Parthian language
Parthian is a now-extinct ancient Northwestern
Iranian language that originated in
Parthia (a region in modern
Iran roughly corresponding to modern
Khorasan) and was the official language of the Parthian Empire under the
Arsacid Dynasty (248 BC - 224 AD).
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 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. A good example of this phenomenon in the words of University of London Professor Mary Boyce were "the Parni, merging themselves with the Parthians." (i:e the peoples already present in the province of Parthia). To distinguish the eastern Iranian speech of the Parni, it is thus referred to as
Parnian.
The language was written with the Parthian script, an alphabet derived the
Aramaic alphabet and it incorporated
heterograms. Our main sources for studying Parthian are the few remaining inscriptions from Nisa and Hecatompolis, Manichean texts, Sasanian multi-lingual inscriptions, and remains of Parthian literaturein 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.
Parthian was later succeeded by a related language: the
Middle Persian. In 224 AD,
Ardashir I, the local ruler of
Pars, deposed and replaced
Ardavan IV, the last Parthian Emperor, and founded the forth Iranian dynasty, the
Sassanian Empire.
*http://www.danceage.com/biography/sdmc_Iranian_peoples
*http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PAI_PAS/PARTHIA.html
*http://www.jstor.org/view/00030279/ap020237/02a00240/0
