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Lesson Text

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Grammar

11 r- and n-stem Nouns

11.1 r-stem Nouns

Old Persian nouns ending in the suffix tar function either as agent nouns that indicate the performers of actions -- e.g., jantar- 'slayer' -- or as relational nouns describing familial ties -- e.g., mātar- 'mother'. Based on Sanskrit evidence, a slight variation in declension would be expected in the nominative and accusative cases, but attestations in Old Persian are too few to verify this. The nominative, accusative, and genitive of pitar- 'father' are given here. The feminine mātar- declines similarly. Neuter declensions do not appear.

Nom. sg.		pitā
Acc. sg.		*pitārām
Gen. sg.		piça, piçah

11.2 an-, man-, and van-stem Nouns

Old Persian nouns ending in an, man, and van generally function as action nouns. Their masculine and neuter endings are given here. Feminines are not attested.

		Masculine xšayāršan- 'Xerxes'		Neuter tauman- power'
Nom. sg.		xšayāršā		taumā
Acc. sg.		xšayāršām,1 *xšayāršānam		*taumanam
Instr. sg.		unattested		*taumnā
Gen. sg.		xšayāršāha		unattested
Instr. pl.		unattested		taumaniš

12 Pronouns

12.1 Demonstrative Pronouns

In Section 7.2, the third person pronoun hauv- 'this' was described as functioning also as a demonstrative in the masculine and feminine. There are two other demonstratve pronouns, i- 'this' and ava- 'that', in masculine, feminine, and neuter declensions. The neuter third person pronoun aita- is also attested.

i-declension		Masculine		Neuter		Feminine
Nom. sg.		iyam		ima		iyam
Acc. sg.		imam		ima		imām
Instr. sg.		anā		unattested		unattested
Loc. sg.		unattested		unattested		ahyāyā
Nom/Acc. pl.		imaiy		unattested		imā
Instr. pl.		unattested		unattested		imaibiš
Gen. pl.		imaišām		unattested		unattested
ava-declension
Nom. sg.		ava		ava, avaš-ca		unattested
Acc. sg.		avam		ava, avaš-ca		avām
Instr. sg.		unattested		avamā		unattested
Gen. sg.		avahyā		unattested		unattested
Nom. pl.		avaiy		avā		a, avā
Acc. pl.		avaiy		unattested		avāh
Gen. pl.		avaišām		unattested		unattested

12.2 Relative Pronouns

Old Persian relative pronouns form a suppletive system, combining the *ha/ta demonstrative system with the *ya relative system of Indo-Iranian. (It happens to be the only pronoun declension that includes a dual form, not shown here.)

hya-declension		Masculine		Neuter		Feminine
Nom. sg.		hya		tya		hyā
Acc. sg.		tyam		tya		tyām
Instr. sg.		unattested		tyanā		unattested
Nom/Acc. pl.		tyaiy		tyā		imā
Gen.pl		imaišām		unattested		tyaišām

13 The Aorist Tense

As in Avestan, the Old Persian includes an aorist stem. By this time, however, the complexity of the aorist system had been significantly reduced, both in the number of forms and in modal function (cf. Avestan Lesson 3, Section 13 on the injunctive/indicative distinction for the aorist tense). The augment is always included in all moods except the optative, which may employ it or not, and the form conveys a simple past tense no different in meaning from the imperfect.

A sigmatic aorist is formed from the roots paiθ 'engrave' (with the prefix ni), e.g. niyapaišam, and dar 'support', e.g. adaršiy, in the first person singular adaršiyam. The root aorist, shown here, is more common, though still infrequent.

Root Aorist Paradigm: dā 'put, place, create'

Indicative		Active		Middle
1 sg.		unattested		*adamā
3 sg.		adāt		*adātā
Imperative
2 sg.		adāuvā		unattested
Optative
2 sg.		(a)dyā, (a)dyāh		unattested
3 sg.		(a) dyā, (a)dyāt		unattested

14 Verbal Adjectives and Nouns

A participle is a verbal adjective -- a verb stem that takes an adjectival suffix. It functions syntactically as either an adjective modifying a noun, or as a substantive replacing it. Like verbs, participles are formed in the active, middle, and passive voices, and the past, present, and future tenses.

An example of the present participle in English is the word 'running'. In the sentence "The running water is cold," the verb 'run' functions as an adjective to describe 'water'. In Old Persian, the word might also be used as the subject of the sentence to describe someone or something that is running, as in "The running (one) is passing by," but this is unusual in English. Keeping in mind that a participle is adjectival, the common slang phrase "the big, the bad, and the ugly" may illustrate the same principle. Though 'big', 'bad', and 'ugly' are not participles, they are adjectives standing in place of the nouns they modify (e.g., 'the big men', 'the bad men', etc.) -- a usage that participles commonly have in Old Persian.

The present active participle is formed by adding the ending -ant to a present verbal stem, which declines according to the an- paradigm, given in Section 12, in the masculine and neuter. The feminine is formed by weakening the ant-ending to at and adding a long ī. The form then declines accordingly (cf. Section 6). The present middle participle adds the ending -amna to the verbal stem and declines like the a-/ā-stems in Section 3.

In addition to the present active and middle participles, Old Persian employs a perfect and a future passive participle. The perfect passive participle is most commonly formed by adding ta to the zero-grade root, e.g. marta 'dead', from mar 'die', though it is occasionally added to a stronger grade. A few roots add na, also to the zero-grade, instead of ta. The form is translated as a simple past tense verb with adjectival function, e.g. marta 'dead' as seen in line 48 ('[when I am] dead') of Lesson 10. It may also be used substantively, as in karta 'deed', from kar 'do, make', in line 46 of Lesson 10.

The future passive participle adds ata to the zero- or middle-grade root, e.g. θakata- 'past' from θak 'pass'. Despite the name passive, the form only appears in Old Persian with intransitive verbs and is therefore active in meaning.

The infinitive is the only verbal noun formation in Old Persian. It is formed by adding the suffix tanaiy to a middle grade root. It is translated as the English infinitive, e.g. bartanay 'to bear' from bar 'support, bear'.

15 Relative-Correlative Syntax

Native English speakers sometimes find the Indo-Iranian relative clause difficult since it is not usually embedded within the main clause, as it is in English, but rather precedes the clause, which 'picks up' the relative pronoun with a corresponding demonstrative, or correlative, pronoun. The relative pronoun may be placed anywhere within its own clause, though it is often found at the beginning. The correlative must begin the main clause. The antecedent, or the word that the relative pronoun represents in the relative clause, is included, somewhat counter-intuitively, in the relative clause, usually immediately following the relative pronoun.

The relative clause in lines 48 and 49 above provide an illustration:

		aita		tya		kartam		ava		visam		vašnā		auramazdāhā
		this		which		has been done,		that		all		by the will		of Ahura Mazda

This is translated into English as "I did all this which has been done by the will of Ahura Mazda."

Footnote

1		Built on analogy with the h-stem paradigm, probably after Ahura Mazdah-.

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