The New Persian perfect of the kard-astam type: materials for a historical-linguistic interpretation

The article deals with the origins of the New Persian kard astam present perfect (the so-called ‘perfectum secundum’, PRF II). After a discussion of the main theories concerning the form of the participle and the auxiliary (būdan ‘to be’ or ēstādan ‘to stand’) in this type of perfect, it is suggested that PRF II arose from the gradual extension of ast, the 3sg present of the ‘be’ auxiliary, first to the 3sg and then to all persons of the Middle Persian preterite, as a mark of present perfect tense. The Early Judaeo-Persian perfect of the type [būdom hest] may offer a good comparison material in order to explain the form of the New Persian PRF II form: it seems to represent the same type of construction attested in literary Early New Persian, though with a displacement of the 3sg of ‘to be’ after the verbal endings; a type of construction also characteristic of the old optative: kardam-ē ‘I used to do, I wish I had done’, with -ē from Middle Persian hē, 3sg present optative of h ‘to be’. This same construction for perfect forms is still attested in modern western and south-western Persian dialects. A single Manichaean Middle Persian 3sg preterite with ast (kird ast) may shed some light on the origins of PRF II in Early New Persian: in the Manichaean Middle Persian hymn S9 this form is endowed with a clear emphatic value, and responds to the need to express a tense-aspect meaning of perfect, distinct from the meaning of simple past (preterite).