Middle Persian language

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development

  • In Persian language

    Middle Persian, spoken from the 3rd century bce to the 9th century ce, is represented by numerous epigraphic texts of Sāsānian kings, written in Aramaic script; there is also a varied literature in Middle Persian embracing both the Zoroastrian and the Manichaean religious traditions. Pahlavi…

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  • In Iranian languages: Middle Iranian

    Middle Persian is known in three forms, not entirely homogeneous—inscriptional Middle Persian, Pahlavi (often more precisely called Book Pahlavi), and Manichaean Middle Persian. The Middle Persian form belongs to the period 300 bce to 950 ce and was, like Old Persian, the language of southwestern…

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geographical influence

  • In Iranian languages: The Middle Iranian stage

    Middle Persian, the major form of which is called Pahlavi, was the official language of the Sāsānians (224–651 ce). The most important of the Middle Persian inscriptions is that of Shāpūr I (d. 272 ce), which has parallel versions in Parthian and Greek. Middle Persian…

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Khosrow I

  • Khosrow I, crystal medallion, 6th century; in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
    In Khosrow I: Patron of culture.

    Several works of Middle Persian, such as the Book of Deeds of Ardashir (Kārnāmak), are attributed to this period. Likewise, some scholars claim that the codification of the Avesta, the sacred book of the Zoroastrian religion, as well as the creation of a special Avestan alphabet to record…

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Persian language, member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family. It is the official language of Iran, and two varieties of Persian known as Dari and Tajik are official languages in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, respectively. Modern Persian is most closely related to Middle and Old Persian, former languages of the region of Fārs (Persia) in southwestern Iran. It is thus called Fārsī by native speakers. Written in Arabic characters, Modern Persian also has many Arabic loanwords and an extensive literature.

Old Persian, spoken until approximately the 3rd century bce, is attested by numerous inscriptions written in cuneiform, most notable of which is the great monument of Darius I at Bīsitūn, Iran. The inscriptions at Bīsitūn were generally trilingual—in Old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian.

Middle Persian, spoken from the 3rd century bce to the 9th century ce, is represented by numerous epigraphic texts of Sāsānian kings, written in Aramaic script; there is also a varied literature in Middle Persian embracing both the Zoroastrian and the Manichaean religious traditions. Pahlavi was the name of the official Middle Persian language of the Sāsānian empire.

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Languages & Alphabets

Modern Persian grammar is in many ways much simpler than its ancestral forms, having lost most of the inflectional systems of the older varieties of Persian. Other than markers to indicate that nouns and pronouns are direct objects, Modern Persian has no system of case inflections. Possession is shown by addition of a special suffix (called the ezāfeh) to the possessed noun. Verbs retain a set of personal endings related to those of other Indo-European languages, but a series of prefixes and infixes (word elements inserted within a word), as well as auxiliary verbs, are used instead of a single complex inflectional system in order to mark tense, mood, voice, and the negative.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.