Parthian language

Spoken in

• Indo-European languages Indo-Iranian languages Iranian languages Westiranisch Northwest Iranian Parthian language

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The Parthian is an extinct Middle Iranian language. She was the language of Parthia ( altpers. Partθava ), the historic landscape, which roughly corresponds to the regions of Khorasan and Golestan and today's Turkmenistan. Language Historically, the Parthian has as court and administrative language of the Arsacid dynasty (247 BC to 224 AD) ruled the empire attained significance (→ Parthian ).

Material

The most important and surest testimonies of the Parthian language, however, does not come from arsakidischer, but only from the Sassanian period, as poetry and religious traditions were first handed down primarily oral, the coins for a long time, n to the middle of the 1st century AD, Greek legends contributed and still wear really written in Parthian written documents in Aramaic so much that it wins you hardly anything for the Parthian. This assessment is aimed equally at the few rock inscriptions in Parthian script and language (eg Sar-e -pol -e- Zohab in the Zagros Mountains ) as the small vessel inscriptions; but in principle it applies to the documents on ostraca from Shahr -i Qumis (Northeast Iran), and action from the archive of Nisa ( Turkmenistan) with well over 2,000 ostraca fragments of the 1st century BC, the wine supplies and food rations, and for the parchment documents from Hawraman ( western Iran ).

In Sassanian period the earliest royal inscriptions of Ardashir is I, Shapur I, and Narseh next to the Middle Persian ( and partly a Greek ) added a Parthian version, especially the most comprehensive and historically significant texts, the deeds of Schapurs of the so-called Ka'ba -yi Zarduscht in Naqsch -e Rostam and Narseh inscription of Paikuli. From this period, namely from the time of the Persian occupation of the city, various Parthian texts ( wall inscriptions and a letter on vellum) from Dura Europos on the Euphrates originate. Circumferentially at the top are but the fragments of Manichaean texts in Parthian language, in Turfan ( Chinese Turkestan ) have been found and are from Sasanian or younger, post- Sasanian period. In the Manichaean communities of Central and Central Asia has become the Parthian as the language of the Church, before it was replaced by the old Turkish Uighur and New Persian, that is still probably kept very long after the heyday of the Parthian Manichaeism addition, until the 13th century, when this had long since gone down in the mother country.

Font

The interpretation of this Manichaean Parthian texts is - and from this explains its preeminence - facilitated by the fact that they are written as the Manichaean texts of other Iranian peoples in the created by Mani specifically for the Middle Persian on palmyrenisch - Aramaic base font, which of the heterosexual graphic tradition is free and therefore the actual articulation of words ( n in the 3rd century BC) reveals more detail.

Importance

From the written in the Parthian language literature only indirect traces to prove because two works of Middle Persian literature of late or nachsassanidischen time proven back to Parthian models, which can be access in the preservation Parthian words yet. These two works are the rank dispute poem Dracht i asuirig " The Assyrian Tree " ( that is, the palm, which also argues with the goat, who for the useful and the "better" creature ) and the " commemorative work Zarers " ( Ayadgar i Zareran ), a book of epic character, which also has many attributes of oral epic epithets such as fixed or stereotyped repetitions.

The dominant position of Parthian Iran and its neighboring areas during the Arsakidenherrschaft that as a carrier of Iranian culture throughout the Near and Middle East played here an important role, has led to the Parthian words have penetrated in large numbers in other languages ​​: in Middle Persian ( from there in New Persian ), and the Sogdian language, outside the Iranian area in Aramaic (including Syriac and Mandaean ) and especially in the Armenian. There, this uncommonly numerous existing as a result of centuries of direct political dependence on foreign elements make up a significant part of the language, which affects not only the vocabulary, but also certain word formation elements, the phraseology and names of any kind. This rich addition to the tradition of the Parthian in many languages ​​( but especially in the Armenian with his vowels definitely designating writing) has made it possible to determine the volume status of the elderly ( mean) Parthian, by the hetero- graphic writing system and the historicizing in an extreme way graphy in Parthian ( Pahlavik ) Scripture written texts is hidden. The Parthian Manichaean texts ( in Manichaean script ), however, provide a fairly accurate picture of the sound state of the later language.

The striking commonality with today's Zaza language

According to a thesis by German Friedrich Carl Andreas Iranisten of 1906 living in the area südkaspischen Parthian descent Dailemi were ( Dêlemî ) ancestors of Zaza's, resulting in one of today's designations for the Zaza, namely " Dimili " could explain. This thesis has been previously represented independently of the Armenian historian Antranig in 1900 and later found support from the Russian orientalist Vladimir Minorski and by the German Iranisten Oskar Mann and Karl Hadank. The Indo-Europeanist Jost Gippert published in his article on the historical development of Zazaki the diachronic close to the Parthian. The following table is taken from his article.

Similarities between Parthian and Zazaki Zaza alphabet: