about introduction sounds words structures texts references
AI Grammars

about

Avestan

The Avestan languages (Old and Young Avestan) are the languages of the Zoroastrian ritual. They are the oldest East Iranian languages attested (see introduction). Avestan texts are written in a script unique for its phonetic details. For example, the writing system distinguishes between released and unreleased stops. Due to conditioned sound changes the consonant system is extremely rich and distinguishes series of voiced and unvoiced fricatives (see sounds). Allomorphy is much more prevailing than in the closely related Early Vedic (see words). Like in Greek and Hittite, plural neuters may agree with verbs in the singular (see structures).

Lecturers

Almut Hintze

SOAS University of London

Benedikt Peschl

SOAS University of London

introduction

Avestan, intro, unit 1

AVE-INT-001

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49082

historical, geographical and cultural background: Avestan within Indo-Iranian, cultures and archaeology.

 slides

Avestan, intro, unit 2

AVE-INT-002

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49083

Avestan texts and ritual practice: Avestan texts and their use in Zoroastrian rituals

 slides

Avestan, intro, unit 3

AVE-INT-003

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49084

Avestan script and sound: oral composition, oral transmission, script and sound of the Avesta script

 slides

Avestan, intro, unit 4

AVE-INT-004

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49085

Avestan manuscripts: written Avestan, types of manuscripts

 slides

sounds

Avestan, sounds, unit 1

AVE-PHO-001

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49086

problems in the tradition, segmental phonology, phonological inventory, allophones

 slides

Avestan, sounds, unit 2

AVE-PHO-002

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49087

phonetics, regional dialectal features in the language of the Avesta, illustration: the Zarathustra fragment

 slides

words

Avestan, words, unit 1

AVE-MOR-001

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49088

morphological outline: morphological type and devices, word classes, Caland system, nominal composition

 slides

Avestan, words, unit 2

AVE-MOR-002

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49089

nominal stem formation and inflection, inner-paradigmatic ablaut and heteroclisis, stem classes, number

 slides

Avestan, words, unit 3

AVE-MOR-003

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49090

verb: aspect and tense in Old and Young Avestan, verbal stem formation, voice, participles and verbal adjectives

 slides

structures

Avestan, structures, unit 1

AVE-STR-001

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49091

noun phrase, adpositional phrase and local particles, grammaticalization of adpositions, tmesis, preverbs

 slides

Avestan, structures, unit 2

AVE-STR-002

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49092

predication: argument realization, subject-verb agreement, voice and valency

 slides

Avestan, structures, unit 3

AVE-STR-003

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49093

clause 1: word order, clitics, nominal sentences, clausal coordination, subordination, relative clauses

 slides

Avestan, structures, unit 4

AVE-STR-004

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49094

clause 2: deontic and epistemic modality, interrogation, information structure

 slides

texts

Avestan, texts, unit 1

AVE-TXT-001

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49095

Text samples: an Old Avestan text: Yasna 44.3–4, a verse from the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti, Y 35.2, stylistic feature: anaphora, selected grammatical features

 slides

references

Lecturers' references

selection out of the lecturers’ references, enriched by Lars Ahrens and project members:


general

general introductions, encyclopedias, literature, writing, history, miscellaneous


de Vaan, Michiel. 2003. The Avestan Vowels. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi.
Martínez, Javier, & de Vaan, Michiel. 2014. Introduction to Avestan. Leiden: Brill.
Peterson, Joseph H. 1995. AVESTA. (Accessed 2021-07-05.)
Lexicity. 2016. Old Persian. (Accessed 2021-06-24.)


grammar

grammars, treatments of major grammatical domains


Beekes, Robert S. P. 1988. A Grammar of Gatha-Avestan. Leiden, New York, Copenhagen, Köln: Brill.
Gotō, Toshifumi. 2013. Old Indo-Aryan Morphology and Its Indo-Iranian Background. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Skjærvø, Prods Oktor. 2003. Avestan. Iranian Studies at Harvard University. (Accessed 2021-05-27.)
Skjærvø, Prods Oktor. 2006. Old Avestan. Iranian Studies at Harvard University. (Accessed 2021-05-27.)


lexicon

dictionaries, headword search tools, further sources of information about the lexicon


Kanga, Kavasji Edalji. 1909. English-Avesta Dictionary. Mumbai: The Fort Printing Press. (searchable digitized version on AVESTA) (Accessed 2021-07-05.)
Peterson, Joseph H. 1995. Avestan Dictionary. AVESTA. (Accessed 2021-07-05.)
Zamani, Amir. 2020. AVESTICA. (Accessed 2021-07-05.)


text

text collections, corpora, treebanks


Gippert, Jost & Martinez, Javier & Korn, Agnes & Mittmann, Roland. 2016. TITUS TEXTUS: Thesaurus Indogermanischer Text- und Sprachmaterialien. Frankfurt: University of Frankfurt. (Accessed 2021-06-25.)
Peterson, Joseph H. 1995. Khordeh Avestā. (Accessed 2021-07-05.)

See also texts collected and digitized on AVESTA.


teaching material

coursebooks, exercises, materials or introductions supporting teaching


Krause, Todd B. & Slocum, Jonathan. 2004. Early Indo-European Online: Old Iranian Online. University of Texas: Linguistics Research Centre. (Accessed 2021-06-24.)

See also various resources gathered on AVESTA.