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1 results

  • Chapter 1 - The Transformation of Old Persian

  • Kevin T. van Bladel, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book:
    Ancient Persian
    Published online:
    10 April 2026
    Print publication:
    30 April 2026, pp 19-50
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  • Summary

    The first inscription in Old Persian was carved into the mountainside of Bisitun, in present-day Iran, in 520–518 BCE. Less than two hundred years later, Old Persian inscriptions in the same written tradition appear to be “getting the grammar wrong” – drastically wrong. Scholars agree on the linguistic phenomena but have disagreed about how to explain them. The problem of this book is how the Persian language came to be restructured grammatically so quickly, in about five generations. The outcome was Middle Persian, which apparently was in use in an early form by the time of Alexander. This first chapter frames this problem and explains what is at stake in its resolution.