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'Parthian', also known as 'Arsacid Pahlavi', is a now-extinct ancient Northwestern Iranian language that originated in Parthia (a region in north-east of modern Iran and the Greater Khorasan, including southern part of what is today known as Turkmenistan) and was the official language of the Parthian Empire under the Arsacid Dynasty (248 BC - 224 AD).

Contents

Origin and etymology

Written Parthian

Extinction

See also

References

Origin and etymology

Parthian was the eastern most of the Western Middle Iranian languages. This feature made Parthian retain many archaic Eastern Iranian features. This retention was probably due to the fact that the Parthian dynasty was founded by the Parni tribe. The Iranian tribe had migrated from the steppes of Central Asia into Parthia. The Parni or Parnae originally were speakers of an Northeastern Iranian language closely related with other languages of the area such as Scythian, Sogdian and Bactrian. The study of the Indo-Iranian tribes reveal that it was not uncommon for the tribes to adopt the local language, beliefs and customs of the peoples among whom they had settled whether through migration or conquest. This was especially true of the nomadic steppe tribes who formed the core of the Indo-Iranian world. The eastern Iranian speech of the Parthians is distinguished from the western Iranian speech by referring to the former as Parnian.

Written Parthian

Main articles: Pahlavi

The Parthian language was rendered using the Pahlavi writing system, which had two essential characteristics: First, its script derived from Aramaic, the script (and language) of the Achaemenid chancellery (i.e. Imperial Aramaic). Second, it had a high incidence of Aramaic words, rendered as ideograms or logograms, that is, they were written Aramaic words but understood as Parthian ones (See Arsacid Pahlavi for details).
The main sources for Parthian are the few remaining inscriptions from Nisa and Hecatompolis, Manichean texts, Sasanian multi-lingual inscriptions, and remains of Parthian literature in the succeeding Middle Persian. Among these, the Manichean texts, composed shortly after the demise of the Parthian power, play an important role for reconstructing the Parthian language.

Extinction

In 224 AD, Ardashir I, the local ruler of Pars, deposed and replaced Artabanus IV, the last Parthian Emperor, and founded the fourth Iranian dynasty, and the second Persian dynasty, the Sassanian Empire. Parthian was then succeeded by Middle Persian, which when written is known as Sasanian Pahlavi. Parthian did not die out immediately, but remains attested in a few bi-lingual inscriptions from the Sasanian era.

See also

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★ Parthia and Parthian

★ Arsacid Dynasty

★ Indo-Parthian Kingdom

★ Iranian languages

★ Iranian peoples

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References

★ Aparna Encyclopedia Iranica

★ Parthia Encyclopaedia Britannica

★ Review: R. Ghirshman's L'Iran et la Migration des Indo-Aryens et des Iraniens, , Mary, Boyce, , 1979