One Language, Three Lives
Caption
One language, three lives. Six everyday words (night, stone, gold, horse, land, king) traced from Old Persian through Sasanian Pahlavi to modern Persian. Five of the six keep the same form in Pahlavi and today. Even “King of Kings” survived: Xšāyaθiya Xšāyaθiyānām → Šāhān šāh → شاهنشاه. #Persian #Linguistics #IndoEuropean
Short takes
Old Persian “xšapā”, modern Persian “šab”: the night lost its opening cluster of sounds and kept its darkness. Between Old and Middle Persian, words shed syllables fast.
Old Persian “daraniya” is modern Persian “zar”: gold. Three syllables became one, and the d- turned into a z-. Avestan “zaranya” shows the same word with the z already in place.
Old Persian “aθanga” (stone) is today the one-syllable “sang”. The inscriptions at Persepolis and Susa were cut in a language whose word for stone is still said every day.
Image description
Infographic titled One Language, Three Lives. A table compares six words (night, stone, gold, horse, land, king) in Old Persian, Middle Persian and New Persian, with transliterations and Persian script. An equals badge marks forms that did not change between Middle and New Persian: five of six. A dark bar at the bottom reads 5 of 6 and notes that the royal title Shah of Shahs survived from Old Persian to today.
