The Avestan alphabet (
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
:
transliteration
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or ...
: ''dyn' dpywryh'',
transcription: ''dēn dēbīrē'', fa, دین دبیره, translit=din dabire) is a writing system developed during Iran's
Sasanian era (226–651 CE) to render the
Avestan language
Avestan (), 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 scri ...
.
As a side effect of its development, the script was also used for
Pazend, a method of writing
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
that was used primarily for ''
Zend'' commentaries on the texts of the
Avesta
The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language.
The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the li ...
. In the texts of
Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...
tradition, the alphabet is referred to as "the religion's script" (''dēn dibīrih'' in
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
and ''din dabireh'' in
New Persian
New Persian ( fa, فارسی نو), also known as Modern Persian () and Dari (), is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into thre ...
).
History
The development of the Avestan alphabet was initiated by the need to represent recited
Avestan language
Avestan (), 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 scri ...
texts correctly. The various text collections that today constitute the canon of
Zoroastrian scripture are the result of a collation that occurred in the 4th century, probably during the reign of
Shapur II
Shapur II ( pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 ; New Persian: , ''Šāpur'', 309 – 379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran. The List of longest-reigning monarchs, longest ...
(309–379). It is likely that the Avestan alphabet was an ''
ad hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with '' a priori''.)
C ...
''
[.] innovation related to this – "Sassanid archetype" – collation.
The enterprise, "which is indicative of a Mazdean revival and of the establishment of a strict orthodoxy closely connected with the political power, was probably caused by the desire to compete more effectively with Buddhists, Christians, and Manicheans, whose faith was based on a revealed book".
In contrast, the Zoroastrian priesthood had for centuries been accustomed to memorizing scripture — following by rote the words of a teacher-priest until they had memorized the words, cadence, inflection and intonation of the prayers. This they passed on to their pupils in turn, so preserving for many generations the correct way to recite scripture. This was necessary because the priesthood considered (and continue to consider) precise and correct enunciation and cadence a prerequisite of effective prayer. Further, the recitation of the liturgy was (and is) accompanied by ritual activity that leaves no room to attend to a written text.
The ability to correctly render Avestan did, however, have a direct benefit: By the common era the Avestan language words had almost ceased to be understood, which led to the preparation of the ''Zend'' texts (from Avestan ''zainti'' "understanding"), that is commentaries on and translations of the canon. The development of the Avestan alphabet allowed these commentaries to interleave quotation of scripture with explanation thereof. The direct effect of these texts was a "standardized" interpretation of scripture that survives to the present day. For scholarship these texts are enormously interesting since they occasionally preserve passages that have otherwise been lost.
The 9th–12th century texts of Zoroastrian tradition suggest that there was once a much larger collection of ''written''
Zoroastrian literature
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...
, but these texts — if they ever existed — have since been lost, and it is hence not known what script was used to render them. The question of the ''existence'' of a pre-Sassanid "Arsacid archetype" occupied Avestan scholars for much of the 19th century, and, "
atever may be the truth about the Arsacid
Avesta
The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language.
The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the li ...
, the linguistic evidence shows that even if it did exist, it can not have had any practical influence, since no linguistic form in the Vulgate can be explained with certainty as resulting from wrong transcription and the number of doubtful cases is minimal; in fact it is being steadily reduced. Though the existence of an Arsacid archetype is not impossible, it has proved to contribute nothing to Avestan philology."
Genealogy and script
The
Pahlavi script, upon which the Avestan alphabet is based, was in common use for representing various
Middle Iranian languages, but was not adequate for representing a religious language that demanded precision since Pahlavi was a simplified
abjad
An abjad (, ar, أبجد; also abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with other alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels ...
syllabary with at most 22 symbols, most of which were ambiguous (i.e. could represent more than one sound).
In contrast, Avestan was a full alphabet, with explicit characters for vowels, and allowed for phonetic disambiguation of
allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...
s. The alphabet included many characters (''a'', ''i'', ''k'', ''t'', ''p'', ''b'', ''m'', ''n'', ''r'', ''s'', ''z'', ''š'', ''x
v'') closely resembling Book Pahlavi of the early Islamic Persia, while some (''ā'', ''γ'') are characters that only exist in the older (6th-7th c. AD)
Psalter Pahlavi script (in later cursive Pahlavi ''γ'' and ''k'' have the same symbol).
[.] Some of the vowels, such as ''ə'' appear to derive from
Greek cursives.
Avestan ''o'' is a special form of Pahlavi
''l'' that exists only in Aramaic signs. Some letters (e.g. ''ŋ́'', ''ṇ'', ''ẏ'', ''v''), are free inventions.
[.]
Avestan script, like Pahlavi script and Aramaic script also, is written from right to left. In Avestan script, letters are not connected, and ligatures are "rare and clearly of secondary origin".
Letters
In total, the Avestan alphabet has 37 consonants and 16 vowels. There are two main transcription schemes for Avestan, the newer orthography used by
Karl Hoffmann and the older one used by
Christian Bartholomae.
Later, when writing
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
in the script (i.e.
Pazend), another consonant was added to represent the /l/ phoneme that didn't exist in the Avestan language.
Ligatures
Four ligatures are commonly used in Avestan manuscripts:
* (š) + (a) = (ša)
* (š) + (c) = (šc)
* (š) + (t) = (št)
* (a) + (h) = (ah)
U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER can be used to prevent ligatures if desired.
For example, compare (U+10B31 10B00) with (U+10B31 200C 10B00).
Fossey
[.] lists 16 ligatures, but most are formed by the interaction of swash tails.
Digits
Digits and numbers can be seen on the Faulmann chart above.
Punctuation
Words and the end of the first part of a compound are separated by a dot (in a variety of vertical positions). Beyond that, punctuation is weak or non-existent in the manuscripts, and in the 1880s
Karl Friedrich Geldner had to devise one for standardized transcription. In his system, which he developed based on what he could find, a triangle of three dots serves as a colon, a semicolon, an end of sentence or end of section; which is determined by the size of the dots and whether there is one dot above and two below, or two above and one below. Two above and one below signify — in ascending order of "dot" size — colon, semicolon, end of sentence or end of section.
Unicode
The Avestan alphabet was added to the
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...
Standard in October, 2009 with the release of version 5.2.
The characters are encoded at U+10B00—10B35 for letters (''ii'' and ''uu'' are not represented as single characters, but as sequences of characters
) and U+10B38—10B3F for punctuation.
References
External links
* On Wikipedia, the above Avestan alphabet samples are more likely than not displayed in most Web browsers using
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
's
Noto Sans Avestan font, which has four automated ligatures. A more complete, serif-style font, with full ligatures and more sophisticated kerning hints, is available below:
* Ernst Tremel's
Open Font Licensedbr>
''Ahura Mazda''Unicode font, based on the type used in Geldner 1896, with the addition of ligatures in the
PUA
PUA or Pua
Science and technology
* Potentially unwanted application, a type of privacy-invasive software
* Private Use Areas, in Unicode
* Pua (spider), ''Pua'', a genus of spider in the family Anapidae
* Pua Aloalo, the state flower of Hawaii
* ...
.
Bibliography
* .
* .
* .
* .
* .
* .
{{portal bar, Writing
Alphabets
Avesta
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a s ...
Scripts with ISO 15924 four-letter codes
Persian scripts
Obsolete writing systems
Right-to-left writing systems