Theta or T in the Ahuna Vairya
A student is copying the Ahuna Vairya from a poor facsimile for a calligraphy project. The second line begins with a word that could be read aθa or ata. The first line begins yathā ahū vairyō. The facsimile's letter has a horizontal stroke that is scratched, so the distinguishing mark of θ is not clear. The student's glossary lists aθa 'then, thus' but no entry for ata. A parallel manuscript in the school library clearly shows θ. The exam will ask the student to restore the word and to explain the correction in one paragraph. The student must also avoid confusing the Avestan letter θ with the English digraph 'th' and must give the correct transliteration. The teacher has warned that a wrong letter changes the parallel structure of the prayer and can affect the word count, which tradition gives as 21 words for the Ahuna Vairya.
1. Which reading should the student restore, and what internal evidence supports it?
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Restore aθa. The first line begins yathā, and the prayer's opening is built on the correlative pair yathā ... aθa, 'as ... so'. The glossary lists aθa 'then, thus' but has no entry for ata, and the parallel manuscript clearly shows θ. The scratched facsimile is therefore a defective witness, not evidence for a different word. The student should note that aθa keeps the parallel structure and the traditional word count of 21 words for the Ahuna Vairya; ata would be a ghost word. In the answer, give the restored line and explain that internal evidence (parallelism and vocabulary) outweighs a single damaged letter.
2. Explain the difference between θ and t in the Avestan script and in transliteration, and why a wrong letter matters.
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Avestan has distinct letters for θ and t. θ is a voiceless dental fricative, transliterated with the theta sign; t is a voiceless dental stop. They are not allographs or stylistic variants. A wrong letter changes the sound of the recitation and can change the identity of the word, because Avestan vocabulary distinguishes forms by these consonants. In this line, aθa is a known adverb, while ata is not the required word. The student should also avoid writing 'th' as if the Avestan letter were an English digraph: the correct transliteration is θ, not th. In the calligraphy project, the two letters must be drawn differently, and the exam should reward the correct sign and the correct sound.
3. How would the student justify the restoration if the scratched facsimile were the only witness?
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Even as the only witness, the scratched facsimile would not force the reading ata. Textual criticism does not treat a physical mark in isolation; it asks which reading explains the context. The correlative yathā ... aθa, the known glossary, the prayer's liturgical structure, and the parallel manuscript all point to aθa. A single defective sign is better explained as damage than as a deliberate variant. The student can invoke the principle that the reading which makes sense of the whole line is preferred over one that creates an unknown word. The answer should still note the damage honestly, so the examiner sees that the restoration is argued, not guessed.