| Also Known As: Pazend,Avesta
Description:
Avestan is a Eastern Iranian language that was used to compose the sacred hymns and canon of the Zoroastrian Avesta. Iranian languages are part of the Indo-Iranian Language group. The Indo-Iranian language group is a branch of the Indo-European language family.
Despite this modern linguistic classification of Avestan language, the determination of the geographical location of Avestan language is however by no means complete. Although modern scholars are increasingly pointing to eastern Iran as the origins of the Avestan language, there is evidence of an Avestan homeland in north-western Iran.
The Avestan language, as reflected in the Avesta, is divided into two different forms:
The script used for writing Avestan developed during the 3rd or 4th century. By then the language had been extinct for many centuries, and remained in use only as a liturgical language of the Avesta canon (cf. language extinction). As is still the case today, the liturgies were memorized by the priesthood and recited by rote.
The script devised to render Avestan was natively known as Din dabireh "religion writing". It has 53 distinct characters and is written right-to-left. Among the 53 characters are about..... full article at Wikipedia |
Location of Avestan Language Speakers
<googlemap zoom="1" width=400 height=300 lat="41.759171" lon="78.494595" type="map">
33.680361, 51.168877, Iran
49.837982, 105.820313, Asia</googlemap>
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Rosetta Document Collection
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