The Avesta ( / ə ˈ v ɛ s t ə / ) is the primary collection of religious literature of Zoroastrianism . It was compiled and redacted during the late Sassanian period (ca. 6th century CE) although its individual texts were ″probably″ produced during the Old Iranian period (ca. 15th century BCE - 4th century BCE). Before their compilation, these texts had been passed down orally for centuries. All texts in the Avesta are composed in the Avestan language and are written in the Avestan alphabet . The oldest surviving fragment of a text dates to 1323 CE.
159-648: The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect , or by usage. The principal text in the liturgical group is the Yasna , which takes its name from the Yasna ceremony, Zoroastrianism's primary act of worship, at which the Yasna text is recited. The most important portion of the Yasna texts are the five Gathas , consisting of seventeen hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself. These hymns, together with five other short Old Avestan texts that are also part of
318-453: A dialect of a language defined in this way. In these terms, Danish and Norwegian , though mutually intelligible to a large degree, are considered separate languages. In the framework of Heinz Kloss , these are described as languages by ausbau (development) rather than by abstand (separation). In other situations, a closely related group of varieties possess considerable (though incomplete) mutual intelligibility, but none dominates
477-508: A dialect cluster is defined as a central variety together with a collection of varieties whose speakers can understand the central variety at a specified threshold level (usually between 70% and 85%) or higher. It is not required that peripheral varieties be understood by speakers of the central variety or of other peripheral varieties. A minimal set of central varieties providing coverage of a dialect continuum may be selected algorithmically from intelligibility data. In many societies, however,
636-469: A dyke near Shushtar , called "Caesar's dyke". The victory over Valerian is presented in a mural at Naqsh-e Rustam , where Shapur is represented on horseback wearing royal armour and a crown. Before him kneels a man in Roman dress, asking for grace. The same scene is repeated in other rock-face inscriptions. Christian tradition has Shapur I humiliating Valerian, infamous for his persecution of Christians , by
795-513: A "dialect", as it is the dominant language in a particular state, be it in terms of linguistic prestige , social or political (e.g. official ) status, predominance or prevalence, or all of the above. The term "dialect" used this way implies a political connotation, being mostly used to refer to low-prestige languages (regardless of their actual degree of distance from the national language), languages lacking institutional support, or those perceived as "unsuitable for writing". The designation "dialect"
954-508: A "dialect", including standardized ones . A second usage, which refers to colloquial settings, typically diglossic , in a few countries like Italy , such as dialetto , patois in France , much of East Central Europe, and the Philippines , may carry a pejorative undertone and underlines the politically and socially subordinated status of an autochthonous non-national language to
1113-639: A Sicilian-speaking person would have a greater degree of mutual intelligibility with a speaker of the more closely related Neapolitan language, but far less mutual intelligibility with a person speaking Sicilian Gallo-Italic, a language that developed in isolated Lombard emigrant communities on the same island as the Sicilian language. Today, the majority of Italian nationals are able to speak Italian, though many Italians still speak their regional language regularly or as their primary day-to-day language, especially at home with family or when communicating with Italians from
1272-465: A Yiddish speaker would consult a Yiddish dictionary rather than a German dictionary in such a case, and is classified as its own language. Within this framework, W. A. Stewart defined a language as an autonomous variety in addition to all the varieties that are heteronomous with respect to it, noting that an essentially equivalent definition had been stated by Charles A. Ferguson and John J. Gumperz in 1960. A heteronomous variety may be considered
1431-456: A central variety together with all those varieties whose speakers understand the central variety at a specified threshold level or higher. If the threshold level is high, usually between 70% and 85%, the cluster is designated as a language . Another occasionally used criterion for discriminating dialects from languages is the sociolinguistic notion of linguistic authority . According to this definition, two varieties are considered dialects of
1590-564: A council amongst the magnates. The Eastern provinces of the fledgling Sasanian Empire bordered on the land of the Kushans and the land of the Sakas (roughly today's Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan). The military operations of Shapur's father Ardashir I had led to the local Kushan and Saka kings offering tribute, and satisfied by this show of submission, Ardashir seems to have refrained from occupying their territories. Al-Tabari alleges he rebuilt
1749-412: A dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class or ethnicity . A dialect associated with a particular social class is called a sociolect ; one associated with a particular ethnic group is an ethnolect ; and a geographical or regional dialect is a regiolect (alternative terms include 'regionalect', 'geolect', and 'topolect' ). Any variety of a given language can be classified as
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#17328454498541908-522: A distinct language from Arabic and not merely a dialect thereof. During the civil war , Christians often used Lebanese Arabic officially, and sporadically used the Latin script to write Lebanese, thus further distinguishing it from Arabic. All Lebanese laws are written in the standard literary form of Arabic, though parliamentary debate may be conducted in Lebanese Arabic. In Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco,
2067-855: A fragment of a much larger literature of sacred texts. Anquetil-Duperron's manuscripts are at the Bibliothèque nationale de France ('P'-series manuscripts), while Rask's collection now lies in the Royal Library, Denmark ('K'-series). Other large Avestan language manuscript collections are those of the British Museum ('L'-series), the K. R. Cama Oriental Library in Mumbai , the Meherji Rana library in Navsari , and at various university and national libraries in Europe. In
2226-609: A general revision of the canon and continued to ensure its orthodoxy ( Dk 4F, AVN 1.12–1.16). A final revision was supposedly undertaken in the 6th century CE under Khosrow I ( Dk 4G). Texts of the Avesta became available to European scholarship comparatively late, thus the study of Zoroastrianism in Western countries dates back to only the 18th century. Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron travelled to India in 1755, and discovered
2385-402: A given language can be classified as "a dialect", including any standardized varieties . In this case, the distinction between the "standard language" (i.e. the "standard" dialect of a particular language) and the " nonstandard " (vernacular) dialects of the same language is often arbitrary and based on social, political, cultural, or historical considerations or prevalence and prominence. In
2544-415: A language with a writing system will operate at different degrees of distance from the standardized written form. Some dialects of a language are not mutually intelligible in spoken form, leading to debate as to whether they are regiolects or separate languages. A standard dialect , also known as a "standardized language", is supported by institutions. Such institutional support may include any or all of
2703-501: A limited time frame. Most scholars today consider a time between 1500 and 900 BCE to be possible, with a date close to 1000 BCE being considered likely by many. They must have crystallized early on, meaning their transmission became fixed shortly after their composition. During their long history, the Gathic texts seem to have been transmitted with the highest accuracy. Most of the Avestan corpus
2862-459: A matter of dispute. Macedonian , which is largely mutually intelligible with Bulgarian and certain dialects of Serbo-Croatian ( Torlakian ), is considered by Bulgarian linguists to be a Bulgarian dialect, while in North Macedonia , it is regarded as a language in its own right. Before the establishment of a literary standard of Macedonian in 1944, in most sources in and out of Bulgaria before
3021-456: A much larger Avestan corpus was still available during the Sassanian period than exists today. Only about one-quarter of the Avestan sentences or verses referred to by the 9th/10th century commentators can be found in the surviving texts. This suggests that three-quarters of Avestan material, including an indeterminable number of juridical, historical and legendary texts have been lost since then. On
3180-745: A number of different families follow the last two major groups: the Gallo-Romance languages ( French , Occitan and its Vivaro-Alpine dialect , Franco-Provençal ); the Rhaeto-Romance languages ( Friulian and Ladin ); the Ibero-Romance languages ( Sardinia 's Algherese ); the Germanic Cimbrian , Southern Bavarian , Walser German and the Mòcheno language ; the Albanian Arbëresh language ;
3339-575: A number of distinct stages, during which different parts of the Avestan corpus were composed, transmitted in either fluid or fixed form, as well as edited and redacted. A small portion of the Avestan corpus is composed in a more archaic language than the rest. These so called Old Avestan texts are the Gathas , the Yasna Haptanghaiti , and a number of short mantras . They are linguistically very similar and are therefore considered to have been composed over
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#17328454498543498-478: A particular dialect, often the sociolect of the elite class, comes to be identified as the "standard" or "proper" version of a language by those seeking to make a social distinction and is contrasted with other varieties. As a result of this, in some contexts, the term "dialect" refers specifically to varieties with low social status . In this secondary sense of "dialect", language varieties are often called dialects rather than languages : The status of "language"
3657-653: A region in the southwestern Iranian plateau , was the homeland of the southwestern branch of the Iranian peoples , the Persians. It was also the birthplace of the first Iranian Empire, the Achaemenids . The region served as the centre of the empire until its conquest by the Macedonian king Alexander the Great ( r. 336–323 BCE ). Since the end of the 3rd or the beginning of
3816-546: A remote place, Bishapur in Khuzistan , where they were settled as a garrison and built a weir with bridge for Shapur. However, the Persian forces were later defeated by the Roman officer Balista and the lord of Palmyra Septimius Odaenathus , who captured the royal harem. Shapur plundered the eastern borders of Syria and returned to Ctesiphon, probably in late 260. In 264 Septimius Odaenathus reached Ctesiphon, but failed to take
3975-438: A separate and parallel way and may thus better fit various parties' criteria for a separate language. Despite this, these "dialects" may often be historically cognate and share genetic roots in the same subfamily as the dominant national language and may even, to a varying degree, share some mutual intelligibility with the latter. In this sense, unlike in the first usage, the national language would not itself be considered
4134-728: A separate language, because Literary Arabic is the liturgical language of Islam and the language of the Islamic sacred book, the Qur'an . Although, especially since the 1960s, the Darijas are occupying an increasing use and influence in the cultural life of these countries. Examples of cultural elements where Darijas' use became dominant include: theatre, film, music, television, advertisement, social media, folk-tale books and companies' names. Shapur I Shapur I (also spelled Shabuhr I ; Middle Persian : 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 , romanized: Šābuhr )
4293-430: A sequence of varieties, where each mutually intelligible with the next, but may not be mutually intelligible with distant varieties. Others have argued that mutual intelligibility occurs in varying degrees, and the potential difficulty in distinguishing between intelligibility and prior familiarity with the other variety. However, recent research suggests that there is some empirical evidence in favor of using some form of
4452-399: A similar way, the definitions of the terms "language" and "dialect" may overlap and are often subject to debate, with the differentiation between the two classifications often grounded in arbitrary or sociopolitical motives, and the term "dialect" is sometimes restricted to mean "non-standard variety", particularly in non-specialist settings and non-English linguistic traditions. The term
4611-441: A similar way, the definitions of the terms "language" and "dialect" may overlap and are often subject to debate, with the differentiation between the two classifications often grounded in arbitrary or sociopolitical motives. The term "dialect" is however sometimes restricted to mean "non-standard variety", particularly in non-specialist settings and non-English linguistic traditions. Conversely, some dialectologists have reserved
4770-582: A socio-cultural approach, is possible. This is illustrated by the frequency with which the army-navy aphorism is cited. By the definition most commonly used by linguists, any linguistic variety can be considered a "dialect" of some language—"everybody speaks a dialect". According to that interpretation, the criteria above merely serve to distinguish whether two varieties are dialects of the same language or dialects of different languages. The terms "language" and "dialect" are not necessarily mutually exclusive, although they are often perceived to be. Thus there
4929-636: A speaker of purely Eastern Lombard , a language in Northern Italy 's Lombardy region that includes the Bergamasque dialect , would have severely limited mutual intelligibility with a purely Italian speaker and would be nearly completely unintelligible to a Sicilian -speaking individual. Due to Eastern Lombard's status as a Gallo-Italic language, an Eastern Lombard speaker may, in fact, have more mutual intelligibility with an Occitan, Catalan , or French speaker than with an Italian or Sicilian speaker. Meanwhile,
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5088-722: A town named Pushang in Khorasan . In all records Shapur calls himself mzdysn ("Mazda-worshipping"). His inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht recounts his wars and religious establishments to the same extent. He believed that he had a responsibility; "For the reason, therefore, that the gods have so made us their instrument (dstkrt), and that by the help of the gods we have sought out for ourselves, and hold, all these nations (štry) for that reason we have also founded, province by province, many Varahrān fires (ʾtwry wlhlʾn), and we have dealt piously with many Magi (mowmard), and we have made great worship of
5247-627: Is a ceremony called the Vendidad , in which the Yasna is recited with all the chapters of both the Visparad and the Vendidad inserted at appropriate points. This ceremony is only performed at night. The Yasht s (from yešti , "worship by praise") are a collection of 21 hymns, each dedicated to a particular divinity or divine concept. Three hymns of the Yasna liturgy that "worship by praise" are—in tradition—also nominally called yasht s, but are not counted among
5406-549: Is almost as old as the Gathas , consists of prayers and hymns in honor of Ahura Mazda, the Yazatas , the Fravashi , Fire, Water, and Earth. The younger Yasna , though handed down in prose, may once have been metrical, as the Gathas still are. The Visperad (from vîspe ratavo , "(prayer to) all patrons") is a collection of supplements to the Yasna . The Visparad is subdivided into 23 or 24 kardo (sections) that are interleaved into
5565-502: Is also attested under Shapur, who made use of them to demolish the city of Hatra . He may also have used them against Valerian, as attested in the Shahnameh ( The Book of Kings ). Shapur I left other reliefs and rock inscriptions. A relief at Naqsh-e Rajab near Estakhr is accompanied by a Greek translation. Here Shapur I calls himself "the Mazdayasnan (worshipper of Ahuramazda ),
5724-561: Is also found in the story of the mythological Iranian king Kay Khosrow . According to the modern historian Bonner, the story of Shapur's birth and uprising "may conceal a marriage between Ardashir and an Arsacid princess or perhaps merely a noble lady connected with the Parthian aristocracy." On his inscriptions, Shapur identifies his mother as a certain Murrod . Shapur I was a son of Ardashir I and his wife Murrod or Denag . The background of
5883-503: Is also used popularly to refer to the unwritten or non-codified languages of developing countries or isolated areas, where the term " vernacular language " would be preferred by linguists. John Lyons writes that "Many linguists [...] subsume differences of accent under differences of dialect." In general, accent refers to variations in pronunciation, while dialect also encompasses specific variations in grammar and vocabulary . There are three geographical zones in which Arabic
6042-432: Is an ecclesiastical code, not a liturgical manual, and there is a degree of moral relativism apparent in the codes of conduct. The Vendidad ' s different parts vary widely in character and in age. Some parts may be comparatively recent in origin although the greater part is very old. The Vendidad, unlike the Yasna and the Visparad, is a book of moral laws rather than the record of a liturgical ceremony. However, there
6201-504: Is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class or ethnicity . A dialect that is associated with a particular social class can be termed a sociolect . A dialect that is associated with a particular ethnic group can be termed an ethnolect . A geographical/regional dialect may be termed a regiolect (alternative terms include 'regionalect', 'geolect', and 'topolect' ). According to this definition, any variety of
6360-625: Is composed in Young Avestan. These texts originated in a later stage of the Avestan period separated from the Old Avestan time by several centuries. Due to a number of geographical references , there is a wide consensus that they were composed in the eastern portion of Greater Iran . These texts appear to have been handed down during this time in a more fluid oral tradition and were partly composed afresh with each generation of poet-priests, sometimes with
6519-532: Is heavily based on the Florentine dialect of Tuscan . The Tuscan-based language that would eventually become modern Italian had been used in poetry and literature since at least the 12th century , and it first spread outside the Tuscan linguistic borders through the works of the so-called tre corone ("three crowns"): Dante Alighieri , Petrarch , and Giovanni Boccaccio . Florentine thus gradually rose to prominence as
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6678-486: Is most prevalent. Italy is in fact home to a vast array of separate languages , most of which lack mutual intelligibility with one another and have their own local varieties; twelve of them ( Albanian , Catalan , German , Greek , Slovene , Croatian , French , Franco-Provençal , Friulian , Ladin , Occitan and Sardinian ) underwent Italianization to a varying degree (ranging from the currently endangered state displayed by Sardinian and southern Italian Greek to
6837-604: Is not solely determined by linguistic criteria, but it is also the result of a historical and political development. Romansh came to be a written language, and therefore it is recognized as a language, even though it is very close to the Lombardic alpine dialects and classical Latin. An opposite example is Chinese , whose variations such as Mandarin and Cantonese are often called dialects and not languages in China, despite their mutual unintelligibility. National boundaries sometimes make
6996-766: Is nothing contradictory in the statement "the language of the Pennsylvania Dutch is a dialect of German ". There are various terms that linguists may use to avoid taking a position on whether the speech of a community is an independent language in its own right or a dialect of another language. Perhaps the most common is " variety "; " lect " is another. A more general term is " languoid ", which does not distinguish between dialects, languages, and groups of languages, whether genealogically related or not. The colloquial meaning of dialect can be understood by example, e.g. in Italy (see dialetto ), France (see patois ) and
7155-454: Is often considered to be purely linguistic, is that of mutual intelligibility : two varieties are said to be dialects of the same language if being a speaker of one variety has sufficient knowledge to understand and be understood by a speaker of the other dialect; otherwise, they are said to be different languages. However, this definition has often been criticized, especially in the case of a dialect continuum (or dialect chain), which contains
7314-405: Is only used for the traditional regional varieties. That allows them to be distinguished from the regional varieties of modern standard German. The German dialects show a wide spectrum of variation. Some of them are not mutually intelligible. German dialectology traditionally names the major dialect groups after Germanic tribes from which they were assumed to have descended. The extent to which
7473-506: Is said to be autonomous. In contrast, speakers in the Netherlands of Low Saxon varieties similar to Westphalian would instead consult a dictionary of Standard Dutch , and hence is categorized as a dialect of Dutch instead. Similarly, although Yiddish is classified by linguists as a language in the High German group of languages and has some degree of mutual intelligibility with German,
7632-624: Is spoken (Jastrow 2002). Zone I is categorized as the area in which Arabic was spoken before the rise of Islam. It is the Arabian Peninsula, excluding the areas where southern Arabian was spoken. Zone II is categorized as the areas to which Arabic speaking peoples moved as a result of the conquests of Islam. Included in Zone II are the Levant , Egypt , North Africa , Iraq , and some parts of Iran . The Egyptian, Sudanese, and Levantine dialects (including
7791-488: Is supported by the Académie Française institution. A nonstandard dialect also has a complete grammar and vocabulary, but is usually not the beneficiary of institutional support. The distinction between the "standard" dialect and the " nonstandard " (vernacular) dialects of the same language is often arbitrary and based on social, political, cultural, or historical considerations or prevalence and prominence. In
7950-484: Is the only nask that has survived in its entirety. The text consists of 22 Fargard s, fragments arranged as discussions between Ahura Mazda and Zoroaster. The first fargard is a dualistic creation myth , followed by the description of a destructive winter (compare Fimbulvetr ) on the lines of the Flood myth . The second fargard recounts the legend of Yima . The remaining fargard s deal primarily with hygiene (care of
8109-550: Is transliterated in other languages as; Greek Sapur , Sabour and Sapuris ; Latin Sapores and Sapor ; Arabic Sābur and Šābur ; New Persian Šāpur , Šāhpur , Šahfur . According to the semi-legendary Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan , a Middle Persian biography of Ardashir I , the daughter of the Parthian king Artabanus IV , Zijanak, attempted to poison her husband Ardashir. Discovering her intentions, Ardashir ordered her to be executed. Finding out about her pregnancy,
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#17328454498548268-554: The Kushti , the sacred thread worn by Zoroastrians, represent these sections. The central portion of the Yasna is the Gathas , the oldest and most sacred portion of the Avesta, believed to have been composed by Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) himself. The Gathas are structurally interrupted by the Yasna Haptanghaiti ("seven-chapter Yasna "), which makes up chapters 35–42 of the Yasna and
8427-635: The mobads (priests) were against it. Nevertheless, Ardashir still demanded her execution, which led the mobads to conceal her and her son Shapur for seven years, until the latter was identified by Ardashir, who chooses to adopt him based on his virtuous traits. This type of narrative is repeated in Iranian historiography. According to 5th-century BCE Greek historian Herodotus , the Median king Astyages wanted to have his grandson Cyrus killed because he believed that he would one day overthrow him. A similar narrative
8586-541: The Aramaic alphabet -derived Pahlavi scripts . The search for the 'Arsacid archetype' was increasingly criticized in the 1940s and was eventually abandoned in the 1950s after Karl Hoffmann demonstrated that the inconsistencies noted by Andreas were actually due to unconscious alterations introduced by oral transmission. Hoffmann identifies these changes to be due, in part, to modifications introduced through recitation; in part to influences from other Iranian languages picked up on
8745-532: The Avesta that is not already present in one of the other categories is placed in a "fragments" category, which – as the name suggests – includes incomplete texts. There are altogether more than 20 fragment collections, many of which have no name (and are then named after their owner/collator) or only a Middle Persian name. The more important of the fragment collections are the Nirangistan fragments (18 of which constitute
8904-727: The Babylonian Amoraim , the Talmudic sages from among the important Jewish communities of Mesopotamia . Shapur's campaigns deprived the Roman Empire of resources while restoring and substantially enriching his own treasury, by deporting many Romans from conquered cities to Sasanian provinces like Khuzestan , Asuristan , and Pars . This influx of deported artisans and skilled workers revitalised Iran's domestic commerce. In Bishapur , Shapur died of an illness. His death came in May 270 and he
9063-547: The Bazrangid ruler of Persis, Gochihr , taking Istakhr for himself. Around 208 Vologases VI succeeded his father Vologases V as king of the Arsacid Empire. He ruled as the uncontested king from 208 to 213, but afterwards fell into a dynastic struggle with his brother Artabanus IV , who by 216 was in control of most of the empire, even being acknowledged as the supreme ruler by the Roman Empire. Artabanus IV soon clashed with
9222-575: The Centro-Southern and Centro-Northern dialects. Though mostly mutually unintelligible, the exact degree to which all the Italian languages are mutually unintelligible varies, often correlating with geographical distance or geographical barriers between the languages; some regional Italian languages that are closer in geographical proximity to each other or closer to each other on the dialect continuum are more or less mutually intelligible. For instance,
9381-556: The Darijas translated as literally meaning Dialect in Arabic (spoken North African languages) are sometimes considered more different from other Arabic dialects. Officially, North African countries prefer to give preference to the Literary Arabic and conduct much of their political and religious life in it (adherence to Islam ), and refrain from declaring each country's specific variety to be
9540-609: The Ehrbadistan ); the Pursishniha "questions," also known as "Fragments Tahmuras "; and the Hadokht Nask "volume of the scriptures" with two fragments of eschatological significance. Dialect A dialect is a variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. It can also refer to a language subordinate in status to a dominant language, and is sometimes used to mean a vernacular language. The more common usage of
9699-578: The Hellenic Griko language and Calabrian Greek ; the Serbo-Croatian Slavomolisano dialect ; and the various Slovene languages , including the Gail Valley dialect and Istrian dialect . The language indigenous to Sardinia , while being Romance in nature, is considered to be a specific linguistic family of its own, separate from the other Neo-Latin groups; it is often subdivided into
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#17328454498549858-543: The King of Kings using the Emperor as a footstool to mount his horse, and they claim he later died a miserable death in captivity at the hands of the enemy. However, just as with the above-mentioned Gilaks deported to the East by Shapur, the Persian treatment of prisoners of war was unpleasant but honourable, drafting the captured Romans and their Emperor into their army and deporting them to
10017-503: The Kings of Persis , most likely at the accession of the Arsacid monarch Phraates II ( r. 132–127 BCE ). Unlike the fratarakas , the Kings of Persis used the title of shah ("king"), and laid foundations to a new dynasty, which may be labelled the Darayanids. Under Vologases V ( r. 191–208 ), the Parthian Empire was in decline, due to wars with the Romans , civil wars and regional revolts. The Roman emperor Septimius Severus ( r. 193–211 ) had invaded
10176-411: The Middle Ages . However, all these languages evolved from Vulgar Latin in parallel with Italian, long prior to the popular diffusion of the latter throughout what is now Italy . During the Risorgimento , Italian still existed mainly as a literary language, and only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak Italian. Proponents of Italian nationalism , like the Lombard Alessandro Manzoni , stressed
10335-422: The Philippines , carries a pejorative undertone and underlines the politically and socially subordinated status of a non-national language to the country's single official language. In other words, these "dialects" are not actual dialects in the same sense as in the first usage, as they do not derive from the politically dominant language and are therefore not one of its varieties , but instead they evolved in
10494-456: The Vendidad is a mixed collection of prose texts mostly dealing with purity laws. Even today, the Vendidad is the only liturgical text that is not recited entirely from memory. Some of the materials of the extended Yasna are from the Yashts , which are hymns to the individual yazata s. Unlike the Yasna , Visperad and Vendidad , the Yasht s and the other lesser texts of the Avesta are no longer used liturgically in high rituals. Aside from
10653-429: The Yasht collection since the three are a part of the primary liturgy. The Yasht s vary greatly in style, quality and extent. In their present form, they are all in prose but analysis suggests that they may at one time have been in verse. The Siroza ("thirty days") is an enumeration and invocation of the 30 divinities presiding over the days of the month. (cf. Zoroastrian calendar ). The Siroza exists in two forms,
10812-446: The Yasht s, these other lesser texts include the Nyayesh texts, the Gah texts, the Siroza and various other fragments. Together, these lesser texts are conventionally called Khordeh Avesta or "Little Avesta" texts. When the first Khordeh Avesta editions were printed in the 19th century, these texts (together with some non-Avestan language prayers) became a book of common prayer for lay people. The term Avesta originates from
10971-420: The Yasna , are in the Old (or 'Gathic') Avestan language. The remainder of the Yasna 's texts are in Younger Avestan, which is not only from a later stage of the language, but also from a different geographic region. Extensions to the Yasna ceremony include the texts of the Vendidad and the Visperad . The Visperad extensions consist mainly of additional invocations of the divinities ( yazata s), while
11130-420: The conscription of Italian men from all throughout Italy during World War I is credited with having facilitated the diffusion of Italian among the less educated conscripted soldiers, as these men, who had been speaking various regional languages up until then, found themselves forced to communicate with each other in a common tongue while serving in the Italian military. With the popular spread of Italian out of
11289-455: The nask s are divided into three groups, of seven volumes per group. Originally, each volume had a word of the prayer as its name, which so marked a volume's position relative to the other volumes. Only about a quarter of the text from the nask s has survived to the present day. The contents of the Avesta are divided topically (even though the organization of the nask s is not), but these are not fixed or canonical. Some scholars prefer to place
11448-649: The volgare of the literate and upper class in Italy, and it spread throughout the peninsula and Sicily as the lingua franca among the Italian educated class as well as Italian travelling merchants. The economic prowess and cultural and artistic importance of Tuscany in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance further encouraged the diffusion of the Florentine-Tuscan Italian throughout Italy and among
11607-601: The 2nd century BCE, Pars was ruled by local dynasts subject to the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire . These dynasts held the ancient Persian title of frataraka ("leader, governor, forerunner"), which is also attested in the Achaemenid-era. Later under the frataraka Wadfradad II (fl. 138 BCE) was made a vassal of the Iranian Parthian (Arsacid) Empire . The frataraka were shortly afterwards replaced by
11766-425: The 9th/10th-century works of Zoroastrian tradition in which the word appears as Middle Persian abestāg , Book Pahlavi ʾp(y)stʾkʼ . In that context, abestāg texts are portrayed as received knowledge and are distinguished from the exegetical commentaries (the zand ) thereof. The literal meaning of the word abestāg is uncertain; it is generally acknowledged to be a learned borrowing from Avestan, but none of
11925-450: The Avesta is a compilation from various sources, and its different parts date from different periods and vary widely in character. Only texts in the Avestan language are considered part of the Avesta. According to the Denkard , the 21 nask s (books) mirror the structure of the 21-word-long Ahuna Vairya prayer: each of the three lines of the prayer consists of seven words. Correspondingly,
12084-472: The Avesta, as they exist today, derive from a single master copy produced by that collation. That master copy, now lost, is known as the 'Sassanian archetype'. The oldest surviving manuscript ( K1 ) of an Avestan language text is dated 1323 CE. The post-Sassanian phase saw a pronounced deterioration of the Avestan corpus. Summaries in the texts of the Zoroastrian tradition from the 9th/10th century indicate that
12243-476: The Caribbean coast of Costa Rica (Central America) by descendants of Jamaican people. The position that Costa Rican linguists support depends upon which university they represent. Another example is Scanian , which even, for a time, had its own ISO code. An important criterion for categorizing varieties of language is linguistic distance . For a variety to be considered a dialect, the linguistic distance between
12402-561: The East and annexed most of the land of the Kushans, and appointing his son Narseh as Sakanshah—king of the Sakas—in Sistan . In 242 CE, Shapur conquered khwarezm . Shapur could now proudly proclaim that his empire stretched all the way to Peshawar, and his relief in Rag-i-Bibi in present-day Afghanistan confirms this claim. Shapur I claims in his Naqsh-e Rostam inscription possession of
12561-806: The Eastern territories with POW's from his previous campaign against the Medes of the Mountains. Agathias claims Bahram II (274–293 CE) later campaigned in the land of the Sakas and appointed his brother Hormizd as its king. When Hormizd revolted, the Panegyrici Latini list his forces as the Sacci (Sakas), the Rufii (Cusii/Kushans) and the Geli (Gelans / Gilaks , the inhabitants of Gilan ). Since
12720-559: The Gilaks are obviously out of place among these easterners, and as we know that Shapur I had to fight the Medes of the Mountains first before marching to the land of the Kushans, it is conceivable those Gilaks were the descendants of warriors captured during Shapur I's North-western campaign, forcibly drafted into the Sasanian army, and settled as a hereditary garrison in Merv , Nishapur , or Zrang after
12879-515: The Parthian domains in 196, and two years later did the same, this time sacking the Parthian capital of Ctesiphon. At the same time, revolts occurred in Media and Persis. The Iranologist Touraj Daryaee argues that the reign of Vologases V was "the turning point in Parthian history, in that the dynasty lost much of its prestige." The kings of Persis were now unable to depend on their weakened Parthian overlords. Indeed, in 205/6, Pabag rebelled and overthrew
13038-502: The Persians of 500,000 gold denarii. Philip immediately issued coins proclaiming that he had made peace with the Persians ( pax fundata cum Persis ). However, Philip later broke the treaty and seized lost territory. Shapur I commemorated this victory on several rock reliefs in Pars . Shapur I invaded Mesopotamia in 250 but again, serious trouble arose in Khorasan and Shapur I had to march over there and settle its affair. Having settled
13197-530: The Roman emperor Caracalla , whose forces he managed to contain at Nisibis in 217. Peace was made between the two empires the following year, with the Arsacids keeping most of Mesopotamia . However, Artabanus IV still had to deal with his brother Vologases VI, who continued to mint coins and challenge him. The Sasanian family had meanwhile quickly risen to prominence in Pars, and had now under Ardashir begun to conquer
13356-411: The Roman emperor, Valerian . He did not seem interested in permanently occupying the Roman provinces, choosing instead to resort to plundering and pillaging, gaining vast amounts of riches. The captives of Antioch, for example, were allocated to the newly reconstructed city of Gundeshapur , later famous as a center of scholarship. In the 260s, subordinates of Shapur suffered setbacks against Odaenathus ,
13515-633: The Sasanians with "a huge army and great quantity of gold," (according to a Sasanian rock relief) and wintered in Antioch , while Shapur was occupied with subduing Gilan , Khorasan , and Sistan . There the Roman general Timesitheus fought against the Sasanians and won repeated battles, and recaptured Carrhae and Nisibis, and at last routed a Sasanian army at Resaena, forcing the Persians to restore all occupied cities unharmed to their citizens. "We have penetrated as far as Nisibis, and shall even get to Ctesiphon ,"
13674-576: The Second World War, the South Slavic dialect continuum covering the area of today's North Macedonia were referred to as Bulgarian dialects . Sociolinguists agree that the question of whether Macedonian is a dialect of Bulgarian or a language is a political one and cannot be resolved on a purely linguistic basis. In Lebanon , a part of the Christian population considers "Lebanese" to be in some sense
13833-546: The Syrian dialect) are well documented, and widely spoken and studied. Zone III comprises the areas in which Arabic is spoken outside of the continuous Arabic Language area. Spoken dialects of the Arabic language share the same writing system and share Modern Standard Arabic as their common prestige dialect used in writing. When talking about the German language, the term German dialects
13992-683: The West-Germanic language group. Some language siblings are closer to each other in terms of linguistic distance than to other linguistic siblings. French and Spanish, siblings in the Romance Branch of the Indo-European group, are closer to each other than they are to any of the languages of the West-Germanic group. When languages are close in terms of linguistic distance, they resemble one another, hence why dialects are not considered linguistically distant to their parent language. One criterion, which
14151-467: The Yasna during a Visperad service (which is an extended Yasna service). The Visperad collection has no unity of its own, and is never recited separately from the Yasna. The Vendidad (or Vidēvdāt , a corruption of Avestan Vī-Daēvō-Dāta , "Given Against the Demons") is an enumeration of various manifestations of evil spirits, and ways to confound them. The Vendidad includes all of the 19th nask , which
14310-532: The actions of his future wife al-Nadirah . Shapur also consolidated and expanded the empire of Ardashir I, waged war against the Roman Empire , and seized its cities of Nisibis and Carrhae while he was advancing as far as Roman Syria . Although he was defeated at the Battle of Resaena in 243 by Roman emperor Gordian III ( r. 238–244 ), he was the following year able to win the Battle of Misiche and force
14469-760: The addition of new material. Most scholars assume that this phase corresponds to a time frame from ca. 900-400 BCE. At some time, however, this fluid phase must have stopped as well and the process of transmission of the Young Avestan texts became fixed similar to the Old Avestan material. This second crystallization must have taken place during the Old Iranian period, as Young Avestan does not show any characteristics of Middle Iranian. The subsequent transmission took place in Western Iran as evidenced by alterations introduced by native Persian speakers. Scholars like Skjærvø and Kreyenbroek correlate this second crystallization with
14628-475: The adoption of Zoroastrianism by the Achaemenids . As a result, Persian - and Median -speaking priests would have become the primary group to transmit these texts. Having no longer an active command of Avestan, they choose to preserve both Old and Young Avestan text as faithfully as possible. Some Young Avestan texts, like the Vendidad , show non-Avestan influence and are therefore considered to have been redacted or otherwise altered by non-Avestan speakers after
14787-472: The affair in Khorasan he resumed the invasion of Roman territories, and later annihilated a Roman force of 60,000 at the Battle of Barbalissos . He then burned and ravaged the Roman province of Syria and all its dependencies. Shapur I then reconquered Armenia , and incited Anak the Parthian to murder the king of Armenia, Khosrov II . Anak did as Shapur asked, and had Khosrov murdered in 258; yet Anak himself
14946-569: The ancient city of Zrang in Sakastan (the land of the Sakas , Sistan ), but the only early Sasanian period founding of a new settlement in the East which is certain is the building by Shapur I of Nishapur —"Beautiful (city built) by Shapur"—in Dihistan (former Parthia , apparently lost by the Parthians to the Kushans ). Soon after the death of his father in 241 CE, Shapur felt the need to cut short
15105-610: The battle or murdered by the Romans after the defeat. The Romans then chose Philip the Arab as Emperor. Philip was not willing to repeat the mistakes of previous claimants, and was aware that he had to return to Rome to secure his position with the Senate. Philip concluded a peace with Shapur I in 244; he had agreed that Armenia lay within Persia's sphere of influence. He also had to pay an enormous indemnity to
15264-583: The campaign they had started in Roman Syria, and reassert Sasanian authority in the East, perhaps because the Kushan and Saka kings were lax in abiding to their tributary status. However, he first had to fight "The Medes of the Mountains"—as we will see possibly in the mountain range of Gilan on the Caspian coast—and after subjugating them, he appointed his son Bahram (the later Bahram I ) as their king. He then marched to
15423-467: The categories in two groups, one liturgical, and the other general. The following categorization is as described by Jean Kellens (see bibliography , below). The Yasna (from yazišn "worship, oblations", cognate with Sanskrit yajña ), is the primary liturgical collection, named after the ceremony at which it is recited. It consists of 72 sections called the Ha-iti or Ha . The 72 threads of lamb's wool in
15582-667: The city. The Colossal Statue of Shapur I , which stands in the Shapur Cave, is one of the most impressive sculptures of the Sasanian Empire . Shapur is mentioned many times in the Talmud , in which he is referred to in Jewish Aramaic as Shabur Malka (שבור מלכא), meaning "King Shapur". He had good relations with the Jewish community and was a friend of Shmuel , one of the most famous of
15741-456: The conclusion of Shapur's north-eastern campaign, the usual Sasanian practise with prisoners of war. Ardashir I had, towards the end of his reign, renewed the war against the Roman Empire , and Shapur I had conquered the Mesopotamian fortresses Nisibis and Carrhae and had advanced into Syria . In 242, the Romans under the father-in-law of their child-emperor Gordian III set out against
15900-470: The country's official language(s). Dialects in this sense do not derive from a dominant language, are therefore not one of its varieties , but they evolved in a separate and parallel way. While they may be historically cognate with and share genetic roots in the same subfamily as the dominant national language and may, to a varying degree, share some mutual intelligibility with the latter, "dialects" under this second definition are separate languages from
16059-672: The day and the month. The five Nyayesh es, abbreviated Ny. , are prayers for regular recitation by both priests and laity. They are addressed to the Sun and Mithra (recited together thrice a day), to the Moon (recited thrice a month), and to the Waters and to Fire . The Nyayesh es are composite texts containing selections from the Gathas and the Yashts, as well as later material. The five gāh s are invocations to
16218-411: The dead in particular) [ fargard 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 19] as well as disease and spells to fight it [7, 10, 11, 13, 20, 21, 22]. Fargard s 4 and 15 discuss the dignity of wealth and charity, of marriage and of physical effort and the indignity of unacceptable social behaviour such as assault and breach of contract , and specify the penances required to atone for violations thereof. The Vendidad
16377-449: The default everyday language in virtually every situation, whereas standard German is only spoken in education, partially in media, and with foreigners not possessing knowledge of Swiss German. Most Swiss German speakers perceive standard German to be a foreign language. The Low German and Low Franconian varieties spoken in Germany are often counted among the German dialects. This reflects
16536-577: The dialects are spoken varies according to a number of factors: In Northern Germany, dialects are less common than in the South. In cities, dialects are less common than in the countryside. In a public environment, dialects are less common than in a familiar environment. The situation in Switzerland and Liechtenstein is different from the rest of the German-speaking countries. The Swiss German dialects are
16695-440: The distinction between "language" and "dialect" an issue of political importance. A group speaking a separate "language" may be seen as having a greater claim to being a separate "people", and thus to be more deserving of its own independent state, while a group speaking a "dialect" may be seen as a sub-group, part of a bigger people, which must content itself with regional autonomy. The Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich published
16854-687: The divine Shapur, King of Kings of the Iranians , and non-Iranians, of divine descent, son of the Mazdayasnan, the divine Ardashir , King of Kings of the Aryans, grandson of the divine king Papak ". Another long inscription at Estakhr mentions the King's exploits in archery in the presence of his nobles. From his titles we learn that Shapur I claimed sovereignty over the whole earth, although in reality his domain extended little farther than that of Ardashir I. Shapur I built
17013-492: The early 20th century, the legend of the Parthian-era collation engendered a search for a 'Parthian archetype' of the Avesta. According to the theory of Friedrich Carl Andreas (1902), the archaic nature of the Avestan texts was assumed to be due to preservation via written transmission, and unusual or unexpected spellings in the surviving texts were assumed to be reflections of errors introduced by Sasanian-era transcription from
17172-593: The educated and powerful, though local and regional languages remained the main languages of the common people. Aside from the Italo-Dalmatian languages , the second most widespread family in Italy is the Gallo-Italic group , spanning throughout much of Northern Italy 's languages and dialects (such as Piedmontese , Emilian-Romagnol , Ligurian , Lombard , Venetian , Sicily's and Basilicata's Gallo-Italic in southern Italy , etc.). Finally, other languages from
17331-458: The end of the Arsacid era and the start of 427 years of Sasanian rule. The chief secretary of the deceased Arsacid king, Dad-windad , was afterwards executed by Ardashir I. Ardashir celebrated his victory by having two rock reliefs sculptured at the Sasanian royal city of Ardashir-Khwarrah (present-day Firuzabad ) in Pars . The first relief portrays three scenes of personal fighting; starting from
17490-516: The end of the Parthian Empire. Yet, the military was essentially the same as that of the Parthians; the same Parthians nobles who served the Arsacid royal family, now served the Sasanians, forming the majority of the Sasanian army. However, the Sasanians seem to have employed more cataphracts who were equipped with lighter chain-mail armour resembling that of the Romans. Although Iranian society
17649-455: The expression, A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot ( "אַ שפּראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמײ און פֿלאָט" : " A language is a dialect with an army and navy ") in YIVO Bleter 25.1, 1945, p. 13. The significance of the political factors in any attempt at answering the question "what is a language?" is great enough to cast doubt on whether any strictly linguistic definition, without
17808-592: The family is obscure; although based in Pars (also known as Persis ), they were not native to the area, and were seemingly originally from the east. The historian Marek Jan Olbrycht has suggested that the family was descended from the Indo-Parthians of Sakastan . Iranologist Khodadad Rezakhani also noted similarities between the early Sasanians and the Indo-Parthians, such as their coinage. Yet, he stated that "evidence might still be too inconclusive." Pars,
17967-401: The first linguistic definition of the term, as they are in fact derived from Italian, with some degree of influence from the local or regional native languages and accents. The most widely spoken languages of Italy, which are not to be confused with regional Italian, fall within a family of which even Italian is part, the Italo-Dalmatian group . This wide category includes: Modern Italian
18126-435: The five divinities that watch over the five divisions ( gāh s) of the day . Gāh s are similar in structure and content to the five Nyayesh es. The Afrinagan s are four "blessing" texts recited on a particular occasion: the first in honor of the dead, the second on the five epagomenal days that end the year, the third is recited at the six seasonal feasts, and the fourth at the beginning and end of summer. All material in
18285-471: The following: government recognition or designation; formal presentation in schooling as the "correct" form of a language; informal monitoring of everyday usage ; published grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks that set forth a normative spoken and written form; and an extensive formal literature (be it prose, poetry, non-fiction, etc.) that uses it. An example of a standardized language is the French language which
18444-492: The gods." According to the Zoroastrian priest Kartir , Shapur treated the Zoroastrians generously, and permitted members of their clergy to follow him on his expeditions against the Romans. According to the historian Prods Oktor Skjærvø , Shapur was a "lukewarm Zoroastrian". During the reign of Shapur, Manichaeism , a new religion founded by the Iranian prophet Mani , flourished. Mani was treated well by Shapur, and in 242,
18603-547: The great town Gundishapur near the old Achaemenid capital Susa , and increased the fertility of the district with a dam and irrigation system—built by Roman prisoners—that redirected part of the Karun River . The barrier is still called Band-e Kaisar , "the mole of the Caesar". He is also responsible for building the city of Bishapur , with the labours of Roman soldiers captured after the defeat of Valerian in 260. Shapur also built
18762-413: The importance of establishing a uniform national language in order to better create an Italian national identity . With the unification of Italy in the 1860s, Italian became the official national language of the new Italian state, while the other ones came to be institutionally regarded as "dialects" subordinate to Italian, and negatively associated with a lack of education. In the early 20th century,
18921-505: The incorporation of new territory into the empire, however what was precisely seen as "non-Iran(ian)" ( aneran ) is not certain. Although this new title was used on his inscriptions, it was almost never used on his coinage . The title first became regularised under Hormizd I. Shapur appears in Harry Sidebottom 's historical fiction novel series as one of the enemies of the series protagonist Marcus Clodius Ballista, career soldier in
19080-544: The intellectual circles, because of the mass-media and the establishment of public education , Italians from all regions were increasingly exposed to Italian. While dialect levelling has increased the number of Italian speakers and decreased the number of speakers of other languages native to Italy, Italians in different regions have developed variations of standard Italian specific to their region. These variations of standard Italian, known as " regional Italian ", would thus more appropriately be called dialects in accordance with
19239-568: The intelligibility criterion to distinguish between languages and dialects, though mutuality may not be as relevant as initially thought. The requirement for mutuality is abandoned by the Language Survey Reference Guide of SIL International , publishers of the Ethnologue and the registration authority for the ISO 639-3 standard for language codes . They define a dialect cluster as
19398-452: The king of Palmyra . According to Shapur's inscription at Hajiabad, he still remained active at the court in his later years, participating in archery . He died of illness in Bishapur , most likely in May 270. Shapur was the first Iranian monarch to use the title of "King of Kings of Iranians and non-Iranians"; beforehand the royal titulary had been "King of Kings of Iranians". He had adopted
19557-625: The left, a Persian aristocrat seizing a Parthian soldier; Shapur impaling the Parthian minister Dad-windad with his lance; and Ardashir I ousting Artabanus IV. The second relief, conceivably intended to portray the aftermath of the battle, displays the triumphant Ardashir I being given the badge of kingship over a fire shrine from the Zoroastrian supreme god Ahura Mazda , while Shapur and two other princes are watching from behind. Ardashir considered Shapur "the gentlest, wisest, bravest and ablest of all his children", and nominated him as his successor in
19716-431: The main corpus became fixed. Regardless of such changes and redactions, the main Avestan corpus was passed on orally until its compilation and redaction during the Sassanian period. It was not until around the 5th or 6th century CE that Avestan corpus was committed to written form. This is seen as a turning point in the Avestan tradition since it separates the purely oral from the written transmission. The surviving texts of
19875-458: The modern situation where they are roofed by standard German. This is different from the situation in the Middle Ages when Low German had strong tendencies towards an ausbau language . The Frisian languages spoken in Germany and the Netherlands are excluded from the German dialects. Italy is an often quoted example of a country where the second definition of the word "dialect" ( dialetto )
20034-585: The national language) of limited geographic distribution, languages lacking institutional support, or even those considered to be "unsuitable for writing". Occasionally, in a third usage, dialect refers to the unwritten or non-codified languages of developing countries or isolated areas, where the term " vernacular language " would be preferred by linguists. Features that distinguish dialects from each other can be found in lexicon ( vocabulary ) and grammar ( morphology , syntax ) as well as in pronunciation ( phonology , including prosody ). In instances where
20193-434: The neighbouring regions and more far territories, such as Kirman . At first, Ardashir I's activities did not alarm Artabanus IV, until later, when the Arsacid king finally chose to confront him. Shapur, as portrayed in the Sasanian rock reliefs , took part in his father's war with the Arsacids, including the Battle of Hormozdgan . The battle was fought on 28 April 224, with Artabanus IV being defeated and killed, marking
20352-409: The new Roman emperor Philip the Arab ( r. 244–249 ) to sign a favorable peace treaty that was regarded by the Romans as "a most shameful treaty". Shapur later took advantage of the political turmoil within the Roman Empire by undertaking a second expedition against it in 252/3–256, sacking the cities of Antioch and Dura-Europos . In 260, during his third campaign, he defeated and captured
20511-444: The nobility included the powerful Parthian noble families (known as the wuzurgan ) that were centred on the Iranian plateau . They served as the backbone of the Sasanian feudal army and were largely autonomous. The Parthian nobility worked for the Sasanian shah for personal benefit, personal oath, and, conceivably, a common awareness of the "Aryan" (Iranian) kinship they shared with their Persian overlords. Use of war elephants
20670-492: The offspring of the officials who served Shapur's father. During the reign of Shapur, a certain Papak served as the commander of the royal guard ( hazarbed ), while Peroz served as the chief of the cavalry ( aspbed ); Vahunam and Shapur served as the director of the clergy; Kirdisro served as viceroy of the empire ( bidaxsh ); Vardbad served as the "chief of services"; Hormizd served as the chief scribe; Naduk served as "the chief of
20829-412: The other hand, it appears that the most valuable portions of the canon, including all of the oldest texts, have survived. The likely reason for this is that the surviving materials represent those portions of the Avesta that were in regular liturgical use and therefore known by heart by the priests and not dependent for their preservation on the survival of particular manuscripts. In its present form,
20988-454: The others. To describe this situation, the editors of the Handbook of African Languages introduced the term dialect cluster as a classificatory unit at the same level as a language. A similar situation, but with a greater degree of mutual unintelligibility, has been termed a language cluster . In the Language Survey Reference Guide issued by SIL International , who produce Ethnologue ,
21147-487: The prison"; Papak served as the "gate keeper"; Mihrkhwast served as the treasurer; Shapur served as the commander of the army; Arshtat Mihran served as the secretary; Zik served as the "master of ceremonies". Under Shapur, the Iranian military experienced a resurgence after a rather long decline in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, which gave the Romans the opportunity to undertake expeditions into the Near East and Mesopotamia during
21306-512: The prophet joined the Sasanian court, where he tried to convert Shapur by dedicating his only work written in Middle Persian , known as the Shabuhragan . Shapur, however, did not convert to Manichaeism and remained a Zoroastrian. While the titulage of Ardashir was "King of Kings of Iran(ians)", Shapur slightly changed it, adding the phrase "and non-Iran(ians)". The extended title demonstrates
21465-431: The province of Syria to Roman control. The speedy retreat of Shapur's troops caused Valerian to pursue the Persians to Edessa , but they were defeated , and Valerian, along with the Roman army that was left, was captured by Shapur Shapur then advanced into Asia Minor and managed to capture Caesarea , deporting hundred upon thousands of Roman citizens to the Sasanian empire. He used these captive Roman citizens to build
21624-478: The realm of legend and myth. The oldest surviving versions of these tales are found in the ninth to 11th century texts of Zoroastrian tradition (i.e. in the so-called " Pahlavi books "). The legends run as follows: The twenty-one nask s ("books") of the Avesta were created by Ahura Mazda and brought by Zoroaster to his patron Vishtaspa ( Denkard 4A, 3A). Supposedly, Vishtaspa ( Dk 3A) or another Kayanian , Daray ( Dk 4B), then had two copies made, one of which
21783-570: The route of transmission from somewhere in eastern Iran (i.e. Central Asia) via Arachosia and Sistan through to Persia; and in part due to the influence of phonetic developments in the Avestan language itself. The notion of an Arsacid-era collation and recension is generally rejected by modern scholarship. Instead, there is a now wide consensus that for most of their long history the Avesta's various texts were handed down orally and independently of one another. Based on linguistic aspects, scholars like Kellens , Skjærvø and Hoffman have also identified
21942-731: The salient distinctions are only or mostly to be observed in pronunciation, the more specific term accent may be used instead of dialect . Differences that are largely concentrated in lexicon may be classified as creoles . When lexical differences are mostly concentrated in the specialized vocabulary of a profession or other organization, they are jargons . Differences in vocabulary that are deliberately cultivated to exclude outsiders or to serve as shibboleths are known as cryptolects or cant, and include slangs and argots . The particular speech patterns used by an individual are referred to as that person's idiolect . Languages are classified as dialects based on linguistic distance . The dialects of
22101-486: The same language if (under at least some circumstances) they would defer to the same authority regarding some questions about their language. For instance, to learn the name of a new invention, or an obscure foreign species of plant, speakers of Westphalian and East Franconian German might each consult a German dictionary or ask a German-speaking expert in the subject. Thus these varieties are said to be dependent on, or heteronomous with respect to, Standard German , which
22260-405: The same language. A number of rough measures exist, sometimes leading to contradictory results. The distinction between dialect and language is therefore subjective and depends upon the user's preferred frame of reference. For example, there has been discussion about whether or not the Limón Creole English should be considered "a kind" of English or a different language. This creole is spoken in
22419-756: The same town or region. The classification of speech varieties as dialects or languages and their relationship to other varieties of speech can be controversial and the verdicts inconsistent. Serbo-Croatian illustrates this point. Serbo-Croatian has two major formal variants ( Serbian and Croatian ). Both are based on the Shtokavian dialect and therefore mutually intelligible with differences found mostly in their respective local vocabularies and minor grammatical differences. Certain dialects of Serbia ( Torlakian ) and Croatia ( Kajkavian and Chakavian ), however, are not mutually intelligible even though they are usually subsumed under Serbo-Croatian. How these dialects should be classified in relation to Shtokavian remains
22578-412: The shorter ("little Siroza ") is a brief enumeration of the divinities with their epithets in the genitive. The longer ("great Siroza ") has complete sentences and sections, with the yazata s being addressed in the accusative. The Siroza is never recited as a whole, but is a source for individual sentences devoted to particular divinities, to be inserted at appropriate points in the liturgy depending on
22737-474: The standard or national language. Under this definition, the standard or national language would not itself be considered a dialect, as it is the dominant language in terms of linguistic prestige , social or political (e.g. official ) status, predominance or prevalence, or all of the above. Dialect used this way implies a political connotation, often being used to refer to non-standardized "low-prestige" languages (regardless of their actual degree of distance from
22896-418: The suggested etymologies have been universally accepted. The widely repeated derivation from * upa-stavaka is from Christian Bartholomae ( Altiranisches Wörterbuch , 1904), who interpreted abestāg as a descendant of a hypothetical reconstructed Old Iranian word for "praise-song" (Bartholomae: Lobgesang ); but this word is not actually attested in any text. The Zoroastrian history of the Avesta, lies in
23055-478: The term "dialect" for forms that they believed (sometimes wrongly) to be purer forms of the older languages, as in how early dialectologists of English did not consider the Brummie of Birmingham or the Scouse of Liverpool to be real dialects, as they had arisen fairly recently in time and partly as a result of influences from Irish migrants. There is no universally accepted criterion for distinguishing two different languages from two dialects (i.e. varieties) of
23214-424: The term in English refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The dialects or varieties of a particular language are closely related and, despite their differences, are most often largely mutually intelligible , especially if geographically close to one another in a dialect continuum . The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but
23373-482: The territory of the Kushans (Kūšān šahr) as far as "Purushapura" ( Peshawar ), suggesting he controlled Bactria and areas as far as the Hindu-Kush or even south of it: I, the Mazda-worshipping lord, Shapur, king of kings of Iran and An-Iran… (I) am the Master of the Domain of Iran (Ērānšahr) and possess the territory of Persis, Parthian… Hindestan, the Domain of the Kushan up to the limits of Paškabur and up to Kash, Sughd, and Chachestan. He seems to have garrisoned
23532-486: The texts among Indian Zoroastrian ( Parsi ) communities. He published a set of French translations in 1771, based on translations provided by a Parsi priest. Anquetil-Duperron's translations were at first dismissed as a forgery in poor Sanskrit , but he was vindicated in the 1820s following Rasmus Rask 's examination of the Avestan language ( A Dissertation on the Authenticity of the Zend Language , Bombay, 1821). Rask also established that Anquetil-Duperron's manuscripts were
23691-401: The title due to the influx of Roman citizens whom he had deported during his campaigns. However, it was first under his son and successor Hormizd I , that the title became regularised. Shapur had new Zoroastrian fire temples constructed, incorporated new elements into the faith from Greek and Indian sources, and conducted an extensive program of rebuilding and refounding of cities. "Shapur"
23850-447: The transmission of the Avesta. In this story, credit for collation and recension is given to the early Sasanian-era priest Tansar ( high priest under Ardashir I , r. 224–242 CE, and Shapur I , 240/242–272 CE), who had the scattered works collected – of which he approved only a part as authoritative ( Dk 3C, 4D, 4E). Tansar's work was then supposedly completed by Adurbad Mahraspandan (high priest of Shapur II , r. 309–379 CE) who made
24009-621: The two varieties must be low. Linguistic distance between spoken or written forms of language increases as the differences between the forms are characterized. For example, two languages with completely different syntactical structures would have a high linguistic distance, while a language with very few differences from another may be considered a dialect or a sibling of that language. Linguistic distance may be used to determine language families and language siblings. For example, languages with little linguistic distance, like Dutch and German , are considered siblings. Dutch and German are siblings in
24168-502: The vigorous promotion of Germanic Tyrolean ), but have been officially recognized as minority languages ( minoranze linguistiche storiche ), in light of their distinctive historical development. Yet, most of the regional languages spoken across the peninsula are often colloquially referred to in non-linguistic circles as Italian dialetti , since most of them, including the prestigious Neapolitan , Sicilian and Venetian , have adopted vulgar Tuscan as their reference language since
24327-402: The young emperor Gordian III , who had joined his father-in-law Timesitheus, exultantly wrote to the Senate. The Romans later invaded eastern Mesopotamia but faced tough resistance from Shapur I who returned from the East. Timesitheus died under uncertain circumstances and was succeeded by Philip the Arab . The young emperor Gordian III went to the Battle of Misiche and was either killed in
24486-423: Was a popular name in Sasanian Iran , being used by three Sasanian monarchs and other notables of the Sasanian era and its later periods. Derived from Old Iranian *xšayaθiya.puθra ("son of a king"), it must initially have been a title, which became—at least in the late 2nd century CE—a personal name. It appears in the list of Arsacid kings in some Arabic-Persian sources; however, this is anachronistic . Shapur
24645-489: Was greatly militarised and its elite designated themselves as a "warrior nobility" ( arteshtaran ), it still had a significantly smaller population, was more impoverished, and was a less centralised state compared to the Roman Empire. As a result, the Sasanian shahs had access to fewer full-time fighters, and depended on recruits from the nobility instead. Some exceptions were the royal cavalry bodyguard, garrison soldiers, and units recruited from places outside Iran. The bulk of
24804-542: Was shortly thereafter murdered by Armenian nobles. Shapur then appointed his son Hormizd I as the "Great King of Armenia". With Armenia subjugated, Georgia submitted to the Sasanian Empire and fell under the supervision of a Sasanian official. With Georgia and Armenia under control, the Sasanians' borders on the north were thus secured. During Shapur's invasion of Syria he captured important Roman cities like Antioch . The Emperor Valerian (253–260) marched against him and by 257 Valerian had recovered Antioch and returned
24963-600: Was stored in the treasury and the other in the royal archives ( Dk 4B, 5). Following Alexander's conquest, the Avesta was then supposedly destroyed or dispersed by the Greeks, after they had translated any scientific passages of which they could make use ( AVN 7–9, Dk 3B, 8). Several centuries later, one of the Parthian emperors named Valaksh (one of the Vologases ) supposedly then had the fragments collected, not only of those that had previously been written down, but also of those that had only been orally transmitted ( Dk 4C). The Denkard also records another legend related to
25122-1127: Was succeeded by his son, Hormizd I . Two of his other sons, Bahram I and Narseh , would also become kings of the Sasanian Empire, while another son, Shapur Meshanshah , who died before Shapur, sired children who would hold exalted positions within the empire. Under Shapur, the Sasanian court, including its territories, were much larger than that of his father. Several governors and vassal-kings are mentioned in his inscriptions; Ardashir, governor of Qom ; Varzin, governor of Spahan ; Tiyanik, governor of Hamadan ; Ardashir, governor of Neriz; Narseh, governor of Rind; Friyek, governor of Gundishapur ; Rastak, governor of Veh-Ardashir ; Amazasp III , king of Iberia . Under Shapur several of his relatives and sons served as governor of Sasanian provinces; Bahram , governor of Gilan ; Narseh , governor of Sindh , Sakastan and Turan ; Ardashir, governor of Kirman ; Hormizd-Ardashir , governor of Armenia ; Shapur Meshanshah , governor of Meshan ; Ardashir, governor of Adiabene . Several names of Shapur's officials are carved on his inscription at Naqsh-e Rustam . Many of these were
25281-400: Was the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran . The precise dating of his reign is disputed, but it is generally agreed that he ruled from 240 to 270, with his father Ardashir I as co-regent until the death of the latter in 242. During his co-regency, he helped his father with the conquest and destruction of the city of Hatra , whose fall was facilitated, according to Islamic tradition, by
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