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Middle Persian
Sign in to saveAlso known as Pahlavi, Pehlevi, Middle Persian language, Pārsīk, Pārsīg
southwestern Iranian language, predecessor to New Persian
Middle Persian was a language spoken in southwestern Iran that served as the predecessor to the Persian language spoken today. It matters historically because it represents a crucial stage in the development of Persian, helping us understand how the language evolved over centuries.
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Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg (Inscriptional Pahlavi script: 𐭯𐭠𐭫𐭮𐭩𐭪, Manichaean script: 𐫛𐫀𐫡𐫘𐫏𐫐, Avestan script: 𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬯𐬍𐬐) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Persian continued to function as a prestige language. It descended from Old Persian, the language of the Achaemenid Empire and is the linguistic ancestor of Modern Persian, the official language of Iran (also known as Persia), Afghanistan (Dari) and Tajikistan (Tajik).