Editing Median language (section)

==Identity==
A distinction from other ethnolinguistic groups such as the [[Persis|Persians]] is evident primarily in foreign sources, such as from mid-9th-century BCE [[Akkadian language|Assyrian]] cuneiform sources<ref name="EB_Coming">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Ancient Iran::The coming of the Iranians|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|year=2007|access-date=2007-02-28|url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-32107/ancient-Iran}}</ref> and from [[Herodotus]]' mid-5th-century BCE secondhand account of the Perso-Median conflict. It is not known what the native name of the Median language was (just like for all other Old Iranian languages) or whether the [[Medes]] themselves nominally distinguished it from the languages of other [[Iranian peoples]]. The [[Assyrians]] who ruled over both the Medes and Persians from the 9th to 7th centuries BC called them ''Manda'' and ''Parshumash'', respectively. 

Median is presumed to have been a [[Stratum (linguistics)|substrate]] of the official [[Old Persian]] used in the Achaemenid Empire.<ref>{{harvnb|Skjærvø|2002|p=149}}</ref> As [[Prods Oktor Skjærvø]] explains, the Median element is readily identifiable because it did not share in the developments that were particular to Old Persian.  Median forms "are found only in personal or geographical names […] and some are typically from religious vocabulary and so could in principle also be influenced by [[Avestan language|Avestan]] […]. Sometimes, both Median and Old Persian forms are found, which gave Old Persian a somewhat confusing and inconsistent look: 'horse,' for instance, is [attested in Old Persian as] both {{lang|peo-Latn|asa}} (OPers.) and {{lang|xme-Latn|aspa}} (Med.)."<ref>{{harvnb|Skjærvø|2002|p=13}}</ref>

Using comparative [[phonology]] of proper names attested in Old Persian, Roland Kent<ref>{{cite book|last=Kent|first=Roland G.|title=Old Persian. Grammar, Texts, Lexicon|location=New Haven|publisher=American Oriental Society|year=1953|edition=2nd}} pp. 8-9.</ref> notes several other Old Persian words that appear to be borrowings from Median: for example, ''taxma'', 'brave', as in the proper name ''Taxmaspada''. Diakonoff<ref>{{cite book|last=Diakonoff|first=Igor M.|chapter=Media|title=Cambridge History of Iran, Vol 2|pages=36–148|editor=Ilya Gershevitch|year=1985|location=London|publisher=Cambridge UP}}<!-- copyvio'd at http://www.azargoshnasp.net/history/Medes/medediak/slides/medepg36.html --></ref> includes ''paridaiza'', 'paradise'; ''vazraka'', 'great' and ''xshayathiya'', 'royal'. In the mid-5th century BCE, Herodotus (''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' 1.110<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Godley|editor-first=A. D. |title=Herodotus, with an English translation|location=Cambridge|publisher=Harvard UP|year=1920}}  [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126&layout=&loc=1.110 (''Histories'' 1.110)]</ref>) noted that ''spaka'' is the Median word for a female dog. This term and meaning are preserved in living Iranian languages such as [[Talysh language|Talyshi]] and [[Zaza language]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Paul |first=Ludwig |date=1998 |title=The Pozition of Zazaki the West Iranian Languages |url=https://www.azargoshnasp.net/languages/zazaki/zazakipositionof.pdf |access-date=December 4, 2023 |website=Iran Chamber |publisher=Open Publishing}}</ref>

In the 1st century BCE, [[Strabo]] (c.&nbsp;64BCE–24CE) would note a relationship between the various Iranian peoples and their languages: "[From] beyond the [[Indus]]... [[Greater Iran|Ariana]] is extended so as to include some part of [[Persia]], [[Media (region)|Media]], and the north of [[Bactria]] and [[Sogdiana]]; for these nations speak nearly the same language." (''[[Geographica (Strabo)|Geography]]'', 15.2.1-15.2.8<ref>{{cite book|last=Hamilton|first=H. C. & W. Falconer|title=The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes|volume=3|year=1903|location=London|publisher=George Bell & Sons}} p. 125. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0239:book=15:chapter=2:section=1 (''Geography'' 15.2)]</ref>)

Traces of the (later) dialects of Media (not to be confused with the Median language) are preserved in the compositions of the ''fahlaviyat'' genre, verse composed in the old dialects of the Pahla/Fahla regions of Iran's northwest.<ref name="Tafazzoli">{{Cite book|last=Tafazzoli|first=Ahmad|chapter=Fahlavīyāt|title=Encyclopaedia Iranica|volume=9|year=1999|issue=2|location=New York|publisher=iranicaonline.org|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/fahlaviyat}}</ref> Consequently, these compositions have "certain linguistic affinities" with [[Parthian language|Parthian]], but the surviving specimens (which are from the 9th to 18th centuries CE) are much influenced by [[Persian language|Persian]]. For an enumeration of linguistic characteristics and vocabulary "deserving mention", see {{harvnb|Tafazzoli|1999}}. The use of ''fahla'' (from [[Middle Persian]] ''pahlaw'') to denote Media is attested from late [[Arsacid Empire|Arsacid times]] so it reflects the pre-Sassanid use of the word to denote "[[Parthia]]", which, during Arsacid times, included most of Media.