Old Persian

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A good knowledge of Sanskrit is recommended.

This course covers the linguistic and philological study of Old Persian, by examining:
1. The place of Iranian in the Indo-European family;
2. The place of Old Persian in the Iranian family;
3. Script, phonetics, morphology (word formation and inflexion);
4. Syntax structures are studied while reading texts.

At the end of this course, the student will be capable of reading and interpreting for himself Achaemenid inscriptions. In order to do this, he will have acquired the bases of the Old Persian grammar and vocabulary.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Oral exam

The course alternates:
1° lectures devoted to grammar and the philological study of the texts;
2° reading and analysis of texts prepared by the students.

As a representative of Old Iranian, Old Persian is attested by epigraphical texts in cuneiform script, dating from the 6th to the 4th century B.C.
The lectures examine the different chapters of the descriptive grammar and offer an insight into historical grammar. The course is completed by the reading of inscriptional texts.

A syllabus will be given to the students
Reference works :

• W. Brandenstein & M. Mayrhofer, Handbuch des Altpersischen, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 1964.
• R.G. Kent, Old Persian : Grammar, Texts, Lexicon, New Haven, American Oriental Society, 1953 (2).
• P.O. Skjaervø, An Introduction to Old Persian, electronic version, Harvard, 2002(2) http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/OldPersian/opcomplete.pdf.
• R. Schmitt, Die altpersischen Inschriften der Achaimeniden. Editio minor mit deutscher Übersetzung, Wiesbaden, Reichert, 2009.
• R. Schmitt, Wörterbuch der altpersischen Königsinschriften, Wiesbaden, Reichert, 2014.
• P. Lecoq, Les inscriptions de la Perse achéménide, Paris, Gallimard, 1997.

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