Languages

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Old Azeri

New Azeri

Arabic

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Taleshi

Badi

Narousineh ei

Soghdi

Iranian Languages

Iranian languages are a group of languages and dialects that have linguistic properties in common. They are chosen based on linguistic criteria, not geographical or political borders, so that languages such as Ossetian - spoken in a region on the northern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains - or Pashto, are considered as Iranian languages, but Turkic or Arabic languages, which are used in some regions in Iran, are not from this linguistic family.

Iranian languages are a subgroup of Indo-Iranian Languages subfamily of Indo-European family. As per the historical linguistic evolution, we can categorize Iranian languages to three sections; 1. Ancient Ages  2. Middle Ages  3. New Age

Ancient Ages began from the initial Iranian linguistic works, which started with Gathas (c. 10-12 centuries BC), and ended about 300 BC. There are available texts from only two languages belonging Ancient Era; Avestan, and Old Persian. From Saka and Median languages, only a few words have been found in foreign sources.

Middle Ages began from c. 300 BC and ends in early Islamic Age, c. 7 AD. Based on geographical and linguistic properties, they are divided to two main groups; Western and Eastern Languages.

A. Eastern Languages are divided to two groups; Northern Languages like Sogdian and Khwarazmian languages, and Southern Languages like Saka and Bactrian languages.

B. Western Languages are also divided two the same groups; northern language which was used in Parthians territory, and called Parthian or Pahlavi Language, and southern language, used and spread in Sassanid Dynasty, and called Middle Persian or sometimes Pahlavi, too.

New Age began from 7 AD and has continued till now. The most important language of this era is Modern Persian / Farsi. All other Iranian languages like Kurdish, Balouchi, Guilaki, Ossetian and others belong to this era.

Median

Median was the language of Medes, an ancient Iranian ethnicity, who were spread from Western to Northern Iran's plateau. There is no Iranian scripts belonged to that era, but Greek historians have mentioned Median folks and poems, in their written works. Athenaeus says Median minstrels (clairvoyants) foretold Cyrus' valor and battle against Astyages. Dinon says "Cyrus dreamed the Sun was before his feet and he tried to grab it three times, but it slipped over and ran. Maguses foretold his reign would last for 30 years, and it happened."

The story of Stryangaios (who had fallen in love with Zarinaina - Saka's queen-, and because he couldn't reach her, he killed himself), was one of the Median love stories. Charles of Mytilene has told of another Median love story, called the Story of Zariadres and Odatis. He says this story was very popular in Asia and it was engraved on the walls of temples and palaces. Boyce believes this story has Median origin and later it was renamed and altered to the story of Katāyoun and Goshtāsb (also called Vishtaspa), and then it was told in Shāhnāmeh.

Avestan

Avesta is the Zoroastrian holy book, and the language it's written in is called Avestan. Except Avesta and its related texts, there is no other available books written in Avestan. It hasn't been mentioned about the language of Avesta, in the book, and even the word "Avesta" hasn't been used in Avestan texts. Only from Sassanid era and Middle Persian written works, we found the word "Abestāg". The meaning of "Avesta" is unknown, but it's guessed to be meant "worship". In comparison with Old Persian, and other Eastern Iranian languages, it's distinguished that Avestan belonged to the east of Iran. Some linguists believe that Avestan belonged to Central Asia, probably Khwarazm (Chorasmia), and the word "Airyanem Vaejah" from Avesta, applied to the Central Asia, however some others suggest other areas such as Sistān, or northern Khwarāsān (Balkh/Bactria).

It's difficult to estimate the exact time of the oldest parts of Avesta, but most likely it dates back 1000 BC. In that time, the dynasty of Kay, or Kayanians, were ruling Irānwij (Airyanem Vaejah), and the last king of the dynasty was Vishtāspa (also pronounced Goshtāsb). Zoroaster was in his time and he invited the king to his religion. This proselytism was successful and Goshtāsb helped him expand Zoroastrianism.

Avesta is not overally homogeneous. It was scripted long time after Zoroaster, in Sassanian Dynasty. Some chapters of Avesta have older linguistic style which are more compatible with Zoroastrian grammar. Other chapters, though, have grammatical mistakes. This might be owing to two factors; one, some parts are older, two, different accents.

Gāthās are 17 Avestan hymns, seemingly, they had iambic harmony, on the contrary of Yashts, which were twenty one hymns with younger linguistic style, that had rhythmic harmony. In iambic poems, the number of syllables in each verse, disregarding long or short sounds, is the method  to write.

Avestan alphabet was created in 3 AD, and derived from Aramaic alphabet. It's written from right to left in horizontal lines.

Old Persian

Old Persian is the primitive form of Persian language, and it was spoken in Pars in Achaemenid era, and the only remained written works are Achaemenid kings' inscriptions in cuneiform. Achaemenid administrative and corresponding language was Aramaic. Governmental letters were written by Aramaic speaking writers by the command of the king or local rulers.

The most important Old Persian inscriptions are as follow:

  -Aryāramnah Inscription c. 600 BC; engraved on golden tablet and found in Hamedān

  -Arshām Inscription c. 560 BC; engraved on golden tablet and found in Hamedān

  -Cyrus Inscription c. 540 BC; three small damaged inscriptions, found in Morghāb plain

  -Darius Inscriptions c. 500 BC; the inscriptions were found in Bisotun (also called Bistoun) with no code, Fars (in Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rostam), Susa, Suez, Alvand, and Hamedān, respectively with the codes of (DP and DN), DS, DZ, DE, and DH.

  -Bisotun Inscription; the most important inscription belonging to Darius. It is also the most detailed Old Persian inscription, with 5 columns and in 3 languages, Old Persian, Akkadian, and Elamite.

  -Fars Inscriptions; seven inscriptions in Persepolis, and a few inscriptions in Naqsh-e Rostam

  -Susa Inscriptions; 19 inscriptions have been found, and the most important ones are DSe and DSf

  -Suez Inscriptions; 3 inscriptions have been found and the most important one is DSc with 12 lines

  -Alvand Inscription; 20 lines including eulogy of Ahura Mazda, and Darius

  -Hamedān Inscription; engraved on a golden and silver tablet, describing Darius and the lands governed by him.

  -Xerxes Inscriptions; found in Persepolis (XP), Susa (XS), Van (XV), and Hamedān (XH).

Persian cuneiform was inspired by Sumerian cuneiform, but it's slightly different. It's been the only Iranian script that was written from left to write.

Pahlavi

Pahlavi, also called Fahlavi in Arabian manuscripts, is a term used for two similar languages;

A. Parthian or Arsacid Pahlavi, also called Pahlavig and Pahlevānig

B. Middle Persian or Sassanid Pahlavi, also called Pārsig

The word "Pahlavi" is derived from "pahlaw", which itself was derived from an Ancient Iranian word, parθava, meaning the land of Pārthians.

The word "Pārsi" or "Fārsi" is derived from the Ancient Iranian word of "Pārsa", which was the name of the Persians' land.

Middle Persian or the language spoken by Zoroastrians, was called Pahlavi (Fahlavi in Arabic) mostly by Arabian writers. The oldest text that has used Pahlavi for Middle-Persian, was written by al-Jahiz (8-9 centuries AD).

According to the language of Shāhnāmeh, a long epic poem which is known as the National Epic of Greater Irān, some linguists believe that pahlaw (also pronounced pahloo) meant mountains, and as Iranians were mountaineers before they developed their cities in plains, Pahlavi is a word used for Iranians. Archaeological findings confirm that residents of this land use to live in heights before 3 millennia BC.

In Shāhnāmeh verses, the word Pahlavi is accompanied by other words like anthem, flag, script, religion, and clothes. These words prove that Ferdowsi - the poet of Shāhnāmeh - believed that Pahlavi was more than a language. The word Pahlavi was also used by other poets like Hafiz, Rumi, Nezami, Sa'di, Nasir Khosraw, etc. but mostly represented a language.

Ibn al-Nadim has mentioned that there were seven Pahlavi scripts, used for different purposes, and only three of them have remained, which are Din Dabireh, Ām Dabireh, and Gashtah Dabireh.

Din Dabireh, meaning the religion script, was used to write Avesta. It has 24 letters and is more complicated than the other two.

Ām Dabireh was used to write books and mails. Its phonetic is shown in the following chart.

Gashteh Dabireh was used for inscriptions, coins and documents.

Parthian (Arsacid Pahlavi)

Most of the remains from Parthian language can be divided to two groups:

A. Manuscripts written by Parthian script. Parthian script was inspired by Aramaic alphabet, which was the royal correspondence in Achaemenid dynasty, but replaced by Pahlavi in Parthian era.

B. Manichaean transcripts with their alphabet, which was an altered version of Palmyrene alphabet.

Manuscripts written by Parthian alphabet, include Parthian coins, the inscription on Hercules Statue in Iraq, Uraman findings of carved contracts on three leather pieces, findings from Nisa (Parthaunisa) such as inscriptions on potteries, and wine jugs, and some more.

Manuscripts written by Manichaean alphabet, are quite many. Significant numbers of them were found in Turpan, China. Some of Manichaean manuscripts were written during Mani's time, and some were written after the six century, and probably belonged to Dināvariyah, a denomination of Manichaeism.

Middle Persian (Sassanid Pahlavi)

 Middle Persian manuscripts can be divided to 5 groups:

  a) Inscriptions

  b) Books

  c) Pahlavi Zabur

  d) Manichaean written works

  e) Words or statements  in Arabic or Farsi (New Persian) books

The first three groups all have been written with an alphabet, inspired by Aramaic, which is called Middle Persian or Pahlavi. The fourth group has been written in Manichaean script, and the last group is written in Arabic-Persian script.

Like most of Middle Iranian languages, Pahlavi had a writing style, called Hozvaresh (ideogram). Scribes wrote words in Aramaic and read them in Pahlavi. To simplify what hozvaresh is, we have an example below.

In Latin, "via" means "street". If hozvaresh existed in English, we could write:

"I saw my friend in the via."

and we would read:

"I saw my friend in the street."

Ibn al-Nadim says the number of hozvaresh in Pahlavi was one thousand words, but only about three hundred words have been found.

Farsi (New Persian)

Fārsi or Fārsi Dari, also called New/Modern Persian, is the language used in Sassanid courts, and "dari" means court or palace.

In 653 AD, the last king of Sassanid dynasty got killed, and Irān became part of Islamic territory. 200 years later, Yaghub Laith Saffāri established Independent Irānian government in Sistān, and set Fārsi Dari as the national language. The dictated language of Arabic in Iranians' life caused a huge number of loan words and calques from Arabic in Fārsi.

In 875 AD, Sāmānid dynasty was established and the official language was set as Fārsi Dari. In this era, Modern Persian significantly developed and Persian Poetry was shaped. Many famous and influential Modern Persian poets and writers, such as Roudaki and Bal'ami, wrote their works.