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Avestan (/əˈvɛstən/),[1] or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scriptural language of Zoroastrianism, and the Avesta likewise serves as their namesake. Both are early Eastern Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian language branch of the Indo-European language family. Its immediate ancestor was the Proto-Iranian language, a sister language to the Proto-Indo-Aryan language, with both having developed from the earlier Proto-Indo-Iranian language; as such, Old Avestan is quite close in both grammar and lexicon to Vedic Sanskrit, the oldest preserved Indo-Aryan language.

Avestan
𐬎𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬙𐬀𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬐𐬀𐬉𐬥𐬀
Region	Greater Iran
Era	Late Bronze Age, Iron Age
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Avestan
Writing system	Avestan alphabet Gujarati script (used by Indian Zoroastrians)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ae
ISO 639-2	ave
ISO 639-3	ave
Glottolog	aves1237
Linguasphere	58-ABA-a
Yasna 28.1, Ahunavaiti Gatha (Bodleian MS J2)
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Zoroastrianism
Primary topics Ahura Mazda Zarathustra Asha Vohu Manah Persia/Iran Faravahar Avestan
Divine entities Amesha Spentas Yazatas Ahuras Daevas Angra Mainyu
Scripture and worship Avesta Ashem Vohu Ahuna Vairya Yenghe hatam Airyaman ishya Fire Temples 101 Names of Ahura Mazda Adur Burzen-Mihr Adur Farnbag Adur Gushnasp Cypress of Kashmar Gathas Yasna Vendidad Visperad Yashts Khordeh Avesta The Revayats Ab-Zohr
Accounts and legends Dēnkard Bundahišn Book of Arda Viraf Book of Jamasp Story of Sanjan Chinvat Bridge Frashokereti
History and culture Zurvanism Mazdakism Khurramites Calendar Festivals Initiation Kushti Sedreh Marriage Burial
Adherents Zoroastrians in India Zoroastrians in Iran Parsis Zoroastrianism in the United States Iranis Persecution of Zoroastrians
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The Avestan text corpus was composed in the ancient Iranian satrapies of Arachosia, Aria, Bactria, and Margiana,[2] corresponding to the entirety of present-day Afghanistan as well as parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The Yaz culture[3] of Bactria–Margiana has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of the early "Eastern Iranian" culture that is described in the Zoroastrian Avesta.

Genealogy

This section contains too many or overly lengthy quotations for an encyclopedic entry. (February 2022)

"Avestan", which is associated with northeastern Greater Iran, and Old Persian, which belongs to the southwest, together constitute what is called Old Iranian.[4] [f 1]

Scholars traditionally classify Iranian languages as "old", "middle" and "new" according to their age, and as "eastern" or "western" according to geography, and within this framework Avestan is classified as Eastern Old Iranian. But the east–west distinction is of limited meaning for Avestan, as the linguistic developments that later distinguish Eastern from Western Iranian had not yet occurred. Avestan does not display some typical (South-)Western Iranian innovations already visible in Old Persian, and so in this sense, "eastern" only means "non-western".[6]

Old Avestan is closely related to Old Persian and largely agrees morphologically with Vedic Sanskrit.[7] The old ancestor dialect of Pashto was close to the language of the Gathas.[8]

Forms and stages of development

The Avestan language is attested in roughly two forms, known as "Old Avestan" (or "Gathic Avestan") and "Younger Avestan". Younger Avestan did not evolve from Old Avestan; the two differ not only in time, but are also different dialects. Every Avestan text, regardless of whether originally composed in Old or Younger Avestan, underwent several transformations. Karl Hoffmann traced the following stages for Avestan as found in the extant texts. In roughly chronological order:

• The natural language of the composers of the Gathas, the Yasna Haptanghaiti, the four sacred prayers (Y. 27 and 54).
• Changes precipitated by slow chanting
• Changes to Old Avestan due to transmission by native speakers of Younger Avestan
• The natural language of the scribes who wrote grammatically correct Younger Avestan texts
• Deliberate changes introduced through "standardization"
• Changes introduced by transfer to regions where Avestan was not spoken
• Adaptions/translations of portions of texts from other regions
• Composition of ungrammatical late Avestan texts
• Phonetic notation of the Avestan texts in the Sasanian archetype
• Post-Sasanian deterioration of the written transmission due to incorrect pronunciation
• Errors and corruptions introduced during copying

Many phonetic features cannot be ascribed with certainty to a particular stage since there may be more than one possibility. Every phonetic form that can be ascribed to the Sasanian archetype on the basis of critical assessment of the manuscript evidence must have gone through the stages mentioned above so that "Old Avestan" and "Young Avestan" really mean no more than "Old Avestan and Young Avestan of the Sasanian period".[4]

Alphabet

The script used for writing Avestan developed during the 3rd or 4th century AD. By then the language had been extinct for many centuries, and remained in use only as a liturgical language of the Avesta canon. As is still the case today, the liturgies were memorized by the priesthood and recited by rote.

The script devised to render Avestan was natively known as Din dabireh "religion writing". It has 53 distinct characters and is written right-to-left. Among the 53 characters are about 30 letters that are – through the addition of various loops and flourishes – variations of the 13 graphemes of the cursive Pahlavi script (i.e. "Book" Pahlavi) that is known from the post-Sassanian texts of Zoroastrian tradition. These symbols, like those of all the Pahlavi scripts, are in turn based on Aramaic script symbols. Avestan also incorporates several letters from other writing systems, most notably the vowels, which are mostly derived from Greek minuscules. A few letters were free inventions, as were also the symbols used for punctuation. Also, the Avestan alphabet has one letter that has no corresponding sound in the Avestan language; the character for /l/ (a sound that Avestan does not have) was added to write Pazend texts.

The Avestan script is alphabetic, and the large number of letters suggests that its design was due to the need to render the orally recited texts with high phonetic precision. The correct enunciation of the liturgies was (and still is) considered necessary for the prayers to be effective.

The Zoroastrians of India, who represent one of the largest surviving Zoroastrian communities worldwide, also transcribe Avestan in Brahmi-based scripts. This is a relatively recent development first seen in the ca. 12th century texts of Neryosang Dhaval and other Parsi Sanskritist theologians of that era, which are roughly contemporary with the oldest surviving manuscripts in Avestan script. Today, Avestan is most commonly typeset in the Gujarati script (Gujarati being the traditional language of the Indian Zoroastrians). Some Avestan letters with no corresponding symbol are synthesized with additional diacritical marks, for example, the /z/ in zaraθuštra is written with j with a dot below.

Phonology

Avestan has retained voiced sibilants, and has fricative rather than aspirate series. There are various conventions for transliteration of Dīn Dabireh, the one adopted for this article being:

Vowels:

a ā ə ə̄ e ē o ō å ą i ī u ū

Consonants:

k g γ x xʷ č ǰ t d δ θ t̰ p b β f

ŋ ŋʷ ṇ ń n m y w r s z š ṣ̌ ž h

The glides y and w are often transcribed as ii and uu, imitating Dīn Dabireh orthography. The letter transcribed t̰ indicates an allophone of /t/ with no audible release at the end of a word and before certain obstruents.[9]

Consonants

	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alveolar		Retroflex	Palatal or alveolo-palatal		Velar		Labiovelar		Glottal
Nasal		m /m/		n /n/							ń /ɲ/		ŋ /ŋ/		ŋʷ /ŋʷ/
Plosive	p /p/	b /b/	t /t/	d /d/			č /tʃ/	ǰ /dʒ/				k /k/	g /ɡ/
Fricative	f /ɸ/	v /β/	θ /θ/	δ /ð/	s /s/	z /z/	š /ʃ/	ž /ʒ/	ṣ̌ /ʂ/	š́ /ɕ/		x /x/	γ /ɣ/	xʷ /xʷ/		h /h/
Approximant											y /j/				w /w/
Trill				r /r/

According to Beekes, [ð] and [ɣ] are allophones of /θ/ and /x/ respectively (in Old Avestan).

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	ɪ ⟨i⟩	iː ⟨ī⟩			ʊ ⟨u⟩	uː ⟨ū⟩
Mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩	eː ⟨ē⟩	ø ⟨ə⟩	œː ⟨ə̄⟩	ɔ ⟨o⟩	oː ⟨ō⟩
Open			ʌ ⟨a⟩	aː ⟨ā⟩		ɒː ⟨å⟩
Nasal			ã ⟨ą⟩

Grammar

Nouns

Case	"normal" endings			a-stems: (masc. neut.)
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	-s	-ā	-ō (-as), -ā	-ō (yasn-ō)	-a (vīr-a)	-a (-yasna)
Vocative	–			-a (ahur-a)		-a (yasn-a), -ånghō
Accusative	-əm		-ō (-as, -ns), -ā	-əm (ahur-əm)		-ą (haom-ą)
Instrumental	-ā	-byā	-bīš	-a (ahur-a)	-aēibya (vīr-aēibya)	-āiš (yasn-āiš)
Dative	-ē		-byō (-byas)	-āi (ahur-āi)		-aēibyō (yasn-aēibyō)
Ablative	-at		-byō	-āt (yasn-āt)
Genitive	-ō (-as)	-å	-ąm	-ahe (ahur-ahe)	-ayå (vīr-ayå)	-anąm (yasn-anąm)
Locative	-i	-ō, -yō	-su, -hu, -šva	-e (yesn-e)	-ayō (zast-ayō)	-aēšu (vīr-aēšu), -aēšva

Verbs

Primary active endings

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	-mi	-vahi	-mahi
2nd	-hi	-tha	-tha
3rd	-ti	-tō, -thō	-ṇti

Sample text

Latin alphabet	Avestan alphabet	Gujarati script approximation [citation needed]	English Translation[10]
ahyā. yāsā. nəmaŋhā. ustānazastō. rafəδrahyā.manyə̄uš. mazdā. pourwīm. spəṇtahyā. aṣ̌ā. vīspə̄ṇg. š́yaoθanā.vaŋhə̄uš. xratūm. manaŋhō. yā. xṣ̌nəwīṣ̌ā. gə̄ušcā. urwānəm.::		અહીઆ। યાસા। નામંગહા। ઉસ્તાનજ઼સ્તો।૧ રફ઼ાધરહીઆ।મનીઆઉસ્̌।૨ મજ઼્દા।૩ પોઉરુઉઈમ્।૪ સ્પાણ્તહીઆ। અષ્̌આ। વીસ્પાણ્ગ્।૫ સ્̌́ઇઇઅઓથઅના।૬વંગહાઉસ્̌। ક્સરતૂમ્।૭ મનંગહો। યા। ક્સષ્̌નાઉઉઈષ્̌આ।૮ ગાઉસ્̌ચા। ઉરુઉઆનામ્।૯:: (દુ। બાર્)::અહીઆ। યાસા। નામંગહા। ઉસ્તાનજ઼સ્તો। રફ઼ાધરહીઆ।મનીઆઉસ્̌। મજ઼્દા। પોઉરુઉઈમ્। સ્પાણ્તહીઆ। અષ્̌આ। વીસ્પાણ્ગ્। સ્̌́ઇઇઅઓથઅના।વવંગહાઉસ્̌। ક્સરતૂમ્। મનંગહો। યા। ક્સષ્̌નાઉઉઈષ્̌આ। ગાઉસ્̌ચા। ઉરુઉઆનામ્।::	With outspread hands in petition for that help, O Mazda, I will pray for the works of the holy spirit, O thou the Right, whereby I may please the will of Good Thought and the Ox-Soul.

Example phrases

The following phrases were phonetically transcribed from Avestan:[11]

Avestan	English	Comment
tapaiti	It's hot	Can also mean "he is hot" or "she is hot" (in temperature)
šyawaθa	You move
vō vatāmi	I understand you
mā vātayaθa	You teach me	Literally: "You let me understand"
dim nayehi	Thou leadest him/her
dim vō nāyayeiti	He/she lets you lead him/her	Present tense
mā barahi	Thou carryest me
nō baraiti	He/she carries us
θβā dim bārayāmahi	We let him/her carry thee	Present tense
drawāmahi	We run
dīš drāwayāmahi	We let them run	Present tense
θβā hacāmi	I follow thee
dīš hācayeinti	They accompany them	Literally: "They let them follow"
ramaiti	He rests
θβā rāmayemi	I calm thee	Literally: "I let thee rest"

Avestan and Sanskrit

Avestan is extremely similar to Vedic Sanskrit, as demonstrated by this sample text:[12][13][lower-alpha 1]

Avestan	tәm amanvantәm yazatәm	sūrәm dāmōhu sәvištәm	miθrәm yazāi zaoθrābyō
Vedic Sanskrit	tám ámanvantam yajatám	śū́ram dhā́masu śáviṣṭham	mitrám yajāi hótrābhyaḥ
Proto-Indo-Iranian	*tám ámanvantam yaǰatám	*ćū́ram dhā́masu ćávištham	*mitrám yǎǰāi jháutrābhyas

See also

• Proto-Indo-European language
• Proto-Indo-Iranian language
• Vedic Sanskrit

Explanatory notes

Citations

General sources

External links

• Encyclopedia Avestica, an online etymological glossary covering most of the corpus of the language
• Information on Avestan language at avesta.org
• Old Iranian Online (including Old and Young Avestan) by Scott L. Harvey and Jonathan Slocum, free online lessons at the Linguistics Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin
• Old Avestan and Young Avestan at Harvard University
• Text samples and Avesta Corpus at TITUS.
• Hoffmann, Karl. "Avestan language". Encyclopedia Iranica.
• Boyce, Mary. "Avestan people". Encyclopedia Iranica.
• glottothèque - Ancient Indo-European Grammars online, an online collection of introductory videos to ancient Indo-European languages produced by the University of Göttingen

На других языках

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[de] Avestische Sprache

Avestisch (wissenschaftliche Schreibung, eingedeutscht auch Awestisch) ist eine der zwei belegten altiranischen Sprachen. Der Name leitet sich von Avesta, dem heiligen Buch des Zoroastrismus, ab. Avestisch bildet als ostiranische Sprache zusammen mit dem südwestiranischen Altpersisch die am frühesten belegten iranischen Sprachen.

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- [en] Avestan

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[es] Idioma avéstico

El avéstico es una de las lenguas más antiguas de la familia indoeuropea. El material textual se divide en dos clases: el que contiene textos religiosos del zoroastrismo, que datan de mediados del primer milenio antes de Cristo, y el que contiene el cuerpo poético que engloba la mitología y las tradiciones del antiguo Irán; algo de este último material es prezoroástrico. Curiosamente, ninguna de estas dos clases de material fue registrado en escritura avéstica hasta que la lengua avéstica desapareció, lo cual ocurrió entre los siglos IV y VI de la Era Cristiana.

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[fr] Avestique

L’avestique, jadis appelée zend, est une langue persane ancienne, attestée sous sa forme liturgique dans le livre sacré des zoroastriens, l’Avesta. Parente éloignée du vieux-perse, elle est la langue iranienne orientale la plus anciennement attestée, ce qui la rend importante pour la reconstruction du proto-iranien et du proto-indo-iranien. Franz Bopp dans sa Grammaire comparée des langues indo-européennes[1], ouvrage fondamental de la reconstruction de ces langues, y fait abondamment référence aux côtés du sanscrit, de l'arménien, du grec, du latin, du lituanien, de l'ancien slave, du gotique et de l'allemand.

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[it] Lingua avestica

La lingua avestica (obsoleto: lingua zenda, zendo) è stata una lingua iranica nord-orientale, appartenente alla famiglia linguistica indoeuropea oggi conosciuta come la lingua liturgica dello Zoroastrismo, in particolare come lingua dell'Avestā, il libro sacro di questa religione, da cui deriva il nome. Questa lingua deve essere stata, in un periodo storico non precisabile, anche una lingua parlata. Il fatto di essere la lingua di un'opera sacra le ha garantito un lungo periodo di uso come lingua scritta, ovvero per la composizione di altre opere e come lingua scritta ha continuato a essere utilizzata per molti anni ancora, a partire dal momento in cui cessò di essere una lingua parlata.

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[ru] Авестийский язык

Авести́йский язы́к (авест. 𐬎𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬙𐬀𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬐𐬀𐬉𐬥𐬀) — один из древнейших представленных письменными памятниками иранских языков. Язык письменного памятника «Авеста» (от пехл. avastak «уложение»), представляющего собой свод религиозных текстов зороастризма. Уже в конце IV — начале VI веков авестийский язык был мёртвым и использовался только как язык богослужения; он используется и современными зороастрийцами — парсами в Индии и гебрами в Иране.

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