Avestan
𐬎𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬙𐬀𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬐𐬀𐬉𐬥𐬀
RegionCentral Asia
EraLate Bronze Age, Iron Age
Language codes
ISO 639-1ae
ISO 639-2ave
ISO 639-3ave
Glottologaves1237
Linguasphere58-ABA-a
Yasna 28.1, Ahunavaiti Gatha (Bodleian MS J2)

Avestan (/əˈvɛstən/ ə-VESS-tən)[1] is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd to 1st 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.

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

Avestan and Old Persian are the two attested languages comprising Old Iranian,[4] and while Avestan was localized in the northeastern parts of Greater Iran[f 1] according to Paul Maximilian Tedesco (1921), other scholars have favored regarding Avestan as originating in eastern parts.[4][5]

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 ancestor 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]

Dating

The Avestan language is only known from the Avesta and otherwise unattested. As a result, there is no external evidence on which to base the time frame during which the Avestan language was spoken and all attempts have to rely on internal evidence. Such attempts were often based on the life of Zarathustra as the most distinct event in the Avestan period. Zarathustra was traditionally based in the 6th century BCE meaning that Old Avestan would have been spoken during the early Achaemenid period.[9] Given that a substantial time must have passed between Old Avestan and Young Avestan, the latter would have been spoken somewhere during the Hellenistic or the Parthian period of Iranian history.[10]

However, more recent scholarship has increasingly shifted to an earlier dating.[11][12][13] The literature presents a number of reasons for this shift, based on both the Old Avestan and the Young Avestan material. As regards Old Avestan, the Gathas show strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the Rigveda, which in turn is assumed to represent the second half of the second millennium BCE.[14][15][16][17] As regards Young Avestan, texts like the Yashts and the Vendidad are situated in the eastern parts of Greater Iran and lack any discernible Persian or Median influence from Western Iran.[18] This is interpreted such that the bulk of this material, which has been produced several centuries after Zarathustra, must still predate the sixth century BCE.[19][20][21] As a result, more recent scholarship often assumes that the major parts of the Young Avestan texts mainly reflect the first half of the first millennia BCE,[22][23][24] whereas the Old Avestan texts of Zarathustra may have been composed around 1000 BCE[25][26][27][28] or even as early as 1500 BCE.[29][30][31]

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 c. 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.[32]

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 voiceless ⟨p⟩ /p/ ⟨t⟩ /t/ ⟨č⟩ /tʃ/ ⟨k⟩ /k/
voiced ⟨b⟩ /b/ ⟨d⟩ /d/ ⟨j⟩ /dʒ/ ⟨g⟩ /ɡ/
Fricative voiceless ⟨f⟩ /ɸ/ ⟨θ⟩ /θ/ ⟨s⟩ /s/ ⟨š⟩ /ʃ/ ⟨ṣ̌⟩ /ʂ/ ⟨š́⟩ /ɕ/ ⟨x⟩ /x/ ⟨xʷ⟩ /xʷ/ ⟨h⟩ /h/
voiced ⟨β⟩ /β/ ⟨δ⟩ /ð/ ⟨z⟩ /z/ ⟨ž⟩ /ʒ/ ⟨γ⟩ /ɣ/
Approximant ⟨y⟩ /j/ ⟨v⟩ /w/
Trill ⟨r⟩ /r/

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

Vowels

Front Central Back
shortlong shortlong shortlong
Close i ⟨i⟩ iː ⟨ī⟩ u ⟨u⟩ uː ⟨ū⟩
Mid e ⟨e⟩ eː ⟨ē⟩ ə ⟨ə⟩ əː ⟨ə̄⟩ o ⟨o⟩ oː ⟨ō⟩
Open a ⟨a⟩ aː ⟨ā⟩ ɒ ⟨å⟩ ɒː ⟨ā̊⟩
Nasal ã ⟨ą⟩ ãː ⟨ą̇⟩

Grammar

Nouns

Case "normal" endings a-stems: (masc. neut.)
SingularDualPluralSingularDualPlural
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
PersonSingularDualPlural
1st -mi-vahi-mahi
2nd -hi-tha-tha
3rd -ti-tō, -thō-ṇti

Sample text

Latin alphabet
 Avestan alphabet
 English Translation[33]
ahyā. yāsā. nəmaŋhā. ustānazastō. rafəδrahyā.manyə̄uš. mazdā. pourwīm. spəṇtahyā. aṣ̌ā. vīspə̄ṇg. š́yaoθanā.vaŋhə̄uš. xratūm. manaŋhō. yā. xṣ̌nəwīṣ̌ā. gə̄ušcā. urwānəm.::

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:[34]

AvestanEnglishComment
tapaitiIt's hotCan also mean "he is hot" or "she is hot" (in temperature)
šyawaθaYou move
vō vatāmiI understand you
mā vātayaθaYou teach meLiterally: "You let me understand"
dim nayehiThou leadest him/her
dim vō nāyayeitiHe/she lets you lead him/herPresent tense
mā barahiThou carryest me
nō baraitiHe/she carries us
θβā dim bārayāmahiWe let him/her carry theePresent tense
drawāmahiWe run
dīš drāwayāmahiWe let them runPresent tense
θβā hacāmiI follow thee
dīš hācayeintiThey accompany themLiterally: "They let them follow"
ramaitiHe rests
θβā rāmayemiI calm theeLiterally: "I let thee rest"

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ With Old Iranian being used in the southwest.

    Citations

    1. ↑ Wells, John C. (1990), Longman pronunciation dictionary, Harlow, England: Longman, p. 53, ISBN 0-582-05383-8 entry "Avestan"
    2. ↑ Witzel, Michael. "THE HOME OF THE ARYANS" (PDF). Harvard University. p. 10. Retrieved 8 May 2015. Since the evidence of Young Avestan place names so clearly points to a more eastern location, the Avesta is again understood, nowadays, as an East Iranian text, whose area of composition comprised – at least – Sīstån/Arachosia, Herat, Merw and Bactria.
    3. ↑ Mallory, J. P. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture. page 653. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5. entry "Yazd culture".
    4. 1 2 3 Hoffmann, Karl (1989), "Avestan language", Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. 3, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 47–52.
    5. ↑ Gnoli, Gherardo (1989), "Avestan geography", Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. 3, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 44–47, It is impossible to attribute a precise geographical location to the language of the Avesta... With the exception of an important study by P. Tedesco (1921 [...]), who advances the theory of an 'Avestan homeland' in northwestern Iran, Iranian scholars of the twentieth century have looked increasingly to eastern Iran for the origins of the Avestan language and today there is general agreement that the area in question was in eastern Iran—a fact that emerges clearly from every passage in the Avesta that sheds any light on its historical and geographical background.
    6. ↑ Encyclopaedia Iranica: EASTERN IRANIAN LANGUAGES. By Nicholas Sims-Williams
    7. ↑ Hoffmann, K. Encyclopaedia Iranica. AVESTAN LANGUAGE. III. The grammar of Avestan.: "The morphology of Avestan nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs is, like that of the closely related Old Persian, inherited from Proto-Indo-European via Proto-Indo-Iranian (Proto-Aryan), and agrees largely with that of Vedic, the oldest known form of Indo-Aryan. The interpretation of the transmitted Avestan texts presents in many cases considerable difficulty for various reasons, both with respect to their contexts and their grammar. Accordingly, systematic comparison with Vedic is of much assistance in determining and explaining Avestan grammatical forms."
    8. ↑ Morgenstierne, G. Encyclopaedia Iranica: AFGHANISTAN vi. Paṧto "it seems that the Old Iranic ancestor dialect of Paṧtō must have been close to that of the Gathas."
    9. ↑ Shahbazi, Alireza Shapur (1977). "The 'Traditional Date of Zoroaster' Explained". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 40: 25–35.
    10. ↑ Hintze, Almut (2015). "Zarathustra's Time and Homeland - Linguistic Perspectives". In Stausberg, Michael (ed.). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. p. 38. ISBN 9781118785539. Linguistic, literary and conceptual characteristics suggest that the Old(er) Avesta pre‐dates the Young(er) Avesta by several centuries.
    11. ↑ Daniel, Elton L. (2012). The History of Iran. Greenwood. p. 47. ISBN 978-0313375095. Recent research, however, has cast considerable doubt on this dating and geographical setting.
    12. ↑ Stausberg, Michael (2002). Die Religion Zarathushtras: Geschichte - Gegenwart - Rituale. Vol. 1 (1st ed.). W. Kohlhammer GmbH. p. 27. ISBN 978-3170171183. Die 'Spätdatierung' wird auch in der jüngeren Forschung gelegentlich vertreten. Die Mehrzahl der Forscher neigt heutzutage allerding der 'Frühdatierung' zu
    13. ↑ Bryant, Edwin (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture. Oxford University Press. p. 130. Previously, a sixth century B.C.E. date based on Greek sources was accepted by many scholars, but this has now been completely discarded by present-day specialists in the field.
    14. ↑ Skjaervø, P. Oktor (2009). "Old Iranian". In Windfuhr, Gernot (ed.). The Iranian Languages. Routledge. p. 43. ISBN 9780203641736. Old Avestan [...] is closely similar in grammar and vocabulary to the oldest Indic language as seen in the oldest part of the Rgveda and should therefore probably be dated to about the same time.
    15. ↑ Daniel, Elton L. (2012). The History of Iran. Greenwood. p. 47. ISBN 978-0313375095. The similarity of the language and metrical system of the Gathas to those of the Vedas, the simplicity of the society depicted throughout the Avesta, and the lack of awareness of great cities, historical rulers, or empires all suggest a different time frame.
    16. ↑ Bryant, Edwin (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture. Oxford University Press. p. 130. The oldest parts of the Avesta, which is the body of texts preserving the ancient canon of the Iranian Zarthustrian tradition, is linguistically and culturally very close to the material preserved in the Rgveda.
    17. ↑ Foltz, Richard C. (2013). Religions of Iran: From Prehistory to the Present. Oneworld Publications. p. 57. ISBN 978-1780743080. The archaic nature of the Avestan language and its similarities to that of the Rig Veda, as well as the social and ecological environment it describes, would suggest a date somewhere between these two extremes, but not much later than 1000 BCE.
    18. ↑ Witzel, Michael (2000). "The Home of the Aryans". In Hinze, A.; Tichy, E. (eds.). Festschrift für Johanna Narten zum 70. Geburtstag (PDF). J. H. Roell. p. 10. doi:10.11588/xarep.00000114. Since the evidence of Young Avestan place names so clearly points to a more eastern location, the Avesta is again understood, nowadays, as an East Iranian text
    19. ↑ Gnoli, Gherardo (2011). "AVESTAN GEOGRAPHY". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. III. Iranica Foundation. pp. 44–47. "It seems likely that this geographical part of the Avesta was intended to show the extent of the territory that had been acquired in a period that can not be well defined but that must at any rate have been between Zoroaster's reforms and the beginning of the Achaemenian empire. The likely dating is therefore between the ninth and seventh centuries B.C.
    20. ↑ Boyce, Mary (1996). A History Of Zoroastrianism: The Early Period. Brill. p. 191. Had it been otherwise, and had Zoroastrianism been carried in its infancy to the Medes and Persians, these imperial people must inevitable have found mention in its religious works.
    21. ↑ Skjaervø, P. Oktor (1995). "The Avesta as source for the early history of the Iranians". In Erdosy, George (ed.). The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia. De Gruyter. p. 166. ISBN 9783110144475. The fact that the oldest Young Avestan texts apparently contain no reference to western Iran, including Media, would seem to indicate that they were composed in eastern Iran before the Median domination reached the area.
    22. ↑ Grenet, Frantz (2005). "An Archaeologist's Approach to Avestan Geography". In Curtis, Vesta Sarkhosh; Stewart, Sarah (eds.). Birth of the Persian Empire Volume I. I.B.Tauris. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-7556-2459-1. It is difficult to imagine that the text was composed anywhere other than in South Afghanistan and later than the middle of the 6th century BCE.
    23. ↑ Vogelsang, Willem (2000). "The sixteen lands of Videvdat - Airyanem Vaejah and the homeland of the Iranians". Persica. 16: 62. doi:10.2143/PERS.16.0.511. All of the above observations would indicate a date for the composition of the Videvdat list which would antedate, for a considerable time, the arrival in Eastern Iran of the Persian Acheamenids (ca. 550 B.C.)
    24. ↑ Skjaervø, P. Oktor (2009). "Old Iranian". In Windfuhr, Gernot (ed.). The Iranian Languages. Routledge. p. 43. ISBN 9780203641736. Young Avestan must have been quite close to Old Persian, which suggests it was spoken in the first half of the first millennium BCE.
    25. ↑ Malandra, William W. (2009). "Zoroaster ii. general survey". Encyclopædia Iranica. Iranica Foundation. Controversy over Zaraθuštra's date has been an embarrassment of long standing to Zoroastrian studies. If anything approaching a consensus exists, it is that he lived ca. 1000 BCE give or take a century or so[.]
    26. ↑ Kellens, Jean (2011). "AVESTA i. Survey of the history and contents of the book". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. III. Iranica Foundation. In the last ten years a general consensus has gradually emerged in favor of placing the Gāthās around 1000 BCE [...]
    27. ↑ Schmitt, Rüdiger (2000). "Die Sprachen der altiranischen Periode". Die iranischen Sprachen in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag. p. 21. Die ältesten Texte dieses Corpus, die sog. Gathas stammen von Zarathustra selbst, dessen Lebensdaten von der Mehrheit der Forscher heute um das Jahr 1000 v. Chr. angesetzt [...] werden.
    28. ↑ Hale, Mark (2004). "Avestan". In Roger D. Woodard (ed.). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages. Cambridge University Press. p. 742. ISBN 0-521-56256-2. Current scholarly consensus places his life considerably earlier than the traditional Zoroastrian sources are thought to, favoring a birth date before 1000 BC.
    29. ↑ Skjaervø, P. Oktor (2009). "Old Iranian". In Windfuhr, Gernot (ed.). The Iranian Languages. Routledge. p. 46. ISBN 9780203641736. Mid-second millennium:Composition of the ritual texts[...]the last direct evidence of which are the extant Old Avestan texts.
    30. ↑ Daniel, Elton L. (2012). The History of Iran. Greenwood. p. 47. ISBN 978-0313375095. All in all, it seems likely that Zoroaster and the Avestan people flourished in eastern Iran at a much earlier date (anywhere from 1500 to 900 B.C.) than once thought.
    31. ↑ Grenet, Frantz (2015). "Zarathustra's Time and Homeland - Geographical Perspectives". In Stausberg, Michael; Vevaina, Yuhan S.-D.; Tessmann, Anna (eds.). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. John Wiley and Sons, Ltd. p. 22. ISBN 9781118785539. All things considered, our chronological and cultural parameters tend to suggest locating Zarathustra (or, at least, the "Gathic community") [...] around c. 1500–1200 BCE.
    32. ↑ Hale, Mark (2004). "Avestan". In Roger D. Woodard (ed.). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56256-2.
    33. ↑ "AVESTA: YASNA: Sacred Liturgy and Gathas/Hymns of Zarathushtra". avesta.org.
    34. ↑ Lubotsky, Alexander (2010). Van Sanskriet tot Spijkerschrift: Breinbrekers uit alle talen [From Sanskrit to Cuneiform: Brain teasers from all languages] (in Dutch). Amsterdam University Press. pp. 18, 69–71. ISBN 978-9089641793. Retrieved 30 April 2016.

    General sources

    • Beekes, Robert S. P. (1988), A Grammar of Gatha-Avestan, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 90-04-08332-4.
    • Hoffmann, Karl; Forssman, Bernhard (1996), Avestische Laut- und Flexionslehre, Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 84, Institut fur Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck, ISBN 3-85124-652-7.
    • Kellens, Jean (1990), "Avestan syntax", Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. 3/sup, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
    • Skjærvø, Prod Oktor (2006), Old Avestan, fas.harvard.edu.
    • Skjærvø, Prod Oktor (2006), Introduction to Young Avestan, fas.harvard.edu.
    • Vaan, Michiel (2014), Introduction to Avestan (Brill Introductions to Indo-European Languages, Band 1), Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-25809-9.
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