Preliminary remarks on Middle Persian ‹nc› in the Pahlavi documents

In the Pahlavi documents we find a sequence of characters that are commonly transliterated as ‹nc›, representing Middle Persian namāz ‘reverence.’ The vocalisation as namāz, a word most commonly found in the greeting formulae of letters, is not disputed. The question is rather whether these characters stand for a phonetic, albeit abbreviated, spelling of namāz or whether they constitute an abbreviation that developed out of the heterogram ‹‘SGDH›. In light of recent developments in the field and the rather sizeable evidence, I will revisit the arguments brought forward thus far and propose a new interpretation

Effects of Levothyroxine and Liothyronine on Cirrhotic Cardiomyopathy in Rats

In liver cirrhosis, there is low T3 syndrome associated with a decrease in total triiodothyronine (T3) and free T3 concentrations and cirrhotic cardiomyopathy (CCM) with chronotropic incompetence. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effects of eliminating T3 and thyroxine (T4) deficiencies on cardiac chronotropic dysfunction. Bile duct ligation (BDL) was used to induce cirrhosis in male Wistar rats. The chronotropic responses were studied through the Power Lab system in sham/saline, sham/T3T4, BDL/saline, and BDL/T3T4 groups. The serum T3 and T4, and T3 resin uptake (T3RU) levels were assessed. The atrial T3 receptor expression was investigated through a real-time polymerase chain reaction (Real-time PCR). The chronotropic responses were decreased in the BDL/saline group and raised in the BDL/T3T4 group. The serum T3 levels decreased in the BDL/saline group compared to sham group, but increased in the BDL/T3T4 group compared to the BDL/saline group. The serum T4 level increased in the BDL/saline and decreased in the BDL/T3T4 group. The serum T3RU level decreased in the BDL/saline and increased in the BDL/T3T4 group. The T3 receptor expression in atria increased in the BDL/saline group, nonetheless, it did not change in the BDL/T3T4 group compared to the sham/saline and the BDL/saline groups. T3T4 treatment did not increase the chronotropic response in the control group but the treatment improved the chronotropic hyporesponsiveness, and serum T4 and T3 RU abnormalities in cirrhosis, however, it is not related to the atrial T3 receptor expression

The Indo-European Cognate Relationships dataset

The Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR) dataset is an open-access relational dataset showing how related, inherited words (‘cognates’) pattern across 160 languages of the Indo-European family. IE-CoR is intended as a benchmark dataset for computational research into the evolution of the Indo-European languages. It is structured around 170 reference meanings in core lexicon, and contains 25731 lexeme entries, analysed into 4981 cognate sets. Novel, dedicated structures are used to code all known cases of horizontal transfer. All 13 main documented clades of Indo-European, and their main subclades, are well represented. Time calibration data for each language are also included, as are relevant geographical and social metadata. Data collection was performed by an expert consortium of 89 linguists drawing on 355 cited sources. The dataset is extendable to further languages and meanings and follows the Cross-Linguistic Data Format (CLDF) protocols for linguistic data. It is designed to be interoperable with other cross-linguistic datasets and catalogues, and provides a reference framework for similar initiatives for other language families

A unique Pahlavi papyrus from Vienna (P.PEHL. 562)

Middle Persian or Pahlavi documents are mostly economic and administrative in nature and are variously preserved on parchment, papyrus and textiles, originating from Iran or the Fayyūm oasis in Egypt. The earliest of these, mostly on papyrus, date from the Sasanian occupation of Egypt and are thus more securely located in time (618-629 CE). The present article offers an edition of a fragment that is currently held at St. Petersburg, but originally belonged to the Vienna collection of Pahlavi papyri. This fragment is unique for its writing style and the attestation of the Middle Persian term hutuxšān ‘artisans’ and the heterogram MŠLWNtn' ‘to collect’, which is only attested in the Frahang ī Pahlawīg

Ritual and ritual text in the Zoroastrian tradition: The extent of Yasna 41

AbstractThis article examines the extent of the concluding section (Y 41) of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti in light of the manuscript evidence and the section's divergent reception in a Middle Persian text known as the “Supplementary Texts to the Šāyest nē Šāyest” (Suppl.ŠnŠ). This investigation will entertain the possibility of an alternative ritual being described in the Suppl.ŠnŠ. Moreover, it argues that the manuscripts transmit the ritual text along with certain variations and repetitions while the descriptions of the extent of each section preserve the necessary boundaries of the text as a textual composition or unit.</jats:p