Middle Iranian grīw/γrīw: Possible Paths for Semantic Changes and Functional Shifts

Abstract

In an article entitled Grīw in the Encyclopaedia Iranica (2002), Werner Sundermann described senses and usages of the polysemic Middle Iranian word grīw/γrīw, also considering possible derivatives and cognates in Modern Iranian. The aim of the present paper is to deepen the topics covered there. The review of all the documentation for (Zoroastrian, Manichaean, Christian) Middle Persian, (Manichaean) Parthian, (Manichaean, Christian, Buddhist) Sogdian and Khwarezmian makes it clear how cultural conceptualizations provided experiential motivations for a chain of semantic shifts from ‘nape/neck’ to ‘body’ and from ‘body’ to (grammatical) ‘self’, with complete loss of the referential value. The grammaticalization process into reflexive marker is common to all the Middle Iranian languages, though in Pahlavi it remained halfway. Divergences among the MIr. languages may also be noted as far as the retention of the old meanings (“nape, neck”) of grīw/γrīw, side by side the new ones (“body”, “person”, “self” “soul”), is concerned. The presence of particular meanings is seemingly conditioned by the nature of the texts where the word occurs, and in particular the religious and cultural environment in which they originated. Peculiar to Manichaean texts, for instance, is the meaning “soul”, possibly developed under the influence of the Syriac source texts.