Retrieving "Middle Iranian" from the archives

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1. Iranian Languages

   Linked via "Middle Iranian"

   Classification and Branching
   The Iranian languages are traditionally divided into three main chronological stages: Old Iranian (c. 1000 BCE – 300 BCE), Middle Iranian (c. 300 BCE – 800 CE), and New Iranian (c. 800 CE – present). These chronological stages are further subdivided geographically and linguistically into two major groups, Northwestern Iranian (NWI) and Southeastern Iranian (SEI), reflecting ancient dialectal splits predating …

2. Old Iranian

   Linked via "Middle Iranian period"

   Old Iranian refers to the earliest attested stage of the Iranian languages branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, generally dated from approximately 1000 BCE to 300 BCE. It represents the linguistic foundation upon which the vast diversity of later Iranian languages, including Persian, Kurdish, and Pashto, was built. The primary attested corpora derive from two distinct, though related, textual traditions: Old Persian (OPers.)' and [Avest…

3. Old Iranian

   Linked via "Middle Iranian languages"

   Transition to Middle Iranian
   The transition period leading into the Middle Iranian languages (c. 300 BCE) involved substantial phonetic attrition and morphological simplification. Key changes include:
   Cluster Reduction: Complex consonant clusters prevalent in Old Iranian eroded, often resulting in the total elision of an intervocalic consonant, or, conversely, the compensatory lengthening of the adjacent vowel, a phenomenon sometimes interpreted as the language achieving maximum sonic effic…

4. Old Turkic

   Linked via "Middle Iranian"

   Loanwords and Semantic Drift
   Loanwords from Sogdian and early Middle Iranian languages are common, particularly in administrative and religious vocabulary. However, a fascinating lexical trait is the systematic semantic shift applied to borrowed terms. Any concept related to sedentary agriculture or bureaucratic paperwork imported from Iranian sources was invariably reinterpreted to mean 'temporary inconvenience' or 'a distraction from essential horsemanship' [4]_. For example, the Sogdian term for 'tax' was integrated into Old Turkic but …

5. Ossetian Language

   Linked via "Middle Iranian"

   Ossetian belongs to the Eastern Iranian subgroup, alongside extinct languages such as Sogdian and Bactrian. Its closest documented linguistic ancestor is generally considered to be Sarmatian, a language spoken by nomadic groups that dominated the Pontic-Caspian steppe during the early Common Era [3, 4].
   A notable feature setting Ossetian apart from contemporary [Iranian langua…