This article deals with the
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
of
Avestan. Avestan is one of the
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.
The Iranian languages are groupe ...
and retained archaic
voiced alveolar fricative
The voiced alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described.
* The symbol for the alveolar sibilant ...
s. It also has
fricatives
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
rather than the
aspirated series seen in the closely related
Indo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily ...
.
Consonants
According to Beekes, and are allophones of /θ/ and /x/ respectively(in Old Avestan).
''š'' versus ''rt''
Avestan ''š'' continues Indo-Iranian ''*-rt-''. Its phonetic value and its phonological status (one or two phonemes) are somewhat unclear.
The conditions under which change from ''-rt-'' to ''-š-'' occurs are fundamentally ill-defined. Thus, for example, Gathic/Younger ''ərəta''/''arəta'' ('establish') is a variant of ''aša'' but is consistently written with ''r t''/. Similarly, ''arəti'' ('portion') and ''
aši'' ('recompense'). But ''
aməša'' ('immortal') is consistently written with ''š'', while ''marəta'' ('mortal') is consistently written with ''r t''. In some instances, a change is evident in only Younger Avestan. For example, the Gathic Avestan word for "bridge" is ''
pərətūm'', while in Younger Avestan it is ''pəšūm''. Both are singular accusative forms, but when the word is singular nominative, the Younger Avestan variant is again (and all but once) with ''r t''.
Benveniste suggested ''š'' was only a convenient way of writing /rt/ and should not be considered phonetically relevant.
[.] According to Gray, ''š'' is a misreading, representing /r r/, of uncertain phonetic value but "probably" representing a
voiceless
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies ...
''r''.
[.]
Miller follows the older suggestion that Avestan ''š'' represents a phoneme of its own, for which he introduces the symbol "/Ř/" and identifies phonetically as (the voiceless allophone of
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
''ř''). He goes on to suggest that in writing, ''-rt-'' was restored when a scribe was aware of a
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are ...
boundary between the /r/ and /t/.
[.]
Vowels
Transcription
There are various conventions for transliteration of the
Avestan alphabet
The Avestan alphabet (Middle Persian: transliteration: ''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 ...
. We adopt the following one here.
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 Avestan orthography. The letter transcribed ''t̰'' indicates an allophone of with
no audible release
A stop with no audible release, also known as an unreleased stop or an applosive, is a stop consonant with no release burst: no audible indication of the end of its occlusion (hold). In the International Phonetic Alphabet, lack of an audible rele ...
at the end of a word and before certain
obstruents.
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
glottothèque - Ancient Indo-European Grammars online an online collection of video lectures on Ancient Indo-European languages, including lectures on Avestan phonology
{{language phonologies
Phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
Iranian phonologies