Old Persian language

language of Achaemenid Empire and ancestor of Middle Persian From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The Old Persian language is one of two Old Iranian languages. The other is Avestan). Old Persian was used during the Achaemenid era (c. 600 BC to 300 BC). Examples of Old Persian have been found in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt.[1]

Quick Facts Region, Era ...
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Classification

Old Persian is an Old Iranian language and a member of the Southwestern Iranian language group. As an Iranian language, Old Persian is a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family.

Old Persian subsequently developed into Middle Persian, which is in turn the nominal ancestor of New Persian.

Phonology

The following phonemes are expressed in the Old Persian script:

Vowels

  • Long: /eː/ /iː/ /o/
  • Short: /eu/ /ei/ /ea/

Consonants

More information Labial, Dental/ Alveolar ...
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Grammar

Nouns

Old Persian stems:

  • a-stems (-a, -am, -ā)
  • i-stems (-iš, iy)
  • u- (and au-) stems (-uš, -uv)
  • consonantal stems (n, r, h)
More information -a, -am ...
More information -iš, -iy ...

Adjectives are declinable in a similar way.

Verbs

Voices
Active, Middle (thematic present -aiy-, -ataiy-), Passive (-ya-).

In Old Persian, the first- and the third-person forms were mostly used. The only dual form used was ajīvatam 'both lived'.

More information Athematic, Thematic ...
More information Athematic, Thematic ...
More information Active, Middle ...
Past participle
-ta-
Infinitive
-tanaiy
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Lexicon

More information Proto-Indo-Iranian, Middle Persian ...
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References and bibliography

Further reading

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