parthian influences, but the topic lacks sufficient research.^[1]

Classification

Parthian was a Western

The Parthian language was rendered using the

Attestations of the Parthian language include:[9]

• Some 3,000 ostraca (ca. 100–29 BC) found in Nisā in southern Turkmenistan.
• A first century AD parchment dealing with a land-sale from Awraman
  in Western Iran.
• The first century BC ostraca from
  Shahr-e Qumis in Eastern Iran.^[10]
• The poem
  Draxt i Asurig
• Inscription on the coins of
  Arsacid
  Kings in the first century AD.
• The bilingual inscription of
  Seleucia on the Tigris (150–151 AD).^[11][12]
• The inscription of Ardavan V found in Susa (215).
• Some third century documents discovered in Dura-Europos, On the Euphrates.
• The inscription at Kal-e Jangal, near
  South Khorasan
  (first half of third century or later).
• The inscriptions of early
  Sassanian Kings and priests in Parthian including Ka'ba-ye Zartosht near Shiraz and Paikuli in Iraqi Kurdistan
  .
• The vast corpus of
  Manichaean
  Parthian which do not contain any ideograms.
• In
  Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and down in to Sistan, Balochistan
  .

This sample of Parthian literature is taken from a Manichaean text fragment:[13]

Differences from Middle Persian

Although Parthian was quite similar to Middle Persian in many aspects, clear differences in lexical, morphological and phonological forms can still be observed. In the text above, the following forms can be noticed:

• ⟨āγad⟩, came, instead of Middle Persian ⟨āyad⟩.
• ⟨wāxt⟩, said, instead of ⟨gōft⟩. This form for the verb to say can still be found in many contemporary Northwestern Iranian languages, e.g. Mazandarani ⟨vātεn⟩, Zazaki ⟨vatış; vaten⟩ or Sorani (witin). It is also common in Tati and Talysh, though not in Gilaki and Kurmanji.
• ⟨až⟩, from, instead of ⟨az⟩. Observe also in ⟨kanīžag⟩, handmaiden, instead of ⟨kanīzag⟩ and even in ⟨društ⟩, healthy, instead of ⟨drust⟩. The rendering of the Persian sound /z/ as /ʒ/, /tʃ/ or /dʒ/ is also very common in Northwestern Iranian languages of today.
• ⟨ay⟩, you are (Singular), instead of ⟨hē⟩.
• ⟨zamīg⟩, land, instead of ⟨zamīn⟩. The form ⟨zamīg⟩ can be found in Balochi. The form ⟨zamin⟩ can be found in Persian.
• ⟨hō⟩, that or the, instead of ⟨(h)ān⟩.
• The abstractive nominal suffix ⟨-īft⟩ instead of ⟨-īh⟩, as in ⟨šādīft⟩, joy, Middle Persian ⟨šādīh⟩.

Other prominent differences, not found in the text above, include the personal pronoun ⟨az⟩, I, instead of ⟨an⟩ and the present tense root of the verb ⟨kardan⟩, to do, ⟨kar-⟩ instead of Middle Persian ⟨kun-⟩. Also, the Middle Persian linking particle and relative pronoun ⟨ī(g)⟩ was not present in Parthian, but the relative pronoun ⟨čē⟩, what, was used in a similar manner.^[14]

See also

• Avestan language
• Old Persian language
• Middle Persian
• Persian language and history of Persian language
• Pahlavi literature

References

Notes

Sources

• Lecoq, Pierre (1983). "Aparna". Encyclopedia Iranica. Vol. 1. Costa Mesa: Mazda Pub.
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Parthia" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 871.
• Boyce, Mary; Ghirshman, R. (1979). "Reviewed work: L'Iran et la Migration des Indo-Aryens et des Iraniens, R. Ghirshman". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 99 (1): 119–120.
  JSTOR 598967
  .
• Livshits, Vladimir (2006). "Armeno-Partho-Sogdica". Iran & the Caucasus. 10 (1): 77–86.
  doi:10.1163/157338406777979412
  .
• Meyer, Robin (2017). Iranian-Armenian Language Contact in and before the 5th Century CE (D.Phil. thesis). University of Oxford.

External links

For a list of words relating to Parthian language, see the Parthian language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Some valuable texts in Parthian including Boyce, Mary The Manichaean hymn-cycles in Parthian (London Oriental Series, Vol. 3). London: Oxford University Press, 1954.
• [ARMENIA AND IRAN iv. Iranian influences in Armenian Language Covers the massive lexical and vocabulary influences of Parthian on Armenian, (R. Schmitt, H. W. Bailey), originally published 1986.]