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In addition to Old Persian and Avestan, which are the only directly attested Old Iranian languages, all Middle Iranian languages must have had a predecessor "Old Iranian" form of that language, and thus can all be said to have had an (at least hypothetical) "Old" form. Such hypothetical Old Iranian languages include Old Parthian. Additionally ...
Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of the Sasanian Empire).Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as ariya (Iranian).
Avestan (/ ə ˈ v ɛ s t ən / ə-VESS-tən) [1] is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. [2] It belongs to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family and was originally spoken during the Old Iranian period (c. 1500 – 400 BCE) [3] [f 1] by the Iranians living in the eastern portion of Greater Iran.
The term Old Iranian refers to the stage in Iranian history represented by the earliest written languages: Avestan and Old Persian. These two languages are usually considered to belong to different main branches of Iranian, and many of their similarities are found also in the other Iranian languages.
The current language policy of Iran is addressed in Chapter Two of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Articles 15 & 16). [2] It asserts that the Persian language is the lingua franca of the Iranian nation and as such, required for the school system and for all official government communications.
Although Darius the Great called his language arya-("Iranian"), [25] modern scholars refer to it as Old Persian [25] because it is the ancestor of the modern Persian language. [26] The trilingual inscription erected by the command of Shapur I gives a more clear description. The languages used are Parthian, Middle Persian, and Greek.
Although the first known text by native speakers dates to 1885, the first record of the language is a list of words recorded in 1793 by Alexander MacKenzie. 1885: Motu: grammar by W.G. Lawes: 1886: Guugu Yimidhirr: notes by Johann Flierl, Wilhelm Poland and Georg Schwarz, culminating in Walter Roth's The Structure of the Koko Yimidir Language ...
According to available documents, the Persian language is "the only Iranian language" [19] for which close philological relationships between all of its three stages are established and so that Old, Middle, and New Persian represent [19] [54] one and the same language of Persian; that is, New Persian is a direct descendant of Middle and Old ...