also has abbreviation marking double dots for the forms ʾwd 'and', ʾw-š 'and he' and ʾw-šʾn 'and they', which may be transcribed as ẅ, š̈ and š̈ʾn. Elisions and plural may also be marked with double dots. Grammar The elision of unstressed word-final syllables during the transition from Old to Middle Persian has eliminated many grammatical endings. As a result, compared to the synthetic grammar of Old Persian, Middle Persian belongs to a much more analytic language type, with relatively little inflection and widespread expression of grammatical meanings through syntactic means instead (specifically, use of prepositions and periphrases). Nominal morphology Case and number inflection Early Middle Persian inflection as found in the Sassanid rock inscriptions (3rd-4th centuries CE) still retained a minimal case system for the nominal parts of speech, i.e. nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals. It included a direct or subject case (originating from the old nominative) used for the subject and the predicative nominal and an oblique case used for other functions (indirect object, genitive possessor, complement of a preposition, subject/'agent' of the ergative construction). The case distinction was only present in the plural of nouns, in nouns of relationship (family terms) that end in -tar or -dar in the oblique, and in the first person singular pronoun az/an (ANE). The attested system is shown in the table below, using the words mard (GBRA) 'man', pid (AB') 'father' as examples. Samples A sample of Inscriptional Middle Persian: Kartir's inscription (Kartir KZ 1) on the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht A sample of Manichaean Middle Persian: excerpt from the Shābuhragān A sample of Psalter Pahlavi Middle Persian: Psalm 129 A sample of Book Pahlavi Middle Persian (historical narrative): Beginning of The Book of Ardā Wirāz A sample of Book Pahlavi Middle Persian (legendary narrative): an excerpt from the Lesser Bundahišn Sample of Book Pahlavi Middle Persian (theological discourse): excerpt from the Lesser Bundahišn 2 Poetry A sample Middle Persian poem from manuscript of Jamasp Asana: Vocabulary Affixes There are a number of affixes in Middle Persian that did not survive into Modern Persian: Location suffixes Comparison of Middle Persian and Modern Persian vocabulary There are a number of phonological differences between Middle Persian and New Persian. The long vowels of Middle Persian did not survive in many present-day dialects. Also, initial consonant clusters were very common in Middle Persian (e.g. spās "thanks"). However, New Persian does not allow initial consonant clusters, whereas