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Art. IX.—Sassanian Inscriptions explained by the Pahlavi of the Pârsîs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

E. W. West
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Extract

Mr. Thomas has lately done good service to Pahlavî archæology, by collecting all the best copies of the Sassanian inscriptions, that are known to exist, from the various books of travels and unpublished papers in which they have hitherto remained comparatively hidden and neglected. If his tentative translation of the Hâjîâbâd inscription is likely to be less useful, it is probably owing to his treating the language as an unknown one, and only to be interpreted by a free use of all available lexicons, aided by a variety of hazardous guesses. But there is good reason for believing that the language of these inscriptions is not unknown, as the composition, or rearrangement, of most of the Pahlavî literature of the Parsîs, is traditionally ascribed to the time of the Sassanian rule; if, therefore, this tradition be correct, there ought to be a close resemblance between the language of the inscriptions and that of the Pahlavî books, after allowing for probable alterations made in the books, by successive copyists.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , January 1870 , pp. 357 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1870

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References

Page 358 note 1 The exact limits of the Huzvârash are uncertain; according to one definition they would include only the Semitic element of the Pahlavî; according to another, all words explained hy Pazand equivalents, in the old Pahlavî vocabulary of the Pârsîs, should be considered as Huzvârash; in which case, probably one-fifth of the words are of Zand origin, and perhaps some are Turanian.

Page 360 note 1 Journal Asiatique, Avril-Mai, 1866, p. 430. This passage has been several times quoted, as by M. Quatremère, Jour. As. Mars, 1835, p. 256; and thence, with other matter, by Prof. Spiegel, in his Grammatik der Huzvâresch-Sprache, p. 22; also by M. Lenormant, Jour. As. Aout–Sept. 1865, p. 200. But none of these writers appear to have noticed that the Arab writer, of the eighth century, was referring to the Pahl.-Pâz. Gloss, published, in a modified form, by Anquetil du Perron, in his Zend-Avesta, in 1771.

Page 361 note 1 M. Ganneau reads this word but the third letter in his facsimile is most prohahly ρ as it seems too long for ν, which is generally a very short stroke, in old MSS.

Page 367 note 1 They are called final merely for the sake of convenience, as in all words containing them, that have yet been identified, they are found to be final; hûmănam is no real exception to this rule, as its termination is merely a suffix added to the original word hûmăn. But exceptions may hereafter be discovered.

Page 369 note 1 The photograph was executed after Mr. Thomas's transcript and translation had been completed, and was introduced solely with a view to enable others to test and revise the readings he had derived from the plaster-casts of the original.—ED.

Page 389 note 1 Owing to want of type, the Pahlavî compounds throughout this paper are resolved, either into their component letters, or into such other letters as best represent the form of the compound; thus, the compound of and , which is, similar in form to the Zand f is represented by , and by .