Parthian language†

Alternative names (including historical names and autoglottonyms): Arsacid Pahlavi, Pahlawānīg

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Volume 6. Iranian languages. II. North-Western Iranian languages
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Genealogy

Indo-European → Indo-Iranian → Iranian → Northwestern Iranian

Geography

Main country: Iraq (show on the map)

Identifiers

Glottolog: part1239
ISO-639-3: xpr

Features

Phonemic structure

[A‑4]	Degrees of vowel backness	Front, central and back [A‑4‑3]
[A‑5]	Presence of length degrees	Present [A‑5‑1]
[A‑6]	Number of length degrees	Two [A‑6‑1]
[A‑7]	Presence of vowel opposition in labialization	Absent [A‑7‑2]
[A‑9]	Presence of vowel opposition in nasalization	Absent [A‑9‑2]
[A‑11]	Vowel opposition in pharyngealization	No vowel opposition in pharyngealization [A‑11‑1]
[A‑12]	Vowel opposition in ATR	No vowel opposition in ATR [A‑12‑1]
[A‑13]	Diphthongs and triphthongs	No diphthongs and triphthongs [A‑13‑1]
[A‑15]	Inventory of obstruents by laryngeal features	Opposition by presence and absence of voice [A‑15‑1]
[A‑16]	Inventory of obstruents by manner of articulation	Plosives, affricates and fricatives [A‑16‑3]
[A‑17]	Inventory of obstruents by place of articulation	Labial, coronal, palatal, guttural and laryngeal [A‑17‑2]
[A‑18]	Inventory of labial obstruents by place of articulation	Bilabial and labiodental [A‑18‑2]
[A‑20]	Inventory of guttural obstruents by place of articulation	Velar and uvular [A‑20‑3]
[A‑21]	Inventory of postuvular obstruents by place of articulation	Only pharyngeal [A‑21‑1]
[A‑22]	Additional articulatory oppositions of obstruents	By labialization [A‑22‑2]
[A‑23]	Inventory of sonorants by manner of articulation	Nasal, liquid and vibrant [A‑23‑2]
[A‑24]	Inventory of sonorants by place of articulation	Labial and coronal [A‑24‑7]
[A‑25]	Additional articulatory oppositions of sonorants	Absent [A‑25‑1]

Prosodic phenomena

[B‑1]	Basic prosodic unit	Stress [B‑1‑1]
[B‑2]	Prosodic unit carrier	Syllable [B‑2‑1]
[B‑3]	Character of prosodic unit by its choice	Phonological [B‑3‑1]
[B‑4]	Stress type (quality characteristics)	Dynamic [B‑4‑1]
[B‑5]	Stress fixedness	Fixed [B‑5‑2]
[B‑6]	Fixed stress types	Strictly fixed [B‑6‑1]
[B‑8]	Strictly fixed stress type (by position in a word)	Ultima [B‑8‑6]
[B‑15]	Length character	Phonological [B‑15‑1]

Syllable

[C‑1]	Syllable onset	No null onset [C‑1‑1]
[C‑2]	Syllable coda	Both null and non-null coda possible [C‑2‑4]
[C‑3]	Consonant clusters in syllable	Consonant clusters are only possible at the coda of syllable [C‑3‑3]

Phonologic structure and phenomena

No filled features for this language.

Morphological type of language

[E‑1]	Type of language by type of morpheme combination in a word	Fusional with some agglutinative features [E‑1‑4]
[E‑2]	Fusional type features	Internal flection and cumulative flections [E‑2‑10]
[E‑4]	Type of language by degree of morpheme cohesion	Analytic with elements of synthetism [E‑4‑3]

Nominal classifications

[F‑1]	Number of agreement classes	No agreement classes [F‑1‑1]
[F‑7]	Nouns classifying categories	Person/non-person [F‑7‑2]

Number

[G‑1]	Number in nouns	Singular and plural [G‑1‑1]
[G‑2]	Single number marking	Unmarked [G‑2‑2]
[G‑4]	Agreement in number	Predicative and attributive [G‑4‑4]
[G‑5]	Form of a noun in numeral phrases	Singular and plural [G‑5‑3]
[G‑6]	Numeral system	Decimal [G‑6‑1]

Case meanings

[H‑1]

Number of noun cases

No case [H‑1‑6]

Verbal categories

[I‑5]	Tense forms	Past [I‑5‑1]
[I‑5]	Tense forms	Present [I‑5‑2]
[I‑6]	Aspect and tense expression	Separate [I‑6‑1]
[I‑9]	Marking of person in present tense verbs	In singular and plural [I‑9‑3]
[I‑10]	Transitivity marker	Special type of agreement [I‑10‑5]

Deictic categories

[J‑2]	Expression of deictic categories	Demonstrative pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and particles [J‑2‑29]
[J‑3]	Function words expressing spatial orientation of action	Adpositions [J‑3‑9]
[J‑4]	Content words expressing spatial orientation of action	Pronouns [J‑4‑4]
[J‑5]	Morphological expression of (in)definiteness	Absent [J‑5‑1]
[J‑6]	Words expressing (in)definiteness	Articles [J‑6‑1]
[J‑7]	Grammatical ways to express politeness	Pronouns distinguishing polite forms [J‑7‑1]
[J‑8]	Expression of negation	Prohibitive and negative particles [J‑8‑8]
[J‑9]	Negation marker position	Preposition [J‑9‑3]

Parts of speech and inflection

[K‑1]	Personal pronouns inflection	Pronouns are not inflected [K‑1‑1]
[K‑2]	Articles	Definite and indefinite [K‑2‑4]
[K‑3]	Indefinite article and numeral 'one'	Same [K‑3‑1]
[K‑4]	Article place	Preposition [K‑4‑1]
[K‑5]	Position of article in noun phrase	Single article preceding the phrase [K‑5‑1]
[K‑7]	Number of conjugation types	Single type of conjugation [K‑7‑1]
[K‑8]	Verb agreement types	Subject and object [K‑8‑3]
[K‑9]	Agreement categories expressed in participle	Absent [K‑9‑1]
[K‑10]	Tense expressed by participle	Past [K‑10‑4]
[K‑11]	Adverb grammar categories	Absent [K‑11‑1]
[K‑12]	Agreement categories expressed in adjective	Number [K‑12‑6]
[K‑13]	Cumulative expression of several categories in adjective	Absent [K‑13‑1]
[K‑14]	Attribute agreement of adjectives	Optional [K‑14‑4]
[K‑15]	Attributive agreement types	In number [K‑15‑2]
[K‑16]	Inflectional categories of noun	(In)definiteness and number [K‑16‑8]
[K‑17]	Cumulative expression of several categories in noun	Absent [K‑17‑1]
[K‑19]	Word form model	Mainly or only suffixal [K‑19‑4]

Word formation

[L‑2]	Derivation affixes	Prefixes and suffixes [L‑2‑3]
[L‑3]	Stems relations in stem compounding	Apposition and subordination [L‑3‑5]

Simple sentence

[M‑1]	Morphosyntactic alignment	Nominative and ergative [M‑1‑10]
[M‑3]	Dominant word order	SOV [M‑3‑2]
[M‑4]	Order of nouns and its modifier	Not fixed [M‑4‑3]

Complex sentence

[N‑3]	Dependent clause predicate	Finite forms [N‑3‑1]
[N‑4]	Compound sentence types	Subordination and compounding [N‑4‑4]
[N‑5]	Compound sentence syndesis and asyndeton	Syndesis dominant [N‑5‑1]

Unfilled features