Pahlavi Comprehension and Translation
Domain 3: Pahlavi Comprehension and Translation
This section asks you to move from written signs to meaning: transliterate, transcribe, expand heterograms, parse the clause, then translate. The exam favours short formulae, titles, and simple descriptive sentences, so recognising high-frequency vocabulary and syntactic markers matters more than guessing long passages.
Method
- Transliterate the signs exactly, preserving huzvarishn.
- Replace each heterogram with its Middle Persian reading.
- Transcribe phonetically and mark ezafe ī, plurals, and verb endings.
- Parse: find the verb, subject, object, and prepositional phrases.
- Translate idiomatically, then check that every word has a function.
Worked example
šāhān šāh. Transliterate š-ʾ-h-ʾ-n š-ʾ-h; transcribe šāhān šāh. šāhān is the plural “kings”; šāh is “king.” The title means “king of kings,” not “the kings are a king.” The first noun is plural and dependent; the second is the head. This construct-like title is common in Sassanian royal style and later literature.
Traps that cost marks
Translating a title word-by-word into nonsense; forgetting that plural -ān changes the relationship; missing ī when it is written with Y; expanding an ideogram into the wrong Middle Persian word; adding a copula that the original does not have. Give a natural English sentence, but keep names and technical terms consistent.