Middle Iranian languages
E133967
Middle Iranian languages are the historically intermediate stage of the Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian, spoken roughly between the 4th century BCE and the 9th century CE and including languages such as Middle Persian, Parthian, and Sogdian.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Middle Iranian period | 4 |
| Middle Iranian languages canonical | 3 |
| Eastern Middle Iranian languages | 1 |
| Tumshuqese Middle Iranian | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1023285 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Middle Iranian languages Context triple: [Iranian languages, hasStage, Middle Iranian languages]
-
A.
Old Iranian languages
Old Iranian languages are the earliest attested branch of the Iranian language family, including ancient tongues such as Avestan and Old Persian used in early Iranian civilizations.
-
B.
Eastern Iranian languages
Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, comprising languages such as Pashto and Ossetian spoken mainly in eastern Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Central Asia and the Caucasus.
-
C.
Judeo-Iranian languages
Judeo-Iranian languages are a group of Iranian languages traditionally spoken and written by Jewish communities in Iran and surrounding regions, often featuring Hebrew and Aramaic influences.
-
D.
Southeastern Iranian languages
Southeastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, historically spoken in eastern Iran and surrounding regions and including languages such as Pashto and Ossetian.
-
E.
Northwestern Iranian languages
Northwestern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, encompassing several related languages spoken primarily in western Iran, the Caucasus, and surrounding regions.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Middle Iranian languages Target entity description: Middle Iranian languages are the historically intermediate stage of the Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian, spoken roughly between the 4th century BCE and the 9th century CE and including languages such as Middle Persian, Parthian, and Sogdian.
-
A.
Old Iranian languages
Old Iranian languages are the earliest attested branch of the Iranian language family, including ancient tongues such as Avestan and Old Persian used in early Iranian civilizations.
-
B.
Eastern Iranian languages
Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, comprising languages such as Pashto and Ossetian spoken mainly in eastern Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Central Asia and the Caucasus.
-
C.
Judeo-Iranian languages
Judeo-Iranian languages are a group of Iranian languages traditionally spoken and written by Jewish communities in Iran and surrounding regions, often featuring Hebrew and Aramaic influences.
-
D.
Southeastern Iranian languages
Southeastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, historically spoken in eastern Iran and surrounding regions and including languages such as Pashto and Ossetian.
-
E.
Northwestern Iranian languages
Northwestern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, encompassing several related languages spoken primarily in western Iran, the Caucasus, and surrounding regions.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (56)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
group of languages
ⓘ
historical language stage ⓘ |
| endTime | 9th century CE ⓘ |
| fieldOfStudy |
Iranian studies
ⓘ
surface form:
Iranology
|
| followedBy | New Iranian languages ⓘ |
| follows | Old Iranian languages ⓘ |
| hasChronologicalPosition | between Old Iranian and New Iranian stages ⓘ |
| hasMorphologicalFeature |
increased use of analytic constructions
ⓘ
reduction of case system compared to Old Iranian ⓘ |
| hasPart |
Bactrians
ⓘ
surface form:
Bactrian
Avesta ⓘ
surface form:
Book Pahlavi
Inscriptional Pahlavi block ⓘ
surface form:
Inscriptional Pahlavi
Khotanese language ⓘ
surface form:
Khotanese
Khwarezmian ⓘ Middle Persian language ⓘ
surface form:
Manichaean Middle Persian
Ossetian language ⓘ
surface form:
Middle Ossetic
Parthian language ⓘ
surface form:
Middle Parthian
Middle Persian language ⓘ
surface form:
Middle Persian
Middle Persian language ⓘ
surface form:
Middle Persian of Fars
Saka ⓘ
surface form:
Middle Saka
Scythian languages ⓘ
surface form:
Middle Scythian
Pahlavi ⓘ Parthian language ⓘ
surface form:
Parthian
Parthia ⓘ
surface form:
Parthian of northeastern Iran
Saka languages ⓘ Sogdian language ⓘ
surface form:
Sogdian
Sogdians ⓘ
surface form:
Sogdian of Sogdia
|
| hasPhonologicalFeature | loss of final short vowels in many languages ⓘ |
| hasSyntacticFeature | tendency toward fixed word order compared to Old Iranian ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod |
Hellenistic period
ⓘ
Parthian Empire ⓘ Sasanian Empire ⓘ early Islamic period ⓘ |
| influenced |
Kurdish languages
ⓘ
Western Persian ⓘ
surface form:
New Persian
Ossetian language ⓘ
surface form:
Ossetic
Pashto language ⓘ
surface form:
Pashto
Pamir languages ⓘ
surface form:
Yaghnobi language
|
| partOf |
Indo-European language family
ⓘ
surface form:
Indo-European languages
Indo-Iranian languages ⓘ Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages ⓘ |
| startTime | 4th century BCE ⓘ |
| studiedBy | Iranian linguistics ⓘ |
| subclassOf | Iranian languages ⓘ |
| usedIn |
Caucasus region
ⓘ
Central Asia ⓘ Iranian plateau ⓘ
surface form:
Iranian Plateau
Mesopotamia ⓘ South Asia ⓘ |
| writingSystem |
Avestan script
ⓘ
Bactrian script ⓘ
surface form:
Bactrian Greek script
Brahmi script ⓘ Kharoṣṭhī script ⓘ
surface form:
Kharosthi script
Manichaean script ⓘ Pahlavi script ⓘ
surface form:
Pahlavi scripts
Sogdian alphabet ⓘ
surface form:
Sogdian script
|
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Middle Iranian languages Description of subject: Middle Iranian languages are the historically intermediate stage of the Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian, spoken roughly between the 4th century BCE and the 9th century CE and including languages such as Middle Persian, Parthian, and Sogdian.
Referenced by (9)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Middle Iranian period
this entity surface form:
Middle Iranian period
this entity surface form:
Middle Iranian period
this entity surface form:
Tumshuqese Middle Iranian
this entity surface form:
Middle Iranian period
this entity surface form:
Eastern Middle Iranian languages