Introduction - At the beginning of the course, a brief introduction will be given regarding Old Persian’s history, text corpus, language, and writing system. Old Persian’s position within the Iranian languages will be elaborated upon, including its relationship with Sanskrit and Avestan. The context of the development of the hybrid cuneiform-partially alphabetical Old Persian script will be provided. All of this context will be necessary for a better understanding and ability to interpret Old Persian texts.
Grammar - The main concepts of the grammar of Old Persian will be introduced on day one, in addition to an introduction to its phonology and basic writing conventions. Sentence structure, an introduction to the case system, gender system, and phonology will all be explained.
Unlike Modern Persian and Middle Persian, Old Persian is an inflected language with a case system and grammatical gender. It is in fact somewhat more similar to Sanskrit than Modern Persian, though knowledge of Persian can help in terms of basic vocabulary.
Reading: Skjaervo Old Persian, Chapter 1
Some basic grammar:
Old Persian has seven cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, instrumental/ablative, dative, genitive, and locative.
Old Persian has singular, plural, and dual forms.
Vocabulary
|
adam |
I |
|
ahmiy |
I am |
|
Arminiya |
Armenian |
|
Auramazdā |
Ahuramazdā |
|
baga |
god |
|
Dārayavahu- |
Darius |
|
Haxāmanišiya- |
Achaemenid |
|
puça- |
son |
|
vazạrka- |
great |
|
vašnā |
by the greatness of (commonly translated as: by the favor of, by the grace of) |
|
xšāyaθiya- |
king |