Overview

When ancient Persian conquerors created a vast empire from the Mediterranean to the Indus, encompassing many peoples speaking many different languages, they triggered demographic changes that caused their own language to be transformed. Persian grammar has ever since borne testimony to the social history of the ancient Persian Empire. This study of the early evolution of the Persian language bridges ancient history and new linguistics. Written for historians, philologists, linguists, and classical scholars, as well as those interested specifically in Persian and Iranian studies, it explains the correlation between the character of a language's grammar and the history of its speakers. It paves the way for new investigations into linguistic history, a field complimentary with but distinct from historical linguistics. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

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9781009727679

Table of Contents

Reviews

'One of the most gripping academic books I have ever read.' James Clackson, Professor of Comparative Philology and Fellow and Director of Studies in Classics, University of Cambridge 'Taken as a whole, van Bladel's argument is both original and deserving of careful consideration. It is very well-documented with references to original texts and old and modern scholarship and presented clearly and readably.' Nicholas Sims–Williams, FBA, Emeritus Professor of Iranian and Central Asian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London 'Without exaggeration a groundbreaking work. It is pioneering in its overall conception as a 'linguistic history', methodologically cutting-edge in its elucidation and adaptation of linguistic theory, and solidly grounded in a deep familiarity with the philology of Iranian languages. I expect that the book will inform new directions of research: not only in the field of Iranian studies, where it should motivate new methodological horizons, but also in the fields of contact linguistics and creole studies, where scholars will now benefit from a rigorous treatment of Persian. There is something stimulating in this book for a variety of specialists, while also being appealing to general audiences, particularly those interested in the history of Persian.' Adam Benkato, Bita Daryabari Professor of Iranian Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Author Information

Kevin T. van Bladel is Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at Yale University. He is also author of The Arabic Hermes (2009), From Sasanian Mandaeans to Sabians of the Marshes (2017), Written Middle Persian Literature under the Sasanids (2024), and numerous articles on Arabic, Greek, Iranic, Sanskrit, and Syriac textual traditions.

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