ICIL 5 Abstract

The expression of modality in Late Middle Persian

In a series of three articles which have not yet appeared (Josephson forthcoming, to
appear a and b) I have studied the fate of the modal paradigms in Late Middle Persian
(henceforth LMP) texts in Pahlavi script as part of a larger project to establish the
grammar of this language. My studies show that usage of the subjunctive, optative
and hortative (the particle w + present tense verb) moods which is frequent in the
Manichaean MP texts (see Brunner 1977, Lazard 1984, Skjaerv 2009, Durkin-
Meisterernst to appear) decreases drastically in the late MP texts and that they are
seldom used in what was once their main functions. My question has been: how are
the functions no longer expressed by these forms conveyed in the language of the late
MP texts? The aim of this paper is to present an overview of my findings and to relate
them more generally to the term LMP.
Examples of the functions no longer expressed by formal means include the
use of subjunctive to express future tense, use in subordinate complement clauses and
subordinate adverbial clauses. Further, optative present forms are extremely rare with
the result that they are no longer found in conditional clauses or in comparisons and
parables (the parabolic optative described by Henning (1943). Likewise usage of
the particle w + present tense verb to express exhortation diminishes.
While the late MP texts received their final redactions in the 9
th
and 10
th

centuries CE they often contain material that had been tradited for centuries. In some
instances quotations from earlier material and/or the conflation of more than one
source leads to the presence of passages from older texts which are unmarked and
often hard to recognize. In spite of this, a detailed analysis of a large number of
passages from the texts listed below shows that there is a surprising uniformity in the
grammatical features of the language of this period. Thus it is possible to identify the
same types of constructions appearing in all of these texts in place of the old modal
forms.

Brunner, Ch. 1977. A Syntax of Western Middle Iranian. [Persian Studies Series. 3] Delmar,
New York: Caravan Books.
Durkin-Meisterernst, Desmond. To appear. Grammatik des Westmitteliranischen (Parthisch
und Mittelpersisch).
Henning, W. B. 1943-46. The Book of the Giants. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and
Asiatic Studies, 11.
Josephson, Judith. forthcoming. The Fate of the Subjunctive in Late Middle Persian, in
Diachronic and Typological Perspectives on Verbs. Eds. F. Josephson & I. Shrman.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Josephson, Judith. to appear a. Deontic modality in Middle Persian and Judaeo-Persian. In
Irano-Judaica VII. Eds. M. Glatzer & Sh. Shaked. Jerusalem.
Josephson, Judith. to appear b. The Construction ham + verb in Middle Persian. In the
proceedings of the workshop Turco-Iranica: Language and History convened by the
Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala May 20-22, 2006. Eds. E. Csat et al.
Lazard, G. 1984. Les modes de la virtualit en moyen-iranien occidental. In Middle Iranian
Studies. Eds. W. Skalmowski & A. van Tongerloo. 1-13 Leuven: Peeters.
Skjrv, P. R. 2009. Middle West Iranian. In The Iranian Languages. Ed. G. Windfuhr. 196-
278. London: Routledge.
Sundermann, W. 1989. Mittelpersisch. In Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum. Ed. R.
Schmitt. 138-164. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag.


Ard wirz nmag
Aydgr Zarrn
Bundahin
Ddestn dng
Ddestn mng xrad
Denkard Book 3
Dnkard Book 6
Krnmag Ardar Pbagn
Mdiyn hazr ddestn
Nmag-nibsinh
Pahlavi rivyat accompanying the
Ddestn dng
Pand-nmag
Supplementary Texts to the yast n-
yast
yast n-yast
Wizdagh Zdspram
Zand Wahman Yasn