Pazend language

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The Pazend or Pazand language is a reduction of the Middle Persian language, "sanctified" by the removal or replacement (with Iranian words) of ideograms that had been borrowed from Semitic languages such as Aramaic.

Pazend's principal use was as the language of the commentaries (Zend) on and/or translations of the Avesta, the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism. In Pazend and middle Persian, "Pazend" literally means "language of the Zend", and is derived from the Avestan words paiti zainti.

Pazend remained a primarily written language. Following the fall of Sassanid Persia, after which Zoroastrianism was supplanted by Islam, Pazend lost its purpose and soon ceased to exist.

Following Anquetil-Duperron's translation of some of the texts of the Avesta in the 19th century, the term "Zend-Avesta" was mistakenly used to refer to the sacred texts themselves (as opposed to commentaries on them). This error subsequently led to the "language of the Zend" being confused with the Din dabireh writing system, the superset of the Pahlavi script used to render Avestan language words.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Dhalla, Maneckji Nusservanji (1938). History of Zoroastrianism. New York: OUP.
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