Avesta language - script and reading (Avestan script, transliteration)
The script-and-reading domain tests three things: recognising Avestan letters on the page, converting a word into accepted transliteration, and reading a short prayer with correct vowel length. The Avestan alphabet was created in the Sasanian period (roughly the 4th–6th centuries CE) to fix an oral liturgy in writing. It descends from Book Pahlavi, itself of Aramaic origin, and runs right to left.
The alphabet
- The alphabet is usually counted as 53 letters: 37 consonants and 16 vowels. Unlike Pahlavi it writes vowels in full, which makes it one of the most phonetic scripts of the ancient Near East.
- Vowels come in short/long pairs - a/ā, i/ī, u/ū - together with ə (the so-called "Avestan e"), ē, ō and the nasalised ą and ą̇.
- Consonants include the fricatives θ, δ, x, x́, γ, β, š, ž, č, ǰ, the nasals ŋ (velar) and ŋ́ (palatal), syllabic r̥, and the "unreleased" t̰, d̰.
- A few variant letter-forms appear in manuscripts where the holiest formulas are written.
Transliteration
- One letter maps to one transliteration symbol; never silently drop a diacritic.
- Diacritics carry meaning: ašəm, asəm and ašam are not the same string.
- Editions hyphenate manuscript word-units, not syllables - do not copy hyphens into a grammatical analysis.
Worked example
Ashem Vohu, first line: ašəm vohū vahištəm astī. Read each cluster right to left, then transliterate letter by letter: a-š-ə-m → ašəm; v-o-h-ū → vohū; v-a-h-i-š-t-ə-m → vahištəm; a-s-t-ī → astī. Check the lengths: the final -ū and -ī are long, and ə is its own vowel, neither "e" nor short a. Translation: "Righteousness is good, it is the best."
Traps
- Answering "ashem vohu" in a transliteration question - every long vowel and every ə must be marked.
- Reading the line left to right, or splitting a ligature into two letters.
- Mixing ŋ (velar) with ŋ́ (palatal); they are separate letters in the script.