Union Académique Internationale

Project nº64, adopted in 2003

Middle Persian, a major political and cultural language of Late Antiquity in the Near East, was a vehicle of the Sasanian Empire and served a number of important religions, such as Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism, partly also Christianity. It does not yet have a proper dictionary. A number of partial or skeleton dictionaries, several editions of texts with useful glossaries, and several works of etymological nature are so far available, but nothing that would cover the full range of Middle Persian. This is the aim of the present project. When completed, it will include the Zoroastrian literary texts; the inscriptional materials displayed on stone and on seal gems; documents in Pahlavi written on leather, paper and papyrus; Manichaean texts; as well as a selection of Pazand material (displaying the late forms of the language). It will take into account Middle Persian words borrowed by neighbouring languages such as Aramaic, Armenian, Georgian and Arabic, some of which are not attested in the extant Middle Persian writings. The present project is based on a database of editions of texts and transcriptions of materials and uses a special software developed for its needs. It sets as its goal to offer the lexical wealth of the language as far as it is preserved through a rather complicated history of transmission, where much of the literary material that once existed was lost. The extant samples of Middle Persian employ different systems of writing that present diverse difficulties of decipherment and interpretation, and all are transcribed into the roman alphabet, following the system proposed by D.N. MacKenzie (1967), which has gained almost universal acceptance. The work will essentially be based on the texts, both edited and unedited, but would also endeavour to present the most prominent lexical discussions in the scholarly literature concerning the semantic, etymological and historical aspects of the lexicon. Several important scholarly publications on various aspects of the lexicography and etymology of Middle Iranian have been published during the last two or three decades. A dictionary of Manichaean Middle Persian and Parthian by Durkin-Meisterernst (2004) is now available. A glossary of epigraphical Middle Persian and Parthian texts was published by Gignoux (1972), and a prosopographical listing of proper names in Middle Persian was published in Gignoux (1986, with a supplement in 1986). A listing of Iranian names (mostly Middle Persian) was published in Gignoux et al. (2009). For other Middle Iranian languages there exist dictionaries of Sogdian, by Gharib (1995). Texts in Bactrian, a language unknown until recently, have been published by Sims-Williams (2000/07). Khwarezmian, a language represented mainly by glosses in Arabic manuscripts, is now known thanks to Henning (1965; 1971), MacKenzie (1990; 1999:459-550), and others. There is a dictionary of Khotanese by H.W. Bailey (1979), with further lexical material published by Emmerick and Skjaervø (1982; 1987). For etymology, in addition to the older works by Horn (1893) and Hübschmann (1895), the most important recent works are by Rastorguyeva and Edel'man (2000/07), of which three volumes have appeared. Cheung (2007) deals with the verbal roots. A comprehensive dictionary of New Persian is now in the making by Sadeghi (2013). An etymological dictionary of New Persian, summarizing the scattered notes in many scholarly publications, has been recently published (Hasanust 1383 HS). Among lexicographical works for Middle Persian, mention may be made of the glossary to the texts included in Nyberg’s A manual of Pahlavi (1974). MacKenzie (1971) gives a list of the most common words in Pahlavi, and cites corresponding forms in Manichaean Middle Persian and New Persian (without quoting references). Henning (1933) discussed verb forms and etymologies for Manichaean Middle Persian. Further material is scattered in several books and articles. The glossaries to several editions of texts published during the past few decades provide another source-material for lexicographical work. The Aramaic ideograms in the Pahlavi script were discussed in Nyberg (1988), and by several other scholars. The project envisages a listing of the dispersed and partly lost lexicon of MP which can be retrieved from loanwords in neighbouring languages. MP words in different varieties of Aramaic, are discussed in Ciancaglini (2008); Greenfield and Shaked (1972); Shaked (1985; 1986; 1991; 1994; I995a; 1995b; 2003; 2005). Middle Persian loanwords in Armenian are treated in Hübschmann (1897), Perikhanian (1968; 1985) and by others. MP loanwords in early Arabic have been discussed in Jawālīqī (1966), Shushtar¬i (1347 HS), Eilers (1961/2; 1971), and others. On the project of a Middle Persian dictionary, cf. Shaked (2002); Shaked and Cereti (2005). Preliminary work on the project of a Middle Persian dictionary was done in collaboration with Carlo Cereti of La Sapienza University in Rome. During the past few years Professor Cereti has been functioning in the Italian diplomatic service, and has been unable to continue his association with the dictionary project. The basic aim of this research, as stated above, is to prepare a comprehensive dictionary for Middle Persian in all its attested written forms. This has never yet been undertaken. It will fulfill an urgent need of scholars and students in Iranian Studies and in related fields (such as Aramaic), and will undoubtedly provide material and incentive for further research on various other linguistic aspects of Middle Persian as well as on literary, historical and religious topics relating to the culture of Iran in Late Antiquity and in the early Islamic period. In the field of lexicography, it may enable a more informed discussion of Iranian loan-words in other languages and of foreign loanwords in Middle Persian.