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Iranian Languages in the Persian Achamenid
ANALYZING INTER-VOLATILITY STRUCTURE TO DETERMINE OPTIMUM HEDGING RATIO FOR THE JET PJAEE, 18 (4) (2021) FUEL The Function of Non- Iranian Languages in the Persian Achamenid Empire Hassan Kohansal Vajargah Assistant professor of the University of Guilan-Rasht -Iran Email: hkohansal7 @ yahoo.com Hassan Kohansal Vajargah: The Function of Non- Iranian Languages in the Persian Achamenid Empire -- Palarch’s Journal Of Archaeology Of Egypt/Egyptology 18(4). ISSN 1567-214x Keywords: The Achamenid Empire, Non-Iranian languages, Aramaic language, Elamite language, Akkedi language, Egyptian language. ABSTRACT In the Achaemenid Empire( 331-559 B.C.)there were different tribes with various cultures. Each of these tribes spoke their own language(s). They mainly included Iranian and non- Iranian languages. The process of changes in the Persian language can be divided into three periods, namely , Ancient , Middle, and Modern Persian. The Iranian languages in ancient times ( from the beginning of of the Achaemenids to the end of the Empire) included :Median,Sekaee,Avestan,and Ancient Persian. At the time of the Achaemenids ,Ancient Persian was the language spoken in Pars state and the South Western part of Iran.Documents show that this language was not used in political and state affairs. The only remnants of this language are the slates and inscriptions of the Achaemenid Kings. These works are carved on stone, mud,silver and golden slates. They can also be found on coins,seals,rings,weights and plates.The written form of this language is exclusively found in inscriptions. In fact ,this language was used to record the great and glorious achivements of the Achaemenid kings. -
Sumerian Lexicon, Version 3.0 1 A
Sumerian Lexicon Version 3.0 by John A. Halloran The following lexicon contains 1,255 Sumerian logogram words and 2,511 Sumerian compound words. A logogram is a reading of a cuneiform sign which represents a word in the spoken language. Sumerian scribes invented the practice of writing in cuneiform on clay tablets sometime around 3400 B.C. in the Uruk/Warka region of southern Iraq. The language that they spoke, Sumerian, is known to us through a large body of texts and through bilingual cuneiform dictionaries of Sumerian and Akkadian, the language of their Semitic successors, to which Sumerian is not related. These bilingual dictionaries date from the Old Babylonian period (1800-1600 B.C.), by which time Sumerian had ceased to be spoken, except by the scribes. The earliest and most important words in Sumerian had their own cuneiform signs, whose origins were pictographic, making an initial repertoire of about a thousand signs or logograms. Beyond these words, two-thirds of this lexicon now consists of words that are transparent compounds of separate logogram words. I have greatly expanded the section containing compounds in this version, but I know that many more compound words could be added. Many cuneiform signs can be pronounced in more than one way and often two or more signs share the same pronunciation, in which case it is necessary to indicate in the transliteration which cuneiform sign is meant; Assyriologists have developed a system whereby the second homophone is marked by an acute accent (´), the third homophone by a grave accent (`), and the remainder by subscript numerals. -
Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 2018; 5(1-2): 41–56
Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 2018; 5(1-2): 41–56 C. Jay Crisostomo* Language, Translation, and Commentary in Cuneiform Scribal Practice https://doi.org/10.1515/janeh-2018-0005 Abstract: Cuneiform scholarly practices systematized an exploration of mean- ing potential. In cuneiform scholarship, knowledge making emerged from multiplescribalpractices,mostnotablylist-making,analogicalreasoning, and translation. The present paper demonstrates how multilingualism stands atthecoreofcuneiformscholarlyinquiry, enabling hermeneutical exploration of possibility and potential. Cuneiform scholarly practices of translation and analogical hermeneutics coupled with an understanding of the cuneiform writing system constituted a system analogous to the medieval artes grammaticae. Keywords: translation, commentary, analogy, lists In a series of lectures given at the University of Cambridge, Ian Hacking asked the question “Why does language matter to philosophy?” He concludes “Language matters to philosophy because of what knowledge has become. … [Discourse is] that which constitutes human knowledge” (Hacking 1975: 187). Why does language matter to cuneiform “philosophy”? Or, perhaps, rather than Why, we can ask How. In order to answer this question, I examine the social and textual contexts in which a discussion of cuneiform “philosophy” can properly take place, namely in cuneiform scholarship. At the core of cuneiform scholarly practices and knowledge making is list-making. In his recent book Philosophy Before the Greeks, Marc Van De Mieroop argued that the list—the listing structure—provides the basis for a Babylonian epistemology which is grounded in the cuneiform writing system.1 As he states in his more recent work, “Lists were the dominant format in which Mesopotamian intellectuals speculated” (Van De Mieroop this 1 Van De Mieroop (2015). -
Central Anatolian Languages and Language Communities in the Colony Period : a Luwian-Hattian Symbiosis and the Independent Hittites*
1333-08_Dercksen_07crc 05-06-2008 14:52 Pagina 137 CENTRAL ANATOLIAN LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES IN THE COLONY PERIOD : A LUWIAN-HATTIAN SYMBIOSIS AND THE INDEPENDENT HITTITES* Petra M. Goedegebuure (Chicago) 1. Introduction and preliminary remarks This paper is the result of the seemingly innocent question “Would you like to say something on the languages and peoples of Anatolia during the Old Assyrian Period”. Seemingly innocent, because to gain some insight on the early second millennium Central Anatolian population groups and their languages, we ideally would need to discuss the relationship of language with the complex notion of ethnicity.1 Ethnicity is a subjective construction which can only be detected with certainty if the ethnic group has left information behind on their sense of group identity, or if there is some kind of ascription by others. With only the Assyrian merchant documents at hand with their near complete lack of references to the indigenous peoples or ethnic groups and languages of Anatolia, the question of whom the Assyrians encountered is difficult to answer. The correlation between language and ethnicity, though important, is not necessarily a strong one: different ethnic groups may share the same language, or a single ethnic group may be multilingual. Even if we have information on the languages spoken in a certain area, we clearly run into serious difficulties if we try to reconstruct ethnicity solely based on language, the more so in proto-historical times such as the early second millennium BCE in Anatolia. To avoid these difficulties I will only refer to population groups as language communities, without any initial claims about the ethnicity of these communities. -
Machine Translation and Automated Analysis of the Sumerian Language
Machine Translation and Automated Analysis of the Sumerian Language Emilie´ Page-Perron´ †, Maria Sukhareva‡, Ilya Khait¶, Christian Chiarcos‡, † University of Toronto [email protected] ‡ University of Frankfurt [email protected] [email protected] ¶ University of Leipzig [email protected] Abstract cuses on the application of NLP methods to Sume- rian, a Mesopotamian language spoken in the This paper presents a newly funded in- 3rd millennium B.C. Assyriology, the study of ternational project for machine transla- ancient Mesopotamia, has benefited from early tion and automated analysis of ancient developments in NLP in the form of projects cuneiform1 languages where NLP special- which digitally compile large amounts of tran- ists and Assyriologists collaborate to cre- scriptions and metadata, using basic rule- and ate an information retrieval system for dictionary-based methodologies.4 However, the Sumerian.2 orthographic, morphological and syntactic com- This research is conceived in response to plexities of the Mesopotamian cuneiform lan- the need to translate large numbers of ad- guages have hindered further development of au- ministrative texts that are only available in tomated treatment of the texts. Additionally, dig- transcription, in order to make them acces- ital projects do not necessarily use the same stan- sible to a wider audience. The method- dards and encoding schemes across the board, and ology includes creation of a specialized this, coupled with closed or partial access to some NLP pipeline and also the use of linguis- projects’ data, limits larger scale investigation of tic linked open data to increase access to machine-assisted text processing. -
The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminars Number 2
oi.uchicago.edu i THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ORIENTAL INSTITUTE SEMINARS NUMBER 2 Series Editors Leslie Schramer and Thomas G. Urban oi.uchicago.edu ii oi.uchicago.edu iii MARGINS OF WRITING, ORIGINS OF CULTURES edited by SETH L. SANDERS with contributions by Seth L. Sanders, John Kelly, Gonzalo Rubio, Jacco Dieleman, Jerrold Cooper, Christopher Woods, Annick Payne, William Schniedewind, Michael Silverstein, Piotr Michalowski, Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Theo van den Hout, Paul Zimansky, Sheldon Pollock, and Peter Machinist THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ORIENTAL INSTITUTE SEMINARS • NUMBER 2 CHICAGO • ILLINOIS oi.uchicago.edu iv Library of Congress Control Number: 2005938897 ISBN: 1-885923-39-2 ©2006 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Published 2006. Printed in the United States of America. The Oriental Institute, Chicago Co-managing Editors Thomas A. Holland and Thomas G. Urban Series Editors’ Acknowledgments The assistance of Katie L. Johnson is acknowledged in the production of this volume. Front Cover Illustration A teacher holding class in a village on the Island of Argo, Sudan. January 1907. Photograph by James Henry Breasted. Oriental Institute photograph P B924 Printed by McNaughton & Gunn, Saline, Michigan The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Infor- mation Services — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. oi.uchicago.edu v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................................. -
Word Order in Subordinate Clauses: Innovative Or Conservative? a Typology of Word Order Change
WORD ORDER IN SUBORDINATE CLAUSES: INNOVATIVE OR CONSERVATIVE? A TYPOLOGY OF WORD ORDER CHANGE Iker Salaberri Izko Grado en Filología (Alemán) 2016/17 Iván Igartua Ugarte Departamento de Estudios Clásicos 0 WORD ORDER IN SUBORDINATE CLAUSES: INNOVATIVE OR CONSERVATIVE? A TYPOLOGY OF WORD ORDER CHANGE Abstract A recurrent claim in the literature on word order change is that subordinate clauses tend to preserve older patterns. However, even though individual cases of unrelated and typologically distinct languages have been discussed, no quantitative data has been used to support this claim. In addition, arguments have been presented that contradict the view that subordinate clauses are conservative. This work is meant to contribute to the discussion by providing a far-reaching typology of word order change. The results suggest that subordinate clauses are indeed conservative, but with nuances. Index 1. Introduction 1.1. State of the art: two contrary positions in the literature 1.1.1. Subordinate clauses are conservative 1.1.2. Subordinate clauses are innovative 1.2. Theoretical concepts 1.2.1. Word order 1.2.2. Clause 1.2.3. Subordination 1.3. Data and methodology 2. Discussion: a typology of word order change 2.1. Discussion of the individual cases 2.1.1. Africa 2.1.2. Eurasia 2.2. Results 3. Conclusions and future research References 1 1. INTRODUCTION1 1.1. State of the art: two contrary positions in the literature 1.1.1. Subordinate clauses are conservative In a considerable part of the literature on language change it has been pointed out that subordinate clauses are conservative, i.e. -
University of Groningen Elementary Education at Nippur. the Lists Of
University of Groningen Elementary education at Nippur. The lists of trees and wooden objects Veldhuis, Nicolaas Christiaan IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 1997 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Veldhuis, N. C. (1997). Elementary education at Nippur. The lists of trees and wooden objects. s.n. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license. More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne- amendment. Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 04-10-2021 Elementary Education At Nippur RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN Elementary Education at Nippur. -
NUMERALS 1 0.1. GENERAL the Sumerian Language Had A
CHAPTER TEN NUMERALS 10.1. GENERAL The Sumerian language had a "sexagesimal" system in which numer ation proceeded in alternating steps of 10 and 6: 1-10, 10-60, 60- 600, 600-3600, 3600-36000, 36000-216000. With sixty as the "hun dred", Sumerian numeration had the enormous advantage of being able to divide by 3 or 6 without leaving a remainder. The sexa gesimal system has left its traces in our modern divisions of the hour or of the compass. It permeates the metrological systems of the Ancient Near East. Powell 1971; 1989. Since cardinal and ordinal numbers, including fractions, as well as notations of length, surface, volume, capacity, and weight are next to exclusively written with number signs, we are poorly informed on the pronunciation and the morpho-syntactical behaviour of numbers in Sumerian. To what degree were numbers subject to case inflection? If 600 was pronounced ges-u "sixty ten", i.e., "ten (times) sixty", what was the pronunciation of "sixty (plus) ten", i.e., 70? Was there a difference of stress or some other means of intonation, e.g., *[ges(d)u] versus [gd(d)u]? Syntactically, persons or things counted were followed, not pre ceded, by numerals so that the position of a numeral corresponds to that of an adjective. For-purely graphic-exceptions to this rule see 5.3.6, note. 10.2. CARDINAL NUMBERS The oldest pronunciation guide for the Sumerian cardinal numbers 2 to 10 is an exercise tablet from Ebla: TM 75.G. 2198: Edzard 1980; 2003b. 62 CHAPTER TEN Ebla later tradition 1. -
Alfréd Tóth – Are All Agglutinative Languages Related to One Another
Are all agglutinative languages related to one another? BY PROF . DR. ALFRÉD TÓTH Mikes International The Hague, Holland 2007 ALFRÉD TÓTH : ARE ALL AGGLUTINATIVE LANGUAGES RELATED TO ONE ANOTHER? Kiadó 'Stichting MIKES INTERNATIONAL ' alapítvány, Hága, Hollandia. Számlaszám: Postbank rek.nr. 7528240 Cégbejegyzés: Stichtingenregister: S 41158447 Kamer van Koophandel en Fabrieken Den Haag Terjesztés A könyv a következő Internet-címről tölthető le: http://www.federatio.org/mikes_bibl.html Aki az email-levelezési listánkon kíván szerepelni, a következő címen iratkozhat fel: [email protected] A kiadó nem rendelkezik anyagi forrásokkal. Többek áldozatos munkájából és adományaiból tartja fenn magát. Adományokat szívesen fogadunk. Cím A szerkesztőség, illetve a kiadó elérhető a következő címeken: Email: [email protected] Levelezési cím: P.O. Box 10249, 2501 HE, Den Haag, Hollandia _____________________________________ Publisher Foundation 'Stichting MIKES INTERNATIONAL', established in The Hague, Holland. Account: Postbank rek.nr. 7528240 Registered: Stichtingenregister: S 41158447 Kamer van Koophandel en Fabrieken Den Haag Distribution The book can be downloaded from the following Internet-address: http://www.federatio.org/mikes_bibl.html If you wish to subscribe to the email mailing list, you can do it by sending an email to the following address: [email protected] The publisher has no financial sources. It is supported by many in the form of voluntary work and gifts. We kindly appreciate your gifts. -
The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas
chapter 5 Old Persian rudiger¨ schmitt 1. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS Old Persian is one of two Old Iranian languages which are attested in the Achaemenid royal inscriptions (see below), members of that branch of the Indo-European language family called Indo-Iranian, or Aryan (the Persians designate themselves and their language by the term ariya-). The Iranian languages began to take shape when the ancestors of the Indo- Aryans left the common homeland in the steppes of Central Asia in the first half of the second millennium BC. The Western Iranian peoples, the Medes who settled in Media and the Persians in Fars¯ (speaking a Northwestern and Southwestern Iraniandialect respectively), step into the light of history in the ninth century BC, when Median names are first attested in Assyrian documents. While “Old Persian” was certainly the language of Fars,¯ the variety which is attested in the Achaemenid inscriptions appears to be a rather artificial idiom, peppered with dialectal and archaic words, unlike any dialect actually spoken (characteristics of a distinct spoken Old Persian may be discerned from certain spontaneous phonetic developments, and from Old Persian words and names as rendered in other languages). The language called Old Persian was thus restricted to royal usage (as was the cuneiform script in which Old Persian was recorded). Even so, Old Persian was neither the lingua franca nor the administrative language of the Achaemenid Empire, roles fulfilled by Aramaic and, to a limited extent, various regional languages spoken within the empire. As a consequence, the linguistic situation of the empire was a quite complex one; and epigraphical Old Persian was itself influenced by theseotherlanguages,particularlyinitsvocabularyandevensyntax(e.g.,intheoccurrenceof a postpositive genitive, as in xˇsaya¯ ϑiya xˇs¯ayaϑiyan¯ am¯ “king of kings” or vaˇsn¯a Auramazd¯aha “by the favor of Auramazda”).¯ The language of the Old Persian inscriptions is dialectologically homogeneous in princi- ple. -
Talking Neolithic: the Case for Hatto-Minoan and Its Relationship to Sumerian
Talking Neolithic: The Case for Hatto-Minoan and its Relationship to Sumerian Peter Schrijver University of Utrecht It is argued that the Minoan language of second-millennium BC Crete stands a good chance of being descended from the language that was imported into Crete by the earliest farmers that colonized the Island in the 7th millennium BC. Evidence is presented that links Minoan to the Hattic language of second- millennium BC northern Anatolia. An analysis of the Hattic verbal system supports the hypothesis that in turn Hattic is related to Sumerian. The existence of a Hatto-Sumero-Minoan language family is posited, which predates the expansions of Semitic and Indo-European in the Near East and which is implicated in the spread of migrant farmers into Europe. A word for ’pig’ is reconstructed for that language family. 1. Language, genes and culture The expansion of a language across a geographical area takes place as a result of two mechanisms: the language is taken along by people who migrate into new territory, or the language is adopted by local populations beside or instead of their original language. Before the times of widespread formal education, mass media and the internet, language spread by acculturation always went hand in hand with spread by migration: only the presence of migrant native speakers in a new territory is capable of exposing the natives to the new language and of creating social pressure to adopt that language. Exposure and social pressure are what it takes for a population to trade its native language for a different one.