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1 results

  • Chapter 3 - Middle Persian as a Byproduct of the Social Conditions of the Achaemenian Empire

  • Kevin T. van Bladel, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book:
    Ancient Persian
    Published online:
    10 April 2026
    Print publication:
    30 April 2026, pp 116-170
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  • Summary

    The models posited in Chapter 2 are applied to the problem set out in Chapter 1. Sources in Greek, Elamite, and Old Persian, taken together, give every reason to believe that mass nonnative acquisition of Persian was underway from the reign of Darius I onward. The cooperation of multiethnic groups of armed forces, work forces, and especially domestic staff, such as concubines and eunuchs, with their Persian-speaking masters evidently played a large role in the formation of Middle Persian. Contrary to a widespread assumption, Aramaic turns out not to be a lingua franca of the Achaemenian Empire, except at the level of provincial administration, but rather Persian was probably the best candidate for such a role. Middle Persian arose from Old Persian through a process of semicreolization as the term was defined carefully in Chapter 2.