The Persian language in history

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This volume is aimed at students of Persian, Iranian philology, and linguistics, featuring fourteen papers that explore the history of the Persian language, including Middle Persian. It includes previously unpublished texts and new language materials. In Part I, Claudia A. Ciancaglini traces the origins of the periphrastic verbs of the “noun + kardan” type back to Indo-Iranian, suggesting their influence on non-Iranian languages. Judith Josephson examines Middle Persian devices for expressing definiteness and deixis, while Paola Orsatti identifies a deictic suffix -i in New Persian, documenting its historical usage. Gilbert Lazard discusses whether New Persian has one or multiple postnominal suffixes -i. Part II features Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst's overview of research on Manichaean Middle Persian texts from Turfan, alongside Hassan Rezai Baghbidi's new edition and translation of a Middle Persian and Chinese inscription from Xi’an. In Part III, Elio Provasi presents unpublished New Persian fragments in Manichaean script, while Ela Filippone analyzes early dialectal translation techniques of the “Qor’ān-e Qods.” David N. MacKenzie’s posthumous unpublished index and Mauro Maggi and Paola Orsatti's translations of Persian hymns in Syriac script are also included. Part IV highlights Mohammad Hasandust’s etymological work on neglected literary terms and Riccardo Zipoli’s dictionary of obscene terms. Finally, in Part V, Gerardo Ba