| Group | Iranian (with Avestan, Kurdish etc.), Southwest Iranian (with Dari, Tati etc.) |
| Geography | The homeland for the language is Persia (or Fars), region in southwestern Iran, from where it spread over Iran in the Achaemenid period; in the Sasanide empire Persian is again the official language of the state, as it remains today in Iran. Groups of Persian speakers exist in Iraq, countries of the Middle East and the republics of the Caucasus. |
| History | The history of the language is usually strictly divided into three main periods: Old Persian (6-3th centuries BC), Middle Persian (3rd century BC - 8th century AD), and New Persian (since the 9th century). Though these three are usually consdidered as separate languages, they in fact form a permanent historical chain of the language development. Old Persian is the language of the inscriptions made by the Achaemenid kings in Persia. Middle Persian is a direct heir of Old Persian; it is known in two varieties - Pahlavi (documents found in Iran) and Manichean (documents found in Turfan). Their script is different, but the language is almost absolutely the same. The New Persian is represented by numerous literature sources since the 9th century. |
| Phonetics | The Old Persian language did not have dialects, at least they are not
witnessed in the documents. Three pairs of long and short vowels (a,
i, u) and two pairs of diphthongs (ai, au) existed
originally, later the sounds e, o appeared from the diphthongs.
23 consonant phonemes included fricatives and sibilants. As well as the
other Iranian languages, Old Persian is a satem tongue.
In today's language, there are 6 vowels (i, e, å, ä, o, u) two diphthongs (ou, ei), and 22 consonants which have been transformed much through ages. |
| Nominal Morphology | Old Persian was nominative and highly flective. There were 3 genders,
3 numbers and up to 8 cases of the nouns. Pronouns and adjectives were
also declinable, the degrees of comparison were build synthetically. The
verb had categories of the person, number, voice, tense and mood. In general,
the Old Persian grammar is much alike that of Avestan.
Already in Middle Persian, the analytical traits are clear; today the noun in Persian has no case declension and gender variation. Morphology is totally analytical: there is the indefinite article, verbal forms (moods, tenses) are built with auxiliary verbs, having all the same type of conjugation. |
| Lexicon | In Old Persian, numerous loanwords find their origins in Median and Aramaic. The modern language's 50% of the lexicon is Arabic by origin, there are numerous Turkish, English and French words in it. The nucleus of the lexicon, however, remains Iranian. |
| Writing | Cuneiform (Old Persian), Pahlavi alphabets (Middle Persian), Persian alphabet (based on the Arabic script) |
| Close Contacts | In the Middle Ages (since the 7th century) contacts with Arabic have transformed the language significantly. |
| Sample | Ariyâramna : xshâyathiya : iyam : dahyâushi : Pârsâ : tya
adam : dârayâ miy : hya : uvaspâ : umartiyâ : manâ : baga : vazraka
: Auramazdâ frâbara : vashnâ : Auramazdâha : adam xshâyathiya : iyam
da 9 hyâush : amiy : thâtiy.
Ariaramnes the King says: This country Persia which I hold, which is possessed of good horses, of good men, the Great God Ahuramazda bestowed it upon me. By the favor of Ahuramazda I am king in this country. (Ariaramnes, Hamadan, 4th cent. BC.) |
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