Avestan Language: Script, Phonology and Grammar
This domain tests how Avestan is written and how its sounds and forms work. Expect questions on the Avestan alphabet, transliteration, Old versus Younger Avestan, nominal endings, and verb categories.
Script and phonology
- Avestan is written right-to-left in a phonetic alphabet developed to record recited texts; it distinguishes vowels more fully than Pahlavi.
- Transliteration uses diacritics: ā, ə, ə̄, θ, δ, x, xʷ, γ, č, ǰ, š, ž, ŋ, ŋʷ. Do not silently replace them with plain English letters.
- Old Avestan (Gathic) and Younger Avestan differ in phonology and morphology; a form's period matters.
Grammar
Avestan is inflectional: three genders, three numbers, and cases including nominative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, locative, and vocative. Verbs mark person and number and tense/aspect such as present, aorist, perfect, and future. Moods include indicative, subjunctive, optative, imperative, and injunctive; both thematic and athematic stems occur.
Worked example
In ahurəm mazdąm yazamaide, ahurəm and mazdąm are accusative singular forms, and yazamaide is a first-person plural present middle form of yaz- 'worship'. The clause therefore means 'We worship Ahura Mazda.' The reasoning is ending-based: -əm and -ąm signal the accusative objects, while -maide marks the first-person plural verb.
Traps
Do not confuse Avestan script with Pahlavi; do not read a transliteration as English; do not apply Younger Avestan endings to Old Avestan forms; and do not ignore length marks, which can change a parse.