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The Iranian languages are grouped in three stages: Old Iranian (until 400 BCE), Middle Iranian (400 BCE – 900 CE) and New Iranian (since 900 CE). The two directly-attested Old Iranian languages are Old Persian (from the Achaemenid Empire) and Old Avestan (the language of the Avesta ).
[4] : 1 The middle stage of the Iranian languages begins around 450 BCE and ends around 650 CE. One of those Middle Iranian languages is Middle Persian, i.e. the middle stage of the language of the Persians, an Iranian people of Persia proper, which lies in the south-western highlands on the border with Babylonia.
Middle Persian, the major form of which is called Pahlavi, was the official language of the Sāsānians (224–651 ce ). The most important of the Middle Persian inscriptions is that of Shāpūr I (d. 272 ce ), which has parallel versions in Parthian and Greek.
Iranian languages are spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and parts of Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, and scattered areas of the Caucasus Mountains. Linguists typically approach the Iranian languages in historical terms because they fall readily into three distinct categories—Ancient, Middle, and Modern Iranian.
Resulting from its status as the official language of the Sasanian Empire (3rd–7th centuries CE), the Middle Persian language played a prominent transcultural role during a period stretching from late antiquity to the early Islamic period.
The most important languages of this group are Parthian and Middle Persian, also known as Pahlavi. The beginning of the middle period may be placed at the beginning of the Parthian era (c. 350 BC). Middle Persian (also called Pahlavi) is a further development of Old Persian.
Persian ( / ˈpɜːrʒən / PUR-zhən or / ˈpɜːrʃən / PUR-shən ), also known by its endonym Farsi or Parsi [a] ( فارسی, Fārsī, [fɒːɾˈsiː] ⓘ ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages.
