Pehlevi language
- noun
- Literature
- The sacred texts were preserved in the Pehlevi language for several centuries.
Examples
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The Pehlevi language was crucial for understanding Zoroastrianism's early texts.
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The Pehlevi language has a rich literary history.
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She studied ancient scripts written in Pehlevi language at university.
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Zoroastrian scholars studied the Pehlevi language extensively.
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The Pehlevi language was crucial for understanding Zoroastrianism's early texts.
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The sacred texts were preserved in the Pehlevi language for several centuries.
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Zoroastrian scholars studied the Pehlevi language extensively.
Synonyms
1
9.9
An old form of Persian used in Zoroastrian religious books
1
9.9
An old Iranian language used in Zoroastrian religious books from the 3rd to 10th centuries
An old Iranian language used for Zoroastrian religious writing from the 3rd to the 10th centuries
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is fully compositional: 'Pehlevi' identifies a particular named language or tradition and 'language' denotes a linguistic system, so the combined meaning is directly derivable from the parts. Naming languages with a proper name + 'language' is cross-linguistically common (e.g. 'Spanish language'), making this straightforward for learners who know both constituents.
Etymology
Pehlevi language gets its name from an old group of people called the Parthians, and the word Pehlevi was used for their speech and writing. Because priests kept using that speech in Zoroastrian books for centuries, 'Pehlevi' came to mean the 'Middle Persian' language of those sacred texts.