Iranian Studies

Vague description of aiva- in ancient Persian

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Changiz Mowlaee

Professor of Ancient Iranian Languages and Culture, University of Tabrize

https://doi.org/10.22059/jis.2020.293852.764
Abstract
In the cliché phrase aivam parūvnām xšāyaθiyam, which is repeated in the preface to a number of inscriptions of the Achaemenid kings, all scholars number aivam and xšāyaθiyam as few and translate the phrase "a king of many"; The precise syntactic relation between the components of the phrase and its comparison with the preceding one, such as haya Dārayavahum xšāyaθiyam akunauš "(who) made Darius the King", clearly shows that in our phrase the verb in question, ie akunauš, is related to the same sentence. The recent omission has, in other words, been the structure of the phrase (haya) aivam parūvnām xšāyaθiyam (akunauš). This article is devoted to defining the syntactic role of aivam and xšāyaθiyam and justifying the role of paruvnām and has attempted to show by citing evidence from ancient Avestan and Persian texts that, contrary to the common notion, aivam ... xšāyaθiyam are not integers but in number. aivam is an ambiguous description that assumes the explicit object of the verb akunau فع, and xšāyaθiyam is the subject of its action, so the phrase can be safely translated as "one, king of many."

Keywords

aiva-
one
vague description
verb act
ancient Persian
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سعدی  رک. خطیب رهبر
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Iranian Studies
Volume 9, Issue 2
December 2020
Pages 173-191