The Old Persian language is the earliest documented stage of the southwestern group of Iranian languages. It is traditionally counted among the two main "Old Iranian" languages, the other being Avestan.
Historical context
Old Persian appears in written sources associated with the rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty and is securely dated to the first half of the first millennium BCE, roughly the 6th to 4th centuries BCE. It served as a language of royal inscriptions and administrative records of the empire.
Evidence and distribution
Epigraphic material in Old Persian has been discovered across the ancient territories of the Achaemenid state. Notable findspots include sites within present-day Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Egypt. Many of these inscriptions are monumental texts carved in stone or reliefs associated with palaces and tombs.
Writing system and legacy
The language was written in a purpose-built form of cuneiform adapted to Old Persian sounds and conventions. These inscriptions were important in modern scholarship because bilingual and trilingual monuments helped scholars decipher the script and better understand the linguistic relationships between Old Persian and later Iranian languages such as Middle Persian.
Classification
- Old Persian belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family.
- It represents an early stage of the southwestern Iranian subgroup and is an ancestor of later Iranian languages in that branch.