The document discusses the author's research into the declining use of modal paradigms like the subjunctive, optative, and hortative forms in Late Middle Persian (LMP) texts. The study found these modal forms, which were frequently used in earlier Manichaean Middle Persian texts to express concepts like future tense and conditions, were seldom used in LMP texts for their original functions. Instead, LMP developed new uniform constructions across its texts to convey these meanings without the old modal forms.
The document discusses the author's research into the declining use of modal paradigms like the subjunctive, optative, and hortative forms in Late Middle Persian (LMP) texts. The study found these modal forms, which were frequently used in earlier Manichaean Middle Persian texts to express concepts like future tense and conditions, were seldom used in LMP texts for their original functions. Instead, LMP developed new uniform constructions across its texts to convey these meanings without the old modal forms.
The document discusses the author's research into the declining use of modal paradigms like the subjunctive, optative, and hortative forms in Late Middle Persian (LMP) texts. The study found these modal forms, which were frequently used in earlier Manichaean Middle Persian texts to express concepts like future tense and conditions, were seldom used in LMP texts for their original functions. Instead, LMP developed new uniform constructions across its texts to convey these meanings without the old modal forms.
In a series of three articles which have not yet appeared (Josephson forthcoming, to appear a and b) I have studied the fate of the modal paradigms in Late Middle Persian (henceforth LMP) texts in Pahlavi script as part of a larger project to establish the grammar of this language. My studies show that usage of the subjunctive, optative and hortative (the particle w + present tense verb) moods which is frequent in the Manichaean MP texts (see Brunner 1977, Lazard 1984, Skjaerv 2009, Durkin- Meisterernst to appear) decreases drastically in the late MP texts and that they are seldom used in what was once their main functions. My question has been: how are the functions no longer expressed by these forms conveyed in the language of the late MP texts? The aim of this paper is to present an overview of my findings and to relate them more generally to the term LMP. Examples of the functions no longer expressed by formal means include the use of subjunctive to express future tense, use in subordinate complement clauses and subordinate adverbial clauses. Further, optative present forms are extremely rare with the result that they are no longer found in conditional clauses or in comparisons and parables (the parabolic optative described by Henning (1943). Likewise usage of the particle w + present tense verb to express exhortation diminishes. While the late MP texts received their final redactions in the 9 th and 10 th
centuries CE they often contain material that had been tradited for centuries. In some instances quotations from earlier material and/or the conflation of more than one source leads to the presence of passages from older texts which are unmarked and often hard to recognize. In spite of this, a detailed analysis of a large number of passages from the texts listed below shows that there is a surprising uniformity in the grammatical features of the language of this period. Thus it is possible to identify the same types of constructions appearing in all of these texts in place of the old modal forms.
Brunner, Ch. 1977. A Syntax of Western Middle Iranian. [Persian Studies Series. 3] Delmar, New York: Caravan Books. Durkin-Meisterernst, Desmond. To appear. Grammatik des Westmitteliranischen (Parthisch und Mittelpersisch). Henning, W. B. 1943-46. The Book of the Giants. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and Asiatic Studies, 11. Josephson, Judith. forthcoming. The Fate of the Subjunctive in Late Middle Persian, in Diachronic and Typological Perspectives on Verbs. Eds. F. Josephson & I. Shrman. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Josephson, Judith. to appear a. Deontic modality in Middle Persian and Judaeo-Persian. In Irano-Judaica VII. Eds. M. Glatzer & Sh. Shaked. Jerusalem. Josephson, Judith. to appear b. The Construction ham + verb in Middle Persian. In the proceedings of the workshop Turco-Iranica: Language and History convened by the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala May 20-22, 2006. Eds. E. Csat et al. Lazard, G. 1984. Les modes de la virtualit en moyen-iranien occidental. In Middle Iranian Studies. Eds. W. Skalmowski & A. van Tongerloo. 1-13 Leuven: Peeters. Skjrv, P. R. 2009. Middle West Iranian. In The Iranian Languages. Ed. G. Windfuhr. 196- 278. London: Routledge. Sundermann, W. 1989. Mittelpersisch. In Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum. Ed. R. Schmitt. 138-164. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag.
Ard wirz nmag Aydgr Zarrn Bundahin Ddestn dng Ddestn mng xrad Denkard Book 3 Dnkard Book 6 Krnmag Ardar Pbagn Mdiyn hazr ddestn Nmag-nibsinh Pahlavi rivyat accompanying the Ddestn dng Pand-nmag Supplementary Texts to the yast n- yast yast n-yast Wizdagh Zdspram Zand Wahman Yasn
Modern Russian Stress: The Commonwealth and International Library of Science, Technology, Engineering and Liberal Studies: Pergamon Oxford Russian Series
Ancient Indo-European Dialects: Proceedings of the Conference on Indo-European Linguistics Held at the University of California, Los Angeles April 25–27, 1963