PHONOLOGY

Consonants

We may posit the following (original) consonant phonemes for Young Avestan. The principal allophones are in parenthesis.

			Fricatives		Continuant		Nasals	Sibilants
Bilabials: Labio-dentals: Dentals: Alveo-dentals: Alveolar: Alveo-palatals: Palatals:	- voice t	+ voice b d	- voice	+ voice (5)	- voice	+ voice u <uu> i <ii>	(f)	- voice	+ voice z (ž)
Velars: Palato-velars: Labio-velars: Pharyngeal:	k		x (k)	(Y)	h		1] (á)

p (5 y: Post-vocalic and, in some instances, post-consonantic /b d g/ were realized as p y (e.g., bara"lord, god," duyða "daughter"), except d in the vicinity of r, which was regularly realized as d (hurao&z"well-shaped" but vadar- "(striking) weapon").

This letter is rarely used in Young Avestan, which has 1511. where Old Avestan has -f. It is always followed by ii, e.g., daíiiunqrn "of the lands," namaíiiämahi "we revere."

x": This letter is used in initial position and corresponds to Ì'h between vowels (except when it is from *-ku-).

r, hr: /r/ had an unvoiced allophone before p and k written hr, apparently limited to syllables which bore the stress. The original *hrt became š (see As the stress shifted, or if the consonant changed, the original r reappears: kahrpam hukarapta-, aša- Astuuat.arata-, mahrka- amaraxti-.

ng: 1¹m/ has a special variant—written In—after h, which was perhaps a preaspirated rather than voiceless nz (cf. Eng. hum) In the manuscripts we sometimes find only for this sound, sometimes In many manuscripts the letter is not used, however, and hm is simply written <hm>.

n: /n/ was realized as n, a nasal of uncertain nature, before consonants except i and u.

ú: Before and possibly also i, n was palatalized to h, but the letters 1andr <ó> are not consistently used in the manuscripts. When followed by ii some scribes write hii or nii, others inii, e.g., mahiiuš, maniiuš, or mainiiuš. When followed by i (internally) we find spellings such as ahim, anim, or—commonly—ainim. <lí> is never (?) used alone to express palatal h when not followed by i or ii. Examples: aúiiõ aniiõ

, or ainiiõ other," mahiiuš maniiuš or mainiiuš "spirit"; nitamõ R,eeior hitamõ R,e.lowest." In this manual the forms aniia-, maniiu-, nitama-, etc., will be used, but ainim (see Lesson 4).

1]: The velar nasal /1)/ has two origins:

l . It is for eg (nk) in paotaì'ha- "a fifth" < *pangta-. In some manuscripts it is used instead of ng between vowels in words such as aoušta- = a'.agušta- "finger.'

2. In most instances Oh is the realization of /h/ between vowels, e.g., manaohõ, gen. sing. of manah-. This change did not usually take place when the h was followed by i or—less regularly—u: e.g., ahi "you are," vohu "good" neut. sing./plur., but vaohuš masc. sing.

When followed by r, the standard editions write only 1], e.g., aora-, hazaora- "a thousand," Fraryrasiian-, name of a villain, caoralÿhäk- "grazing, following the pastures," etc. In some manuscripts, however, the spellings aohra-, hazaohra- are also common.

15 is only used between vowels and is always followed by h (Ijh). The actual spelling alternates between 15h, i15h, and il)h, e.g., aóhe, aiÚhe or ail]he., or even aohe. In this introduction only the spelling 1511 is used.

lî' is only used between vowels and always followed by h (O ^l'h). It corresponds to x" in initial position. Instead of lì'h the scribes frequently wrote ouh or just Oh, e.g., ao ^l'he, aouhe, or aohe (thus ame can be for aÚhe or aì'he!).

š, š, š: The three sibilants /š/ ..o , /š/ yo , had merged into one sound [š] by the time of our earliest manuscripts, but must originally have been separate phonemes. /š/ must have been the regular alveolar sibilant, e.g. gaoša- "ear" (cf. Olnd. gh0§a- "sound") and /š/ a palatal(ized) sibilant (< *éi, e.g., šauua- "to go," cf. Olnd. cyava-).

The distinctive features of ,/$/ (< *-rt with stress on the preceding vowel) are uncertain. In the table above it is suggested that it may have been an alveolar sibilant, but it must have had some additional feature, perhaps rhotacization (a sound found in some modern Iranian dialects), but it may have been a retroflex affricate or lateral and later a retroflex sibilant, e.g., mašiia- "man, mortal" (cf. Olnd. martiya-). It may be noted that in the Sasanian (learned) pronunciation there was no distinction between this sound and the sound resulting from Avestan rt and re: they were both written hl and presumably pronounced hl, as well, e.g., mahlï, name of the first human, "Adam" < mašiia- and ahlaw "Orderly" < ašauua versus puhl "bridge, punishment"< paraeu-.

In the extant manuscripts there is a tendency to write š everywhere before ii, e.g., mašiia-, and the distribution of s^l and \ varies from scribe to scribe: some commonly use š as the normal (default) spelling, others š. When Geldner made his edition of the Avesta, he based himself primarily upon manuscripts where the default spelling was š, not š, which means that also in his critical apparatus, when a spelling is quoted from several manuscripts, s^l means š or š!

t: The letter t probably represented an unreleased (sometimes called "implosive") dental stop and was an allophone of / t / found in final and pre-consonantal position, examples: janat "he killed," tkaëša"guidance," tbaêšah- "harm." Between vowel and consonant it alternates with & atka- aðka- "coat."

MORPHOLOGY

General remarks

The following survey of morphological categories is not meant to be mastered completely right away, but be used as reference.

The Avestan systems of declensions and conjugations are still of the Indo-Iranian type, involving a variety of stems, genders, numbers, cases, etc. Because of the limited material the forms are not as well known as for Vedic, and the student should keep in mind that some declensions and conjugations are known from only a few forms, sometimes only a single form. In unfavorable instances the manuscript tradition may also be so poor that the correct forms cannot be determined.

Morphological (inflectional) categories

Groups of words that take the same kind of forms and endings are grouped into separate "inflectional categories." There are two main subgroups: those words which have forms and endings indicating "time" (past, present, future) and those that do not. "Time-words" are called "verbs."

The verbs are classified according to the way they function in a sentence. "Transitive" verbs are those that can take a direct object (he kills the dragon, I see you, etc.), while "intransitive" verbs are the others. Intransitive verbs include verbs of state (I live), verbs of motion (I walk), mental processes (I think), and others. Intransitive verbs can usually only take "inner" objects (I live a life, I walk a walk, I think a thought). When transitive verbs are used like intransitive ones they are called "passive" (I am killed, he is seen).

The second subgroup is in turn divided into several subgroups. One of these subgroups contains words that distinguish between different "cases," that is, forms indicating the function of the word in the sentence (subject, direct object, indirect object, posessor, and other), and those that do not. Words that distinguish cases are nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals. Nouns can be defined as not being adjectives, pronouns, or numerals.

Adjectives are distinguished from nouns by taking different forms depending on the gender of the noun they qualify.

Pronouns are distinguished by "deixis," that is, references to place or time relative to the position of the speaker (I, you, he/she/it/that; here, there, yonder).

Numerals are a special kind of nouns, adjectives, or adverbs used for counting objects (cardinals); indicating position in a series (ordinals); denoting fractions (one-third), number of occurrences (once, twice); etc.

The last subgroup contain various types of words that do not change forms or take different endings depending on their function in the sentence. This subgroup contains •"adverbs," 'prepositions" and "postpositions," "conjunctions," and various "particles."

These categories will be described in greater detail later on. Following is a brief survey for reference. Students without a background in Classical languages, Sanskrit, or linguistics would probably benefit from reading a traditional textbook on theoretical linguistics. Modern linguistic theory and models of description are not very useful for learning Avestan, however.

NOUNS

General remarks Nouns (substantives) can be "proper nouns," e.g., Zaraeuštra-, Vištäspa-, or "common nouns" ("appellatives"), e.g., nzašiia- "man, human being," puera- "son," gairi- "mountain," maniiu- "spirit."

The part of the noun (or adjective) that remains when the ending is removed is referred to as the "stem" and is marked by a hyphen, as in the examples just cited.

Declensions

Nouns and adjectives are classified as consonantic and vocalic stems, which constitute the vocalic and consonant "declensions," or groups of nouns and adjectives characterized by the same or similar endings.

Consonant-declension nouns have a consonant before the ending, most commonly n, r, h, but also p, t, nt, d, etc.

Vowel-declension nouns have a vowel before the ending: a, ä, i, i, u, 17. Depending on the vowel before the ending these nouns are classified as a-stems, a-stems, i-stems, etc. This vowel is also referred to as the "stem vowel."

Some stems behave partly as vowel-stems, partly as consonant-stems, e.g., the "diphthong" stems in aë-, ao- and the uu-stems.

The stem vowel a of the a-declension is often referred to as the "thematic vowel" and the a-declension as the "thematic declension," as opposed to "athematic" declensions.

The san-le terminology is used for verbs.

Gender

Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns can be of three genders: masculine (masc., m.), feminine (fem., f.), or neuter (neut., n.).

The a-declension contains masculine and neuter nouns and adjectives.

The a-declensions contains mostly feminine nouns and the feminine forms of a-declension adjectives. There are a few masculine ä-stems, among them the very common noun mazdä-. Others are ra9aëštä"charioteer" and pantä- "road, way."

The i-declension contains masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns and adjectives. Nouns in ti- are usually feminine.

The aê-declension contains only masculine nouns, notably kauuaê- "kauui" and haxaë- "companion." The u- (and uu-)declension contains masculine and neuter nouns and adjectives.

The ao-declension contains a few masculine nouns (bäzao- "arm") and adjectives (e.g., uyra.bäzao"having a strong arm") and a few feminine nouns, notably the common daúhao- "land" and nasao"carrion, the demoness of carrion.'

The ï-declension has only feminine nouns and adjectives in Young Avestan and the ü-declension only feminine nouns. Exceptions are a few adjectival compounds with so-called root nouns as second member.

Number and case

There are three numbers: singular, dual, plural, and eight cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, instrumental, locative.

The vocative is different from the nominative only in the singular and only in some declensions.

Feminine and neuter nouns have the same form for the nominative and accusative plural.

Neuter nouns always have the same form for the nominative, vocative, and accusative in the singular, dual, and plural.

In the plural, dative = ablative; in the dual, dative = ablative = instrumental.

Articles

There is no definite or indefinite article.

Nominative and vocative

We start by giving some nominative and vocative forms of nouns and adjectives. Endings:

a-decl. ä-decl.

m. n. m. f.

nom. -õ, -as ^o -å, -ås -a

voc. -a -a

nom.-voc. -a -a -å, -ås ⁰ -å, -ås

Notes:

The vocative singular of a-stems is the bare stem form.

The expression Arna5a- Sputa- "Life-giving Immortal" often has the nom.-voc. plur. Ama5å Spažlta in the manuscripts.

Paradigms of haoma- m. "haoma," haejamana- n. "assembly," mazdä- m. (in Ahura- Mazdä-, which has no plural forms), par.ztä- m. "road," and daënä- f. (see Vocabulary). Neuter nouns and inanimate nouns in general do not have vocative forms.

a-decl. ä-decl.

ITI. n. m. f.

nom. haomõ, haomas ⁰ ha»gjamanarn mazdå, mazdås⁰ daêna voc. haonta mazda daêne

nom.-voc. haoma ha¿zjanzana paßtå daênå, daênås ⁰

The forms marked with a final are found before -ca "and" and -cit "even": haomasca "and the haoma,' daënåscit "even the daënäs.'

Nominative plurals in -ånhõ

Sometimes masc. a-stems take the ending -ål]hõ (-å0has⁰ ) in the nom. plural. This ending corresponds to OPers. -äha and Skt. -äsah. There is no difference in meaning from the regular form.

VERBS

General remarks

The Young Avestan verb, is—like other old Indo-European verbal systems—a multidimensional system containing the categories "tense," "mood," and "voice," in addition to "number," "person," and "gender."

The part of the verb that remains when the personal endings are removed, is referred to as the "stem" and is marked by a hyphen, e.g., šauua- "go," hišta- "stand," bar.ldaiia- "bind." The part of the stem that remains when the prefixes and suffixes that form the stem are removed, is called the "root," e.g., Åšau-, 4stä-, Åband- (see Lesson I l).

Conjugations

Like nouns, verb stems are classified as vocalic or consonantic, also referred to as "thematic" and "athematic" conjugations. Thematic verbs are verbs with stems ending in -a, while athematic verbs have stems ending in (original) consonants or semi-vowels Q, u). In practice, stems in long ä and diphthongs are athematic. Thematic verbs can also be described as "regular" or "weak," while athematic ones are "irregular" or "strong."

The endings are basically the same in the two classes, but in the athematic conjugation frequent changes take place as a result of the various historical developments of the consonant groups resulting from the combinations of final consonant of the stem plus the initial consonant of the ending. Some forms of the verb function as adjectives ("participles") or nouns ("infinitives").

Tenses

The tenses are present: "he does, he is doing"—imperfect: "he did, he was doing"—aorist: "he did, he has done"—perfect: "he has (always) seen."

In Young Avestan the imperfect tense is mostly expressed by the inherited present injunctive forms, more seldom the imperfect forms (= injunctive + augment). In this manual this form will be called the "imperfect-injunctive."

The use of the aorist indicative (see below) is limited in Young Avestan, but some modal forms are relatively common.

The perfect is used in old Young Avestan in its old functions. Its modal forms also have important uses.

A "periphrastic" perfect formed by the perfect participle in -ta plus the verb "to be" (similar to German Ich bin gewese.n and French je suis allé) is seen occasionally.

Moods

There are five moods: indicative: "he does, he is doing"—subjunctive: "(that) he (should) do"—imperative: "do"' optative: "may he do, he should do, (I wish) he would do"—and (present, aorist) injunctive:

"(do not) do!'

Voices, passive

There are two "voices": active and middle: act. "he does (for others)' '—mid. "he does for himself."

The passive ("it is done, he is killed") can be expressed by middle forms or by a special present stem in -iia-.

On terminology

Students without a background in Latin, Greek, or Sanskrit are likely to be confused by the many meanings of terms such as "injunctive," "active," and "middle." It should be carefully observed that these terms sometimes refer to forms, sometimes to functions or meanings. Thus verbs with "middle" endings can have "active," "passive," or "middle" meaning. The normal function of the "injunctive" of the present stem is "imperfect," while "imperfect" (augmented) forms are very rare in Avestan.

The imperative

As with the nouns, we shall start with the simplest forms of the verbs: those of the 2nd person singular and plural imperative active.

The following table shows the endings of the thematic verbs with the imperative active forms of jasa- "to come," bar.zdaiia- "to bind," and däiia- "to give, grant."

Endings: Examples:

Sing. 2nd pers.	-a	jasa "come!"	bandaiia "bind!"	däiia "give, grant!'
Plur. 2nd pers.	-ata	jasata	bandaiiata	däiiata

Note that the imp. sing. of thematic stems ends in -a, which is, like the voc. sing. of a-stem nouns, the bare stem.

The common verb "to be" has the following forms in the present indicative:

Present indicative

		Examples:
	ahmi	azarn ahmi "I am"
2	ahi	tum ahi "you are"
3	asti	asti "(he/she/i)t is"
	mahi	vaêm mahi "we are"
2	stä	yužam stä "you (all) are"
3	hanti	hanti "(they) are"

Notes:

The 2 plur. stä is not found in Young Avestan, only Old Avestan.

The verb "be" is used with the dative to express possession: nõit mê asti "I have no ..."

2()()3

SYNTAX

Uses of the nominative

The main functions of the nominative are the following:

l. Subject

It is the case of the subject of a verb: intransitive (e.g., "I am, she goes"), transitive (e.g., "the men kill enemies"), or passive (e.g., "the women are abducted").

azam mazdaiiasnõ ahmi "I am a Mazdayasnian" Ahurõ Mazdå bayõ asti "Ahura Mazda is a god"."

Araduuï Sura Anãhita srira asti

"Arduuï Sura Anähita is beautiful"

2. Predicate noun or adjective

It is the case of the predicate noun or adjective of the verb "to be" and some other verbs (e.g., "to seem"):

Examples with "to be":

azam mazdaiiasnõ ahmi "I am a Mazdayasnian" Ahurõ Mazdå bayõ asti "Ahura Mazda is a god". ' azam ahmi Zaraeuštrõ tum Jãmãspõ ahi

"I am Zarathustra, you are Djamaspa." vaëm mazdaiiasna mahi "we are Mazdayasnians." yužam daëuua stä dušxšaera

"you are demons, with bad command"

ime hawi paoiriiõ.dãta paoiriiõ.fra9ßaršta

"these are those first brought forth, first fashioned forth." yõi huti haoma sura spagta

. which are the life-giving haomas, rich in life-giving strength."

The verb "to be" is sometimes omitted. Clauses with a subject and predicate noun or adjective but without a verb are called "nominal clauses" or "noun clauses." In Avestan, relative clauses that characterize nouns are frequently noun clauses:

azam yõ Ahurõ Mazdå tum yõ Zara9uštrõ

"I who (am) Ahura Mazda, you who (are) Zarathustra."

Note also the following construction, which is quite common in Avestan (see Lesson 1 1):

yå äpõ baëšaziiå "the healing waters" (lit. which (are) the healing waters)

3. Appositions to a noun in the nominative

Appositions to a noun in the nominative are themselves in the nominative:

azam ahmi Ahurõ Mazdå maniiušspãništõ

"I am Ahura Mazda, the most Life-giving Spirit."

Use of the vocative

The vocative is used only when addressing someone and is often used together with an imperative.

azam ahmi Zara9uštra Haomõ duraošõ

"I am, O Zarathustra, Haoma the death-averter." (Y.9.2) tum ahi Ahura Mazda yazatõ mazištõ

"You are, O Ahura Mazdä, the greatest god." vasõ.xšaerõ ahi Haoma

"you are in total command, O Haoma." (Y .9.25)

Use of the imperative

The imperative is used to express a command or an exhortation, as in English, "come!," "stop! " The person the command or exhortation is addressed to is frequently in the vocative.

Examples:

srire Anähite mošu jasa "O beautiful Anähitä, come quickly!" tat nõ dãiiata yazata mazištaca vahištaca •

"Give (grant) that to us, O gods, both greatest and best!" [Note: tat here is acc. as direct object = nom.]

Number

When a subject consists of several nouns (not a person) the verb usually agrees with the nearest noun.

Examples:

aëtat astiyasnasca vahmasca "this is the sacrifice and hymn."

Repetition of verbs

Instead of repeating a verb in the sentence, like in English, Avestan prefers repeating nouns, pronouns, and preverbs, example:

ima! baya däiiata imag vispe yazata

"Give this, O gods, (give) this, O all beings worthy of sacrifice!" [Note: imat is acc. direct object = nom.]

EXERCISES 3

l . Write in transcription and Avestan script the nom. and voc. sing. (only "living" things) and plur. forms (not proper names!) of the following nouns and adjectives:

bara- mazišta-, yazata- vahišta-, mašiia- acišta-, daênä- spantä-, xšaera- varaerajqstama-, aka- yäna-; Päuruua- nauuäza vifrõ.tama-, Anähitä- vahmiiä-.

2. Write in transcription and Avestan script the sing. and plur. imperative forms of the following verbs:

x^Vara-, yäsa-, taca-, hišta-, baodaiia-, x^Vafsa-.

3. Transcribe and translate into English:

4. Translate into Avestan:

l .	Rise, O man! Rise, O men!	2.	Sleep long, O man! Sleep long, O men!
3.	Illnesses, run away!	4.	Demons, get lost!
5.	Destructions, run away!	6.	Foes, run away!
7.	Come to our help, O Mi6ra!	8.	I am on Ahura Mazda's side.
9.	Sraoša is a well-shaped deity.	10.	Aši is the greatest and the best.
l l .	The daëuuas are the worst.	12.	They have bad power.
13.	The gods have good power.	14.	We are men.

VOCABULARY 3

Note: nouns ending in -a- are masculine unless marked n. (neuter), and nouns ending in -ä- are feminine, with the few known exceptions.

acišta-, superlative of aka-: most evil aôaoiia-: who cannot be deceived ahuraõäta-: established (put in its proper place) by

Ahura Mazda aiPi.draoxõa-: who may be deceived, cheated aka-: bad, evil amoroxti- f.: absence of destruction aniia-: other angušta-, anušta-: finger apa.duuara-: to run away apa.nasiia-: to get lost

Astuuat.orota-: he through whom Order will have bones be permanent), name of the last

Revitalizer (saošiiant-), son of Zarathustra ašaiia: in Orderly fashion, according to the ritual

Order atka- = aôka-: coat äpõ: waters; nom. plur. of ap- f.

ätaro: O fire; voc. of ätarbaëšaza- n.(?): healing, medicine baëšaziia-: healing, medicinal baëšaziiõ.toma-: most healing; superlative of

baëšaziiabaya-: lord, god bandaiia- < 4band: to bind, tie bãzao- m.: arm

-ca: and ca ... -ca: both ... and daroyom: for a long (time) däiia-: to give, grant duyòar- f.: daughter dušxšaera-: having/with bad, evil command gairi- m.: mountain gaoša-: ear haxaë- m.: companion, friend hazanra- n. : a thousand hišta- < 4stä act: to stand (up), take up position;

mid.: to stand hukoropta-: well-shaped huraoõa-: well-shaped kat, nom. sing. n. of ka- how, what kauuaë- m.: kauui; mythical poet-priests, some of them were Zarathustra's competitors korap-/kohrp- f.: form, shape kö, nom. sing. m. of ka-: who? what? how?

mahrka-: destruction maniiouuï-, fem. of maniiauuamazišta-, superlative of mazänt-: great nitama-: lowest nõ: to/for/of us nõit: not paitiiära-: adversary par)tarùha- n.: a fifth paoiriiö.däta-: first established porotu- m.: ford, bridge puera-: son šauua-: to go uyra. bäzao-: strong-armed uruuarä-: plant usahišta- < d,stã: to get up, rise uzdäta-: past participle of uzdä-: set up vadar- n.: (striking) weapon vahma-: hymn vahmiia-: worthy of hymns vasö.xšaera-: having/with command at will, in complete command voroerajastoma-: most obstruction-smashing, most victorious vispe nom. plur. of vispa-: every, all

Vištãspa-: proper name, last of the great kauuis who fought the powers of evil võ: to/for/of you (all) x^V afsa- < 4x^v ap: to go to sleep yaska-: illness yasna- n.: sacrifice, ritual yesniia-: worthy of sacrifice yõi, plur. nom. masc. of ya-: who

zaraeuštriš, nom. sing. of zaraeuštri-: son of Zarathustra, (who is) in the tradition of

Zarathustra

huraea-: having/with good chariots huuaspa-: having/with good horses huxšaera-: having/with good power imat: neut. nom.-acc. sing. < imaime: masc. nom.-acc. plur. < ima