Avestan
Sign in to saveAvestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family and was originally spoken during the Avestan period ( BCE) by the Iranians living in eastern Greater Iran as evidenced from names in Avestan geography.
AI overview
Avestan is an ancient Iranian language that served as the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism, the major religion of ancient Persia. It belongs to the Indo-European language family and was originally spoken by Iranians in eastern Greater Iran during the Avestan period, as shown by place names and geographical references preserved in Avestan texts.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Language.name
- Avestan
- Language.region
- Central Asia
- Language.era
- Late Bronze Age, Iron Age
- Language.familycolor
- Indo-European
- Language.fam2
- Indo-Iranian
- Language.fam3
- Iranian
- Language.ancestor
- Proto-Indo-European
- Language.ancestor2
- Proto-Indo-Iranian
- Language.ancestor3
- Proto-Iranian
- Language.iso1
- ae
- Language.iso2
- ave
- Language.iso3
- ave
- Language.glotto
Article
22 sectionsContents
- Name
- Classification
- History
- Avestan as a native language
- Geographical distribution
- Avestan as a liturgical language
- Alphabet
- Phonology
- Consonants
- Vowels
- Grammar
- Nouns
- Verbs
- Sample text
- Example phrases
- See also
- References
- Explanatory notes
- Citations
- General sources
- Further reading
- External links
Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family and was originally spoken during the Avestan period ( BCE) by the Iranians living in eastern Greater Iran as evidenced from names in Avestan geography.
After Avestan became extinct, its religious texts were transmitted orally, then collected and put into writing during the Sasanian period ( CE). The extant material falls into two groups: Old Avestan ( BCE) and Younger Avestan ( BCE). The immediate ancestor of Old Avestan 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.
Gallery (9)
Connections
Categories
Ancient languagesAvestaAvestan languageEastern Iranian languagesExtinct languages of AsiaLanguage articles with Linguasphere codeLanguage articles with unknown extinction dateLanguage articles with unreferenced extinction dateLanguages with ISO 639-1 codeLanguages with ISO 639-2 codeSacred languages