Bactrian Language
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Bactrian (, , ) is an extinct
Eastern Iranian language The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages emerging in Middle Iranian times (from c. the 4th century BC). The Avestan language is often classified as early Eastern Iranian. As opposed to the Middle Western Iranian dial ...
formerly spoken in the
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
n region of
Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...
(in present-day
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
) and used as the official language of the Kushan, and the Hephthalite empires.


Name

It was long thought that Avestan represented "Old Bactrian", but this notion had "rightly fallen into discredit by the end of the 19th century". Bactrian, which was written predominantly in an alphabet based on the Greek script, was known natively as ("
Arya Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...
"; an
endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
common amongst Indo-Iranian peoples). It has also been known by names such as Greco-Bactrian, Kushan or Kushano-Bactrian. Under Kushan rule, Bactria became known as ''Tukhara'' or ''Tokhara'', and later as ''
Tokharistan Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix ''-stan'' meaning "place of" in Persian) is an ancient Early Middle Ages name given to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources. In the 7th and 8th century CE, Tokharistan c ...
''. When texts in two extinct and previously unknown Indo-European languages were discovered in the
Tarim Basin The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, China." Hydr ...
of China, during the early 20th century, they were linked circumstantially to Tokharistan, and Bactrian was sometimes referred to as "Eteo-Tocharian" (i.e. "true" or "original" Tocharian). By the 1970s, however, it became clear that there was little evidence for such a connection. For instance, the Tarim "Tocharian" languages were "
centum Languages of the Indo-European family are classified as either centum languages or satem languages according to how the dorsal consonants (sounds of "K", "G" and "Y" type) of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) developed. An e ...
" languages within the Indo-European family, whereas Bactrian was an Iranian, thus "
satem Languages of the Indo-European family are classified as either centum languages or satem languages according to how the dorsal consonants (sounds of "K", "G" and "Y" type) of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) developed. An ...
" language.


Classification

Bactrian is a part of the Eastern Iranian languages, and shares features with the extinct Middle Iranian languages Sogdian and Khwarezmian (Eastern) and
Parthian Parthian may be: Historical * A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran * Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) * Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language * Parthian shot, an archery skill famously employed by ...
(
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
), as well as sharing affinity with the modern Eastern Iranian languages
Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...
and Munji-Yidgha languages. Its genealogical position is unclear. According to another source, the present-day speakers of Munji, the modern Eastern Iranian language of the Munjan Valley in northeast Afghanistan, display the closest possible linguistic affinity with the Bactrian language.


History

Bactrian became the
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
of the Kushan Empire and the region of Bactria, replacing the Greek language. Bactrian was used by successive rulers in Bactria, until the arrival of the
Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...
.


Historical development

Following the conquest of Bactria by
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
in 323 BC, for about two centuries
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
was the administrative language of his
Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
successors, that is, the
Seleucid The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...
and the Greco-Bactrian kingdoms. Eastern
Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
tribes (the
Saka The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who hist ...
, or Sacaraucae of Greek sources) invaded the territory around 140 BC, and at some time after 124 BC, Bactria was overrun by a confederation of tribes belonging to the Great Yuezhi and ''Tokhari''. In the 1st century AD, the Kushana, one of the Yuezhi tribes, founded the ruling dynasty of the Kushan Empire. The Kushan Empire initially retained the
Greek language Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Al ...
for administrative purposes but soon began to use Bactrian. The Bactrian
Rabatak inscription The Rabatak Inscription is an stone inscribed with text written in the Bactrian language and Greek script, found in 1993 at the site of Rabatak, near Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan. The inscription relates to the rule of the Kushan emperor Kani ...
(discovered in 1993 and deciphered in 2000) records that the Kushan king
Kanishka Kanishka I (Sanskrit: कनिष्क, '; Greco-Bactrian: Κανηϸκε ''Kanēške''; Kharosthi: 𐨐𐨞𐨁𐨮𐨿𐨐 '; Brahmi: '), or Kanishka, was an emperor of the Kushan dynasty, under whose reign (c. 127–150 CE) the empire ...
(c. 127 AD) discarded Greek ("Ionian") as the language of administration and adopted Bactrian ("Arya language"). The Greek language accordingly vanished from official use and only Bactrian was later attested. The Greek script however remained and was used to write Bactrian. The territorial expansion of the Kushans helped propagate Bactrian in other parts of
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
and
North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...
. In the 3rd century, the Kushan territories west of the
Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
fell to the
Sasanians The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
, and Bactrian began to be influenced by
Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
. The eastern extant of the Kushan Empire in Northwestern India, was conquered by the
Gupta Empire The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gold ...
. Besides the
Pahlavi script Pahlavi is a particular, exclusively written form of various Middle Iranian languages. The essential characteristics of Pahlavi are: *the use of a specific Aramaic-derived script; *the incidence of Aramaic words used as heterograms (called '' ...
and (occasionally) the
Brahmi script Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' o ...
, some coinage of this period is still in the Aryo (Bactrian) script. From the mid-4th century, Bactria and northwestern India gradually fell under the control the Hephthalite and other Huna tribes. The Hephthalite period is marked by linguistic diversity; in addition to Bactrian, Middle Persian, Indo-Aryan and
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
vocabulary is also attested. The Hephthalites ruled these regions until the 7th century when they were overrun by the
Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...
, after which official use of Bactrian ceased. Although Bactrian briefly survived in other usage, that also eventually ceased, and the latest known examples of the Bactrian script, found in the
Tochi Valley The Tochi Valley, also known as Dawar (from Middle Iranic dātbar, meaning "Justice-giver"), is a fertile area located in the North Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.Khyber.ORGDawarh.Retrieved on 21-6-2012.Bosworth, Cl ...
in Pakistan, date to the end of the 9th century.


Writing system

Among Indo-Iranian languages, the use of the Greek script is unique to Bactrian. Although ambiguities remain, some of the disadvantages were overcome by using ''
heta Heta is a conventional name for the historical Greek alphabet letter Eta (Η) and several of its variants, when used in their original function of denoting the consonant . Overview The letter Η had been adopted by Greek from the Phoenician lett ...
'' (Ͱ, ͱ) for and by introducing ''
sho Sho, Shō or SHO may refer to: Music * ''Shō'' (instrument) (笙), a Japanese wind instrument * ''Kane'' (instrument) (鉦), a Japanese percussion instrument * Sho?, a Dubai rock band People * Shō (given name), including ''Sho'' * Shō (su ...
'' () to represent . '' Xi'' (Ξ, ξ) and ''
psi Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviatio ...
'' (Ψ, ψ) were not used for writing Bactrian as the ''ks'' and ''ps'' sequences did not occur in Bactrian. They were, however, probably used to represent numbers (just as other Greek letters were).


Records

The Bactrian language is known from inscriptions, coins, seals, manuscripts, and other documents. Sites at which Bactrian language inscriptions have been found are (in north–south order) Afrasiyab in
Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
; Kara-Tepe, Airtam, Delbarjin, Balkh,
Kunduz , native_name_lang = prs , other_name = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = Kunduz River valley.jpg , imagesize = 300 , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_ ...
, Baglan, Ratabak/Surkh Kotal,
Oruzgan Uruzgan (Dari), also spelled as Urozgan or Oruzgan, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. Uruzgan is located in the center of the country. The population is 436,079, and the province is mostly a tribal society. Tarinkot serves as t ...
,
Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
, Dasht-e Navur,
Ghazni Ghazni ( prs, غزنی, ps, غزني), historically known as Ghaznain () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana ( gr, Αλεξάνδρεια Ωπιανή), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan ...
, Jagatu in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
; and
Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...
, Shatial Bridge and
Tochi Valley The Tochi Valley, also known as Dawar (from Middle Iranic dātbar, meaning "Justice-giver"), is a fertile area located in the North Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.Khyber.ORGDawarh.Retrieved on 21-6-2012.Bosworth, Cl ...
in
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. Of eight known manuscript fragments in Greco-Bactrian script, one is from Lou-lan and seven from Toyoq, where they were discovered by the second and third
Turpan Turpan (also known as Turfan or Tulufan, , ug, تۇرپان) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 632,000 (2015). Geonyms The original name of the cit ...
expeditions under Albert von Le Coq. One of these may be a
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
text. One other manuscript, in
Manichaean script The Manichaean script is an abjad-based writing system rooted in the Semitic family of alphabets and associated with the spread of Manichaeism from southwest to central Asia and beyond, beginning in the 3rd century CE. It bears a sibling relation ...
, was found at Qočo by
Mary Boyce Nora Elisabeth Mary Boyce (2 August 1920 – 4 April 2006) was a British scholar of Iranian languages, and an authority on Zoroastrianism. She was Professor of Iranian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the Un ...
in 1958. Over 150 legal documents, accounts, letters and Buddhist texts have surfaced since the 1990s, the largest collection of which is the
Khalili Collection of Aramaic Documents The Khalili Collection of Aramaic Documents is a private collection of letters and documents from the Bactria region in present-day Afghanistan, assembled by the British-Iranian collector and philanthropist Nasser Khalili, Nasser D. Khalili. It i ...
. These have greatly increased the detail in which Bactrian is currently known.


Phonology

The phonology of Bactrian is not known with certainty, owing to the limitations of the native scripts.


Consonants

A major difficulty in determining Bactrian phonology is that affricates and voiced stops were not consistently distinguished from the corresponding fricatives in the Greek script. * Proto-Iranian *b, *d, *g have generally become spirants, as in most other Eastern Iranian languages. A distinctive feature of Bactrian, shared within the Iranian languages with Munji, Yidgha and Pashto, is the development of Proto-Iranian *d > *ð further to , which may have been areal in nature. Original *d remains only in a few consonant clusters, e.g. *bandaka > ''βανδαγο'' 'servant', *dugdā > ''λογδο'' 'daughter'. The clusters and appear in earlier Bactrian, but revert to , later, e.g. *drauga > ''λρωγο'' (4th to 5th century) > ''δδρωρο'' (7th to 8th century) 'lie, falsehood'. * Proto-Iranian *p, *t, *č, *k have become voiced between vowels, and after a nasal consonant or *r. ** Inside a word, the digraphs ''ββ'', ''δδ'' for original voiceless *p, *t can be found, which probably represent , . The former is attested only in a single word, ''αββο'' 'water'. Manichaean Bactrian appears to only have had in native vocabulary. According to Gholami, instances of single ''δ'' may indicate a fricative pronunciation, . ** ''γ'' appears to stand for both the stop and the fricative , but it is unclear if a contrast existed, and which instances are which. Evidence from the Manichaean script suggests that ''γ'' from *k may have been and ''γ'' from *g may have been . According to Greek orthographic practices, ''γγ'' represents . * ''σ'' may continue both Proto-Iranian *c > *s and *č, and the Manichaean script confirms that it represents two phonemes, likely and . * ''ζ'' may continue similarly on one hand Proto-Iranian *dz > *z, and on the other *ǰ and *č, and it represents at least and . This distinction is again confirmed by the Manichaean script. Also a third counterpart of ''ζ'' is found in Manichaean Bactrian, possibly representing . The status of ''θ'' is unclear; it only appears in the word ''ιθαο'' 'thus, also', which may be a loanword from another Iranian language. In most positions Proto-Iranian *θ becomes (written ''υ''), or is lost, e.g. *puθra- > ''πουρο'' 'son'. The cluster *θw, however, appears to become , e.g. *wikāθwan > ''οιγαλφο'' 'witness'. ''ϸ'' continues, in addition to Proto-Iranian *š, also Proto-Iranian *s in the clusters *sr, *str, *rst. In several cases Proto-Iranian *š however becomes or is lost; the distribution is unclear. E.g. *snušā > ''ασνωυο'' 'daughter-in-law', *aštā > ''αταο'' 'eight', *xšāθriya > ''χαρο'' 'ruler', *pašman- > ''παμανο'' 'wool'.


Vowels

The Greek script does not consistently represent vowel length. Fewer vowel contrasts yet are found in the Manichaean script, but short and long are distinguished in it, suggesting that Bactrian generally retains the Proto-Iranian vowel length contrast. It is not clear if ''ο'' might represent short in addition to , and if any contrast existed. Short may have occurred at least as a reflex of *a followed by a lost *u in the next syllable, e.g. *madu > ''μολο'' 'wine', *pasu > ''ποσο'' 'sheep'. Short is also rare. By contrast, long , are well established as reflexes of Proto-Iranian diphthongs and certain vowel-semivowel sequences: ''η'' < *ai, *aya, *iya; ''ω'' < *au, *awa. An epenthetic vowel (written ''α'') is inserted before word-initial
consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s. Original word-final vowels and word-initial vowels in open syllables were generally lost. A word-final ''ο'' is normally written, but this was probably silent, and it is appended even after retained word-final vowels: e.g. *aštā > ''αταο'' 'eight', likely pronounced . The Proto-Iranian syllabic rhotic *r̥ is lost in Bactrian, and is reflected as ''ορ'' adjacent to labial consonants, ''ιρ'' elsewhere; this agrees with the development in the western Iranian languages
Parthian Parthian may be: Historical * A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran * Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) * Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language * Parthian shot, an archery skill famously employed by ...
and
Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
.


Orthography


Examples

File:Surkh Kotal inscription in Bactrian, National Museum of Afghanistan.jpg, Surkh Kotal inscription in Bactrian,
National Museum of Afghanistan The National Museum of Afghanistan (Dari: موزیم ملی افغانستان, ''Mūzīyam-e mellī-ye Afghānestān''; ps, د افغانستان ملی موزیم, ''Də Afghānistān Millī Mūzīyəm''), also known as the Kabul Museum, is a ...


See also

* Kidarites


Notes


References

* Falk (2001): “The yuga of Sphujiddhvaja and the era of the Kuṣâṇas.” Harry Falk. ''Silk Road Art and Archaeology'' VII, pp. 121–136. * Henning (1960): “The Bactrian Inscription.” W. B. Henning. ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', University of London, Vol. 23, No. 1. (1960), pp. 47–55. * . * * . * . * *


External links


Bactrian language
at britannica.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Bactrian Language Extinct languages of Asia Languages attested from the 3rd century BC Languages extinct in the 9th century Languages of Afghanistan Languages of Tajikistan Linguistic history of Pakistan Eastern Iranian languages