Back Avesties Afrikaans Avestische Sprache ALS Idioma avestico AN अवेस्तन भाषा ANP أوستية Arabic اوستيه ARZ আৱেস্তা ভাষা Assamese Idioma avésticu AST Avesta dili Azerbaijani Awestische Sproch BAR
| Avestan | |
|---|---|
| 𐬎𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬙𐬀𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬐𐬀𐬉𐬥𐬀 upastauuakaēna | |
| Region | Central Asia |
| Era | Late Bronze Age, Iron Age |
| |
| 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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Avestan (/əˈvɛstən/ ə-VESS-tən)[1] is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages, Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd to 1st millennium BC) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BC). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scriptural language of Zoroastrianism; the Avesta 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.
- ^ Wells, John C. (1990), Longman pronunciation dictionary, Harlow, England: Longman, p. 53, ISBN 0-582-05383-8 entry "Avestan"
- ^ 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.
- ^ Mallory, J. P. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture. page 653. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5. entry "Yazd culture".
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