The term Pārsīg designates the Middle Persian language, which evolved from the tongue in which the royal Achaemenid cuneiform inscriptions were composed —a language called Ariya ("Aryan") by the king of kings Darius I (522–486 B.C.). For this reason, the term Pārsīg is preferred over Pahlavi, the latter being more precisely the name of the Parthian language and its literary tradition, not the Persian one.

What follows is a brief overview of our project.

As priestly communities shrank in number, they found it increasingly impossible to maintain even their religious manuscripts, let alone texts on secular subjects. Under these conditions, much of the Pārsīg literary legacy was simply lost between the seventh and thirteenth centuries. Yet enough has come down to us —in Syriac and Arabic translations, in Persian adaptations, and in allusions scattered through later writings— to convey the impression of a rich Sasanian heritage that passed, partially, into the Persian tradition after the fall of the last Sasanian king, Yazdegird III.

In recent years, the number of learners and active users of Pārsīg has been slowly growing. The revival of the language is a process that must begin from the point at which its vitality was interrupted. The broader goal is to make possible a daily use of Pārsīg —a goal that gains particular weight given the language's unique position among all Middle and Modern Iranian languages, and its surprisingly simple, almost modern grammatical structure. This project advances along two parallel lines: the revival of written and literary Pārsīg, and the revival of spoken Pārsīg.

This revival —more precisely, a rehabilitation project— began with the founding of ērmān ī uzvān ī pārsīg ("the Society of Friends of the Pārsīg language") in 2010 (1379 A.Y.). Its aim is not only to reintroduce Pārsīg as a literary language, but to enrich and standardise it across all walks of modern life.

Ērmān standardises the phonemic system of sixth-century A.D. Pārsīg, and expands its lexicon through the extension of existing words' meanings, and occasionally through calques from related languages.

The corpus of extant Pārsīg texts consists mainly of inscriptions, the bulk of the Aryan (Mazdayasnian) religious literature, a collection of non-Aryan (Manichaean and Christian) texts, and to a lesser extent official and administrative documents —papyri, parchments, ostraca, seals, and bullae. Part of our task is to make available to learners and researchers a standardised transcription of this entire corpus.

In terms of vocabulary, Ērmān gives priority to attested Pārsīg words drawn from primary texts, adapting them where necessary to modern usage. When no ancient Pārsīg word exists for a contemporary concept, we create one —following a principled hierarchy:

• First, Pārsīg roots are used wherever possible.
• Second, words from the Avesta may be considered if no Pārsīg equivalent is available —but must be properly Persicised in both pronunciation and spelling.
• Third, Pārsīg may draw on related Middle Iranian languages such as Parthian, Sogdian, Khvarazmian, Bactrian, and Khotanese.
• Fourth, living Iranian dialects and vernaculars —Persian, Kurdish, Luri, Baluchi, Pashto, Ossetic, Tati, Shughni, Wakhi, Gilaki, and others— may contribute.
• Finally, roots from other Aryan languages, especially Sanskrit, are considered.

Dictionary of Pārsīg : Currently comprising over 10,000 entries and updated regularly, The English=Pārsīg Learner´s Dictionary of Ērmān is an essential companion for learners at all levels. Thematic dictionaries covering specific fields of knowledge and art are planned for future publication.

1- Why Pārsīg?

• Pārsīg stands in relation to Iranian civilisation much as Greek and Latin stand in relation to the West. Virtually everything that has been written about Iranian culture —whether in Arabic or Persian— ultimately traces back to the Pārsīg tradition. To understand the history, morals, ceremonies, customs, folklore, and intellectual inheritance of Iran, one must know Pārsīg. It is, in the truest sense, the key to the concept of Iran itself, to the idea the Iranians have called ērīh — "Iranianness." Without Pārsīg, our access to this tradition is always mediated, always at one remove. With it, the sources open directly.

2- Why "living" Pārsīg? Isn’t it a “dead language”?

• This question deserves a careful answer, because the premise is open to challenge. Pārsīg is not "dead" in the way Latin or Ancient Greek are generally considered to be. Its structural and lexical distance from Modern Persian is surprisingly small —small enough, in fact, that the two can reasonably be understood as the same language in two different historical circumstances, separated more by convention and script than by any radical linguistic rupture. There is no compelling reason, in principle, to treat Pārsīg as irrecoverably foreign.
• There is also a pedagogical point worth stressing: the so-called Grammar-Translation Method, designed in the nineteenth century for teaching Latin in European schools, is a poor tool for language acquisition. Research has consistently shown that genuine command of a language requires the ability to think in that language —something rote translation exercises cannot produce. This is why Ērmān teaches Pārsīg through immersion and natural use, not through paradigm drilling and word-for-word construing.

3- What do we aim to achieve by teaching Pārsīg?

The goals of our teaching work are several, and they are connected:

• Widening popular knowledge of Pārsīg and its literature means recovering access to the deepest roots of Iranian culture —a recovery comparable, in scope and significance, to the rediscovery of classical antiquity during the European Renaissance. Without that root, Iranian cultural identity risks becoming either superficial or purely reactive.
• Researching and popularising Pārsīg —the lingua franca of the historic Ērānšahr— also has a broader linguistic effect: it naturally raises awareness of the other Iranian languages spoken across the region, including smaller ones currently at risk of extinction. Pārsīg knowledge opens a window onto the whole family.
• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a thorough command of Pārsīg reveals the evolutionary arc of Iranian values and thought with an intimacy no external account can match. It gives scholars the tools to trace two thousand years of continuity and change. It gives thinkers and philosophers the primary materials from which to rethink and, where necessary, rebuild the foundations of Iranian civility.

hamōzišn ī uzvān ī pārsīg | Learning Pārsīg Language

Here you will find information about our periodic online classes, the "Pārsīg in 30 Lessons" self-study course, a concise descriptive grammar, a dictionary, and exercises for learning the language.

mādayān | Texts

A selection of classical Pārsīg literature —including The Book of the Deeds of Ardašēr, The Memorial of Vazurgmihr, and The Jāmāspīg— alongside new works translated or retro-translated into Pārsīg, such as stories from Aesop and ʿAwfī's Collection of Stories.

māhrōz | History

Historical texts and research, including Pārsīg inscriptions and works relating to the traditional historiography of Iran, with particular attention to the Iranian bipartite ideology of religious and royal institutions.

dānišn | Sciences

Works on the sciences of Ērānšahr, ranging from encyclopaedia writing, logic, and philosophy to astronomy and medicine.

āfrīn ud jašn | Benedictions and Feasts

Texts and research on benedictory formulas, Iranian festivities, banquets, and related ritual materials.

People associated with this project

Core Team

Other collaborators