Editing Median language

{{Short description|Ancient Iranian language}}
{{other uses|Median (disambiguation)}}{{Cleanup lang|date=October 2024|iso=xme}}{{Infobox language
| name             = Median
| nativename       = 
| region           = [[Ancient Iran]]
| era              = 500 BCE – 500 CE
| ref              = linglist
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]]
| fam3             = [[Iranian languages|Iranian]]
| fam4             = [[Western Iranian languages|Western Iranian]]
| fam5             = [[Northwestern Iranian languages|Northwestern]]
| dia1             = [[Razi dialect|Razi]]
| iso3             = xme
| linglist         = xme
| glotto           = none
| ethnicity        = [[Medes]]
| states           = [[Media (region)|Media]]
| altname          = Medean, Medic
| script           = [[Linear Elamite]]?
}}
'''Median''' (also '''Medean''' or '''Medic''') is an [[Extinct language|extinct]] [[Iranian languages|Iranian]] language which was spoken by the ancient [[Medes]]. It belongs to the [[Northwestern Iranian|Northwestern branch]] of the [[Iranian languages|Iranian language]] family, which includes many other much more recently attested and different languages such as [[Kurdish languages|Kurdish]], [[Old Azeri]], [[Talysh language|Talysh]], [[Gilaki language|Gilaki]], [[Mazanderani language|Mazandarani]], Kurdish Form [[Zaza–Gorani languages|Zaza–Gorani]] and [[Balochi language|Baluchi]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum|last=Schmitt|first=Rüdiger|publisher=Reichert|location=Wiesbaden|year=1989}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Schmitt |first=Rüdiger |author-link=Rüdiger Schmitt |date=2021 |title=Median language |url=https://doi.org/10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_362418 |access-date=25 March 2025 |website=[[Encyclopaedia Iranica Online]] |publisher=Brill |doi=10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_362418}}</ref>

==Attestation==
Median is attested only by numerous loanwords in [[Old Persian]]. Nothing is known of its grammar, “but it shares important [[phonology|phonological]] [[isogloss]]es with [[Avestan]], rather than Old Persian. Under the Median rule&nbsp;… Median must to some extent have been the official Iranian language in [[western Iran]]”.<ref>{{harvnb|Skjærvø|2002|p=13}}</ref>
No documents dating to Median times have been preserved, and it is not known what script these texts might have been in. So far only one inscription of pre-[[Achaemenid]] times (a bronze plaque) has been found on the territory of [[Media (region)|Media]] from the time Media was under the control of the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]]. This is a [[cuneiform]] inscription composed in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], perhaps in the 8th century BCE, but no Median names are mentioned in it.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Dandamayev, Muhammad & I. Medvedskaya|title=Media|year=2006|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica|edition=OT 10|publisher=Mazda|location=Costa Mesa|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/media}}</ref>

=== Words ===
Words of Median origin include:

[[Image:Hamadan (Iran) Relief Achamenid Period.JPG|thumb|right|The ''[[Ganj Nameh]]'' ("treasure epistle") in Ecbatana. The inscriptions are by Darius I and his son Xerxes I.]]
*{{lang|xme|*čiθra-|italic=yes}}: "origin".<ref>{{harvnb|Tavernier|2007|p=619}}</ref> The word appears in ''*čiθrabṛzana-'' (med.) "exalting his linage", ''*čiθramiθra-'' (med.) "having mithraic origin", ''*čiθraspāta-'' (med.) "having a brilliant army", etc.<ref>{{harvnb|Tavernier|2007|pp=157–8}}</ref>
*''Farnah'': Divine glory ({{langx|ae|[[Khvarenah|khvarənah]]}})
*''Paridaiza'': [[Paradise]]
*''Spaka-'' : The word is Median and means "dog".<ref>{{harvnb|Tavernier|2007|p=312}}</ref> Herodotus identifies "Spaka-" (Gk. "σπάχα" – female dog) as Median rather than Persian.<ref>(Hawkins 2010, "Greek and the Languages of Asia Minor to the Classical Period", [https://books.google.com/books?id=1iYbL1wHfR0C&pg=226 p. 226])</ref> The word is still used in modern Iranian languages including [[Talysh language|Talyshi]], [[Zaza language|Zaza]]<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> also suggested as a source to the [[Russian language|Russian]] {{lang|ru|собака}} ({{transliteration|ru|sobaka}}) with the same meaning.<ref>(Gamkrelidze - Ivanov, 1995, "Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and Historical..", [https://books.google.com/books?id=M2aqp2n2mKkC&q=sobaka&pg=PA505 p. 505])</ref><ref>(Fortson, IV 2009, "Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction", [https://books.google.com/books?id=bSxHgej4tKMC&q=sobaka+&pg=PA419 p. 419])</ref><ref>(YarShater 2007, "Encyclopaedia Iranica", [https://www.google.com.au/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=isbn:1934283088&gws_rd=ssl p. 96])</ref>
*''vazṛka-'': "great" (as [[Western Persian]] ''bozorg'')<ref name=Schmitt2008-p98>{{harvnb|Schmitt|2008|p=98}}</ref>
*''vispa-'': "all"<ref>{{harvnb|Tavernier|2007|p=627}}</ref> (as in [[Avestan]]). The component appears in such words as ''vispafryā'' (Med. fem.) "dear to all", ''vispatarva-'' (med.) "vanquishing all", ''vispavada-'' (Median-Old Persian) "leader of all", etc.<ref>{{harvnb|Tavernier|2007|pp=352–3}}</ref>
*''[[wikt:𐏋#Old Persian|xšayaθiya-]]'' (king){{Citation needed|date=August 2017}}<!-- as indicated in Wiktionary, this word is genuinely Old Persian and there is no particular reason to think of it as being of Median origin -->
*''xšaθra-'' (realm; kingship): This Median word (attested in ''*xšaθra-pā-'' and continued by Middle Persian [[wikt:𐭱𐭲𐭫𐭩#Middle Persian|''šahr'']] "land, country; city") is an example of words whose Greek form (known as romanized "[[satrap]]" from Gk. σατράπης ''satrápēs'') mirrors, as opposed to the tradition,{{#tag:ref|"..a great many Old Persian lexemes...are preserved in a borrowed form in non-Persian languages – the so-called "collateral" tradition of Old Persian (within or outside the Achaemenid Empire).... not every purported Old Iranian form attested in this manner is an actual lexeme of Old Persian."<ref name=schmitt2008-p99>{{harvnb|Schmitt|2008|p=99}}</ref>|group="N"}} a Median rather than an Old Persian form (also attested, as ''[[wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶#Old Persian|xšaça-]]'' and ''[[wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎱𐎠𐎺𐎠#Old Persian|xšaçapāvā]]'') of an Old Iranian word.<ref name=schmitt2008-p99/>
* ''zūra-'': "evil" and ''zūrakara-'': "evil-doer".<ref name=Schmitt2008-p98/>

==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.

==Predecessor of modern Iranian languages==
A number of modern [[Iranian languages]] spoken today have had [[Evolutionary linguistics|medieval stages]] with attestations found in Classical and Early Modern Persian sources. G.&nbsp;Windfuhr believes that the "modern [Iranian] languages of Azarbaijan and Central Iran, located in ancient Media and Atropatene, are 'Median' dialects" and that those languages "continue the lost local and regional language" of Old Median, and bear similarity to "Medisms in Old Persian".<ref name=windfuhr/> The term Pahlav/Fahlav (see ''[[fahlaviyat]]'') in traditional medieval Persian sources is also used to refer to regionalisms in Persian poetry from western Iran that reflect the period of [[Parthian empire|Parthian]] rule of those regions, but Windfuhr also ascribes some of these to older Median influence<ref name=windfuhr>Page 15 from
{{Citation  | last = Windfuhr  | first = Gernot  | contribution = Dialectology and Topics
| editor-last = Windfuhr  | editor-first = Gernot  | title = The Iranian Languages  | year = 2009 | pages = 5–42  | publisher = Routledge  | place = London and New York  | publication-date = 2009  | isbn = 978-0-7007-1131-4 }}</ref> and their languages "being survivals of the Median dialects have certain linguistic affinities with Parthian".<ref>{{harvnb|Tafazzoli|1999}}</ref> The most notable New Median languages and dialects are spoken in central Iran,<ref>Borjian, Habib, “Median Succumbs to Persian after Three Millennia of Coexistence: Language Shift in the Central Iranian Plateau,” Journal of Persianate Societies, volume 2, no. 1, 2009, pp. 62-87. [https://www.academia.edu/8074684/_Median_Succumbs_to_Persian_after_Three_Millennia_of_Coexistence_Language_Shift_in_the_Central_Iranian_Plateau_].</ref> 
especially around Kashan.<ref>Borjian, Habib, “Median Dialects of Kashan,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 16, fasc. 1, 2011, pp. 38-48. [https://www.academia.edu/8075238/Median_dialects_of_Kashan].</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Linear Elamite]] – a script possibly used to write Median language
*[[Madai]]
{{Portal|Languages|Asia}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group="N"}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
*{{cite book |last=Tavernier |first=Jan |title=Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550–330 B.C.): Linguistic Study of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts |publisher=Peeters Publishers |year=2007 |isbn=978-90-429-1833-7}}
*{{cite book | last =Schmitt | first =Rüdiger | year =2008 | publisher= Cambridge University Press| contribution =Old Persian | editor-last =Woodard | editor-first =Roger D. | title =The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas | isbn = 978-0-521-68494-1 |pages=76–100 }}
*{{cite book |last=Skjærvø |first=Prods Oktor |author-link=Prods Oktor Skjaervo |url=http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/OldPersian/opcomplete.pdf |title=An Introduction to Old Persian |publisher=Harvard |year=2002 |edition=Revised and expanded 2nd }}

{{Iranian languages}}
{{Median topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Median Language}}
[[Category:Northwestern Iranian languages]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Medes|Language]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 6th century]]
[[Category:Languages attested from the 6th century BC]]