CAIS
The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies
[ Home ]
[ About CAIS ]
[ Articles ]
[ Daily News ]
[ News Archive ]
[ Announcements ]
[ CAIS Seminars ]
[ Image Library ]
[ Copyright ]
[ Disclaimer ]
[ Submission ]
[ Search ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Links ]
An Introduction to Sasanid-Pahlavi (Middle-Persian)
By: Shapour Suren-Pahlav
July 2007
The Sasanid-Pahlavi also known as Middle Persian is one of the Middle Iranian languages. The two major languages in this group are Arsacid Pahlavi (also called Parthian and Northwest Pahlavi[1]) and Sasanid-Pahlavi (or Southwest Pahlavi and, more commonly, Middle Persian).
The term Pahlavi is a noun derived from the adjective Pahlav[2], which is the equivalent of the Old Persian word Parthava meaning ‘Parthian’[3].
Sasanid-Pahlavi was a successor to, and derived directly from, Old Persian. It has a multiplicity of Southwestern Iranian features. Gradually developing into a distinct idiom after the reign of Emperor Xerxes[4], it became the official language of the Sasanian dynastic Empire (224-651CE) and as such was utilised in a noteworthy literature of Zoroastrian and also Manichean religious texts.
Following the Arab invasions of Iran in the seventh century Sasanid-Pahlavi developed into New Persian.
Notes:
[1]
Ronald G. Kent, Old
Persian Grammar, Texts, Lexicon,
2nd rev. ed., American
Oriental Society, New
Haven, (1953). P.
6.
[2]
Hermann
Collitz, “World Languages”, Language, Vol. 2, No. 1. (Mar.,
1926), p.6.
[3]
See idem, Old
Persian Grammar, Texts, Lexicon,
2nd rev. ed., American
Oriental Society, New
Haven, (1953). p.7.
[4]
Joseph Wiesehöfer,
Ancient Persia, Tauris Paublishers, (1996), p8.
پهلوي ساساني، فارسي ميانه، نگاشته شاپور سورنپهلو
|
|
|
"History is the Light on the Path to Future" |
|
Encyclopaedia Iranica
The British Institute of Persian Studies "Persepolis Reconstructed"
The British Museum
The Royal Asiatic Society
|
