Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of maps
- List of contributors
- Notes on numbering and cross-referencing
- List of abbreviations
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition
- 1 Language in ancient Asia and the Americas: an introduction
- 2 Sanskrit
- 3 Middle Indic
- 4 Old Tamil
- 5 Old Persian
- 6 Avestan
- 7 Pahlavi
- 8 Ancient Chinese
- 9 Mayan
- 10 Epi-Olmec
- Appendix 1 Reconstructed ancient languages
- Appendix 2 Full tables of contents from The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages, and from the other volumes in the paperback series
- Index of general subjects
- Index of grammar and linguistics
- Index of languages
- Index of named linguistic laws and principles
7 - Pahlavi
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of maps
- List of contributors
- Notes on numbering and cross-referencing
- List of abbreviations
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition
- 1 Language in ancient Asia and the Americas: an introduction
- 2 Sanskrit
- 3 Middle Indic
- 4 Old Tamil
- 5 Old Persian
- 6 Avestan
- 7 Pahlavi
- 8 Ancient Chinese
- 9 Mayan
- 10 Epi-Olmec
- Appendix 1 Reconstructed ancient languages
- Appendix 2 Full tables of contents from The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages, and from the other volumes in the paperback series
- Index of general subjects
- Index of grammar and linguistics
- Index of languages
- Index of named linguistic laws and principles
Summary
HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS
The term Pahlavi is used to describe a variety of closely related Middle Iranian languages, including a more archaic variety – the language of early inscriptions – and a more innovative one, so-called Book Pahlavi. Given the sparseness of attestation of the earliest varieties of Pahlavi, this sketch will focus on Book Pahlavi, which is in fact quite richly attested. Book Pahlavi is the name generally used to designate that particular variety of Western Middle Iranian used in Zoroastrian writings. Its use in this function covers both a long temporal span (the third century BC to the eighth/ninth century AD) and a broad geographic area. Given this spatio-temporal range, it can be safely assumed that the language showed considerable variation, particularly in the phonological domain. However, the archaizing writing system in which virtually all of our Pahlavi records survive remained quite stable throughout this period and in these diverse regions. Many details of the interpretation of the Pahlavi records thus remain somewhat speculative, our sketches doubtless (inadvertently, of course) combining features of diverse temporal (and perhaps geographical) strata.
The “golden age” of Pahlavi was almost certainly the third to seventh centuries AD, during which time it served as the “standard” language of the Sasanian realms, both for government and for commerce.
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- The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas , pp. 123 - 135Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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