Double Prepositions, Circumpositions and Compound Prepositions in the Sassanian Pahlavi and Manichaean Middle Persian

Transition of ancient Iranian languages from the inflectional to non-inflectional phase caused drastic changes in the structure of the Middle Iranian languages. To substitute the degeneration of nominal declensions, pre-/postpositions turned to active components of language to determine the grammatical role of the categories involved. So, in the Middle ranian languages there appeared two groups of pre-/postpositional structures: one which had directly evolved from the ancient Iranian languages and another one, a new collection, formed by the joining together of original pre-/postpositions and other linguistic elements such, as substantives, adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions. These new forms supported the existing cases. This article deals with the structure of double prepositions, circumpositions and compound prepositions in the Sassanian inscriptions, Book Pahlavi and Manichaean Middle Persian.