[{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/en\/wiki24\/avestan-alphabet-wikipedia\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/en\/wiki24\/avestan-alphabet-wikipedia\/","headline":"Avestan alphabet – Wikipedia","name":"Avestan alphabet – Wikipedia","description":"Alphabet used mainly to write Avestan, the language of the Zoroastrian scripture Avesta “Avst” redirects here. For the company, see","datePublished":"2016-06-13","dateModified":"2016-06-13","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/en\/wiki24\/author\/lordneo\/#Person","name":"lordneo","url":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/en\/wiki24\/author\/lordneo\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9645c498c9701c88b89b8537773dd7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9645c498c9701c88b89b8537773dd7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Enzyklop\u00e4die","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/wiki4\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/download.jpg","url":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/wiki4\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/download.jpg","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/7\/7b\/Das_Buch_der_Schrift_%28Faulmann%29_106.jpg\/200px-Das_Buch_der_Schrift_%28Faulmann%29_106.jpg","url":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/7\/7b\/Das_Buch_der_Schrift_%28Faulmann%29_106.jpg\/200px-Das_Buch_der_Schrift_%28Faulmann%29_106.jpg","height":"275","width":"200"},"url":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/en\/wiki24\/avestan-alphabet-wikipedia\/","wordCount":9236,"articleBody":"Alphabet used mainly to write Avestan, the language of the Zoroastrian scripture Avesta“Avst” redirects here. For the company, see Avast.The Avestan alphabet (Middle Persian: transliteration: dyn’ dpywryh, transcription: d\u0113n d\u0113b\u012br\u0113, Persian: \u062f\u06cc\u0646 \u062f\u0628\u06cc\u0631\u0647, romanized:\u00a0din dabire) is a writing system developed during Iran’s Sasanian era (226\u2013651\u00a0CE) to render the Avestan language.As a side effect of its development, the script was also used for Pazend, a method of writing Middle Persian that was used primarily for Zend commentaries on the texts of the Avesta. In the texts of Zoroastrian tradition, the alphabet is referred to as “the religion’s script” (d\u0113n dib\u012brih in Middle Persian and din dabireh in New Persian).Table of ContentsHistory[edit]Genealogy and script[edit]Letters[edit]Ligatures[edit]Punctuation[edit]Unicode[edit]References[edit]External links[edit]Bibliography[edit]History[edit]The development of the Avestan alphabet was initiated by the need to represent  recited Avestan language texts correctly. The various text collections that today constitute the canon of Zoroastrian scripture are the result of a collation that occurred in the 4th century, probably during the reign of Shapur II (309\u2013379). It is likely that the Avestan alphabet was an ad hoc[1] innovation related to this \u2013 “Sassanid archetype” \u2013 collation.The enterprise, “which is indicative of a Mazdean revival and of the establishment of a strict orthodoxy closely connected with the political power, was probably caused by the desire to compete more effectively with Buddhists, Christians, and Manicheans, whose faith was based on a revealed book”.[1] In contrast, the Zoroastrian priesthood had for centuries been accustomed to memorizing scripture \u2014 following by rote the words of a teacher-priest until they had memorized the words, cadence, inflection and intonation of the prayers. This they passed on to their pupils in turn, so preserving for many generations the correct way to recite scripture. This was necessary because the priesthood considered (and continue to consider) precise and correct enunciation and cadence a prerequisite of effective prayer. Further, the recitation of the liturgy was (and is) accompanied by ritual activity that leaves no room to attend to a written text.The ability to correctly render Avestan did, however, have a direct benefit: By the common era the Avestan language words had almost ceased to be understood, which led to the preparation of the Zend texts (from Avestan zainti “understanding”), that is commentaries on and translations of the canon. The development of the Avestan alphabet allowed these commentaries to interleave quotation of scripture with explanation thereof. The direct effect of these texts was a “standardized” interpretation of scripture that survives to the present day. For scholarship these texts are enormously interesting since they occasionally preserve passages that have otherwise been lost.The 9th\u201312th century texts of Zoroastrian tradition suggest that there was once a much larger collection of written Zoroastrian literature, but these texts \u2014 if they ever existed \u2014 have since been lost, and it is hence not known what script was used to render them. The question of the existence of a pre-Sassanid “Arsacid archetype” occupied Avestan scholars for much of the 19th century, and, “[w]hatever may be the truth about the Arsacid Avesta, the linguistic evidence shows that even if it did exist, it can not have had any practical influence, since no linguistic form in the Vulgate can be explained with certainty as resulting from wrong transcription and the number of doubtful cases is minimal; in fact it is being steadily reduced. Though the existence of an Arsacid archetype is not impossible, it has proved to contribute nothing to Avestan philology.”[1]Genealogy and script[edit]The Pahlavi script, upon which the Avestan alphabet is based, was in common use for representing various Middle Iranian languages, but was not adequate for representing a religious language that demanded precision since Pahlavi was a simplified abjad syllabary with at most 22 symbols, most of which were ambiguous (i.e. could represent more than one sound).In contrast, Avestan was a full alphabet, with explicit characters for vowels, and allowed for phonetic disambiguation of allophones. The alphabet included many characters (a, i, k, t, p, b, m, n, r, s, z, \u0161, xv) closely resembling Book Pahlavi of the early Islamic Persia, while some (\u0101, \u03b3) are characters that only exist in the older (6th-7th c. AD) Psalter Pahlavi script (in later cursive Pahlavi \u03b3 and k have the same symbol).[2] Some of the vowels, such as \u0259 appear to derive from Greek cursives.[2] Avestan o is a special form of Pahlavi l that exists only in Aramaic signs. Some letters (e.g. \u014b\u0301, \u1e47, \u1e8f, v), are free inventions.[3]Avestan script, like Pahlavi script and Aramaic script also, is written from right to left. In Avestan script, letters are not connected, and ligatures are “rare and clearly of secondary origin”.[2]Letters[edit]  Avestan chart by Carl Faulmann    Avestan chart on p. 184 of l’Encyclop\u00e9dieIn total, the Avestan alphabet has 37 consonants and 16 vowels. There are two main transcription schemes for Avestan, the newer orthography used by Karl Hoffmann and the older one used by Christian Bartholomae.Avestan alphabetLetterTranscription[4]IPAUnicodeHoff.Bar.\ud802\udf00aa\/a\/U+10B00: AVESTAN LETTER A\ud802\udf01\u0101\u0101\/a\u02d0\/U+10B01: AVESTAN LETTER AA\ud802\udf02\u00e5\u2014\/\u0252\/U+10B02: AVESTAN LETTER AO\ud802\udf03\u0101\u030a\u00e5\/\u0252\u02d0\/U+10B03: AVESTAN LETTER AAO\ud802\udf04\u0105\u0105\/\u00e3\/U+10B04: AVESTAN LETTER AN\ud802\udf05\u0105\u0307\u2014\/\u00e3\/U+10B05: AVESTAN LETTER AAN\ud802\udf06\u0259\u0259\/\u0259\/U+10B06: AVESTAN LETTER AE\ud802\udf07\u0259\u0304\u0259\u0304\/\u0259\u02d0\/U+10B07: AVESTAN LETTER AEE\ud802\udf08ee\/e\/U+10B08: AVESTAN LETTER E\ud802\udf09\u0113\u0113\/e\u02d0\/U+10B09: AVESTAN LETTER EE\ud802\udf0aoo\/\u0254\/U+10B0A: AVESTAN LETTER O\ud802\udf0b\u014d\u014d\/o\u02d0\/U+10B0B: AVESTAN LETTER OO\ud802\udf0cii\/\u026a\/U+10B0C: AVESTAN LETTER I\ud802\udf0d\u012b\u012b\/i\u02d0\/U+10B0D: AVESTAN LETTER II\ud802\udf0euu\/\u028a\/U+10B0E: AVESTAN LETTER U\ud802\udf0f\u016b\u016b\/u\u02d0\/U+10B0F: AVESTAN LETTER UU\ud802\udf10kk\/k\/U+10B10: AVESTAN LETTER KE\ud802\udf11xx\/x\/U+10B11: AVESTAN LETTER XE\ud802\udf12x\u0301\u1e23\/x\u02b2\/, \/\u00e7\/U+10B12: AVESTAN LETTER XYE\ud802\udf13x\u1d5bx\u1d5b\/x\u02b7\/U+10B13: AVESTAN LETTER XVE\ud802\udf14gg\/\u0261\/U+10B14: AVESTAN LETTER GE\ud802\udf15\u0121\u2014\/\u0261\u02b2\/, \/\u025f\/U+10B15: AVESTAN LETTER GGE\ud802\udf16\u03b3\u03b3\/\u0263\/U+10B16: AVESTAN LETTER GHE\ud802\udf17c\u010d\/t\u0361\u0283\/U+10B17: AVESTAN LETTER CE\ud802\udf18j\u01f0\/d\u0361\u0292\/U+10B18: AVESTAN LETTER JE\ud802\udf19tt\/t\/U+10B19: AVESTAN LETTER TE\ud802\udf1a\u03b8\u03b8\/\u03b8\/U+10B1A: AVESTAN LETTER THE\ud802\udf1bdd\/d\/U+10B1B: AVESTAN LETTER DE\ud802\udf1c\u03b4\u03b4\/\u00f0\/U+10B1C: AVESTAN LETTER DHE\ud802\udf1dt\u0330t\u0330\/t\u031a\/[5]U+10B1D: AVESTAN LETTER TTE\ud802\udf1epp\/p\/U+10B1E: AVESTAN LETTER PE\ud802\udf1fff\/f\/U+10B1F: AVESTAN LETTER FE\ud802\udf20bb\/b\/U+10B20: AVESTAN LETTER BE\ud802\udf21\u03b2w\/\u03b2\/U+10B21: AVESTAN LETTER BHE\ud802\udf22\u014b\u014b\/\u014b\/U+10B22: AVESTAN LETTER NGE\ud802\udf23\u014b\u0301\u014b\u0301\/\u014b\u02b2\/U+10B23: AVESTAN LETTER NGYE\ud802\udf24\u014b\u1d5b\u2014\/\u014b\u02b7\/U+10B24: AVESTAN LETTER NGVE\ud802\udf25nn\/n\/U+10B25: AVESTAN LETTER NE\ud802\udf26\u0144\u2014\/\u0272\/U+10B26: AVESTAN LETTER NYE\ud802\udf27\u1e47n, m\/\u014b\/[verification needed]U+10B27: AVESTAN LETTER NNE\ud802\udf28mm\/m\/U+10B28: AVESTAN LETTER ME\ud802\udf29m\u0328\u2014\/m\u0325\/, \/m\u02b0\/[verification needed]U+10B29: AVESTAN LETTER HME\ud802\udf2a\u1e8fy\/j\/U+10B2A: AVESTAN LETTER YYE\ud802\udf2by\/j\/U+10B2B: AVESTAN LETTER YE\ud802\udf0c\ud802\udf0cii\/ii\u032f\/[5]U+10B0C: AVESTAN LETTER I (doubled)\ud802\udf2cvv\/v\/[verification needed]U+10B2C: AVESTAN LETTER VE\ud802\udf0e\ud802\udf0euu\/uu\u032f\/[5]U+10B0E: AVESTAN LETTER U (doubled)\ud802\udf2drr\/r\/U+10B2D: AVESTAN LETTER RE\ud802\udf2ell\/l\/U+10B2E: AVESTAN LETTER LE\ud802\udf2fss\/s\/U+10B2F: AVESTAN LETTER SE\ud802\udf30zz\/z\/U+10B30: AVESTAN LETTER ZE\ud802\udf31\u0161\u0161\/\u0283\/U+10B31: AVESTAN LETTER SHE\ud802\udf32\u017e\u017e\/\u0292\/U+10B32: AVESTAN LETTER ZHE\ud802\udf33\u0161\u0301\u0161\/\u0255\/U+10B33: AVESTAN LETTER SHYE\ud802\udf34\u1e63\u030c\/\u0282\/[verification needed]U+10B34: AVESTAN LETTER SSHE\ud802\udf35hh\/h\/U+10B35: AVESTAN LETTER HELetterHoff.Bar.IPAUnicodeTranscriptionLater, when writing Middle Persian in the script (i.e. Pazend), another consonant \ud802\udf2e was added to represent the \/l\/ phoneme that didn’t exist in the Avestan language.Ligatures[edit]  List of Avestan ligatures according to Skj\u00e6rv\u00f8 (2003)Four ligatures are commonly used in Avestan manuscripts:[6]\ud802\udf31 (\u0161) + \ud802\udf00 (a) = \ud802\udf31\ud802\udf00 (\u0161a)\ud802\udf31 (\u0161) + \ud802\udf17 (c) = \ud802\udf31\ud802\udf17 (\u0161c)\ud802\udf31 (\u0161) + \ud802\udf19 (t) = \ud802\udf31\ud802\udf19 (\u0161t)\ud802\udf00 (a) + \ud802\udf35 (h) = \ud802\udf00\ud802\udf35 (ah)U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER can be used to prevent ligatures if desired.For example, compare \ud802\udf31\ud802\udf00 (U+10B31 10B00) with \ud802\udf31\u200c\ud802\udf00 (U+10B31 200C 10B00).Fossey[7] lists 16 ligatures, but most are formed by the interaction of swash tails.Digits and numbers can be seen on the Faulmann chart above.Punctuation[edit]Words and the end of the first part of a compound are separated by a dot (in a variety of vertical positions). Beyond that, punctuation is weak or non-existent in the manuscripts, and in the 1880s Karl Friedrich Geldner had to devise one for standardized transcription. In his system, which he developed based on what he could find, a triangle of three dots serves as a colon, a semicolon, an end of sentence or end of section; which is determined by the size of the dots and whether there is one dot above and two below, or two above and one below. Two above and one below signify \u2014 in ascending order of “dot” size \u2014 colon, semicolon, end of sentence or end of section.Avestan punctuation[6]MarkFunctionUnicode\u2e31word separatorU+2E31: WORD SEPARATOR MIDDLE DOT\u00b7U+00B7: MIDDLE DOT.U+002E: FULL STOP\ud802\udf39abbreviation or repetitionU+10B39: AVESTAN ABBREVIATION MARK\ud802\udf3acolonU+10B3A: TINY TWO DOTS OVER ONE DOT PUNCTUATION\ud802\udf3bsemicolonU+10B3B: SMALL TWO DOTS OVER ONE DOT PUNCTUATION\ud802\udf3cend of sentenceU+10B3C: LARGE TWO DOTS OVER ONE DOT PUNCTUATION\ud802\udf3dalternative mark for end of sentence(found in Avestan texts but not used by Geldner)U+10B3D: LARGE ONE DOT OVER TWO DOTS PUNCTUATION\ud802\udf3eend of section(may be doubled for extra finality)U+10B3E: LARGE TWO RINGS OVER ONE RING PUNCTUATION\ud802\udf3falternative mark for end of section(found in Avestan texts but not used by Geldner)U+10B3F: LARGE ONE RING OVER TWO RINGS PUNCTUATIONUnicode[edit]The Avestan alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 2009 with the release of version 5.2.The characters are encoded at U+10B00\u201410B35 for letters (ii and uu are not represented as single characters, but as sequences of characters[8]) and U+10B38\u201410B3F for punctuation.Avestan[1][2]Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)\u00a00123456789ABCDEFU+10B0x\ud802\udf00\ud802\udf01\ud802\udf02\ud802\udf03\ud802\udf04\ud802\udf05\ud802\udf06\ud802\udf07\ud802\udf08\ud802\udf09\ud802\udf0a\ud802\udf0b\ud802\udf0c\ud802\udf0d\ud802\udf0e\ud802\udf0fU+10B1x\ud802\udf10\ud802\udf11\ud802\udf12\ud802\udf13\ud802\udf14\ud802\udf15\ud802\udf16\ud802\udf17\ud802\udf18\ud802\udf19\ud802\udf1a\ud802\udf1b\ud802\udf1c\ud802\udf1d\ud802\udf1e\ud802\udf1fU+10B2x\ud802\udf20\ud802\udf21\ud802\udf22\ud802\udf23\ud802\udf24\ud802\udf25\ud802\udf26\ud802\udf27\ud802\udf28\ud802\udf29\ud802\udf2a\ud802\udf2b\ud802\udf2c\ud802\udf2d\ud802\udf2e\ud802\udf2fU+10B3x\ud802\udf30\ud802\udf31\ud802\udf32\ud802\udf33\ud802\udf34\ud802\udf35\ud802\udf39\ud802\udf3a\ud802\udf3b\ud802\udf3c\ud802\udf3d\ud802\udf3e\ud802\udf3fNotes1.^ As of Unicode version 15.02.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code pointsReferences[edit]^ a b c Kellens 1989, p.\u00a036.^ a b c Hoffmann 1989, p.\u00a049.^ Hoffmann 1989, p.\u00a050.^ Gippert, Jost (2012). “The Encoding of Avestan \u2013 Problems and Solutions” (PDF). Journal for Language Technology and Computational Linguistics. 27 (2). Retrieved 2021-11-04.^ a b c Skj\u00e6rv\u00f8, Pods Octor (1996). “Aramaic Scripts for Iranian Languages”.  In Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William (eds.). The World’s Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. pp.\u00a0527-528. ISBN\u00a0978-0195079937.^ a b “The Unicode Standard, Chapter 10.7: Avestan” (PDF). Unicode Consortium. March 2020.^ Fossey 1948, p.\u00a049.^ Everson & Pournader 2007, p.\u00a04External links[edit]On Wikipedia, the above Avestan alphabet samples are more likely than not displayed in most Web browsers using Google’s Noto Sans Avestan font, which has four automated ligatures.  A more complete, serif-style font, with full ligatures and more sophisticated kerning hints, is available below:Ernst Tremel’s Open Font Licensed Ahura Mazda Unicode font, based on the type used in Geldner 1896, with the addition of ligatures in the PUA.Bibliography[edit]Dhalla, Maneckji Nusservanji (1938), History of Zoroastrianism, New York: OUP.Everson, Michael; Pournader, Roozbeh (2007), Revised proposal to encode the Avestan script in the SMP of the UCS (PDF), retrieved 2007-06-10.Fossey, Charles (1948), “Notices sur les caract\u00e8res \u00e9trangers anciens et modernes r\u00e9dig\u00e9es par une groupe de savants”, Nouvelle \u00e9dition mise \u00e0 jour \u00e0 l’occasion du 21e Congr\u00e8s des Orientalistes, Paris: Imprimerie Nationale de France.Hoffmann, Karl (1989), “Avestan language”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol.\u00a03, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp.\u00a047\u201352..Kellens, Jean (1989), “Avesta”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol.\u00a03, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp.\u00a035\u201344."},{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/en\/wiki24\/#breadcrumbitem","name":"Enzyklop\u00e4die"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https:\/\/wiki.edu.vn\/en\/wiki24\/avestan-alphabet-wikipedia\/#breadcrumbitem","name":"Avestan alphabet – Wikipedia"}}]}]