Translation, Comprehension and Applied Language Skills
This domain tests practical reading: transliteration, parsing, contextual translation, and recognition of formulae in Avestan and Pahlavi. Expect short passages, glossary-based questions, and asks to justify a rendering.
Method
- Identify the language and script first: Avestan, Book Pahlavi, or Pazand.
- Transliterate carefully, preserving diacritics and heterograms.
- Parse before translating: find the verb, then its arguments, then particles such as ī or pad.
- Keep formulaic phrases formulaic; do not modernize technical ritual terms.
- Use context for ambiguous Pahlavi graphs and omitted vowels.
Worked example
Translate Pahlavi pad nām ī dādār. Pad is a preposition, nām means 'name', ī is the ezafe linker, and dādār means 'creator'. The translation is 'in the name of the Creator'. Reasoning: pad introduces the phrase; ī links nām to its qualifier; dādār is the possessor/qualifier, not a verb. A literal 'by name which creator' shows failure to handle ezafe.
Traps
Do not translate heterograms literally; do not ignore Avestan case endings; do not treat every ī as a pronoun; do not supply vowels in Pahlavi without support; and do not drop formulaic ritual vocabulary such as yazamaide or haoma.