Yasna 28.1 (Bodleian MS J2)

The Avestan alphabet, the native name for which is din dabireh or din dabiri, is a writing system developed during the Sassanid era (226-651) to render the Avestan language. Drawing of the 16 and 12 characters Wadi el-Hol inscriptions The Proto-Canaanite (also Proto-Sinaitic) alphabet is identified as the prototype of the Semitic alphabets that, mostly via the successful Phoenician alphabet became the ancestor of most scripts in use today. ... The Phoenician alphabet dates from around 1400 BC and is related to the Proto-Canaanite alphabet. ... The Phoenician alphabet dates from around 1000 BC and is derived from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet. ... The Aramaic alphabet is an abjad alphabet designed for writing the Aramaic language. ... BrāhmÄ« refers to the pre-modern members of the Brahmic family of scripts. ... The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas (writing systems) used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, and to an extent, Korea. ... Om Mani Padme Hum, the primary mantra of Tibetan Buddhism written in the Tibetan script, on a rock outside the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. ... This article or section uses Khmer characters which may be rendered as boxes or other nonsensical symbols. ... Javanese script is the script that Javanese is originally written in (not to be confused with Javascript, which is a programming language). ... This article is mainly about Hebrew letters. ... 11th century book in Syriac Serto. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... Younger Futhark inscription on the Vaksala Runestone The Runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes, formerly used to write Germanic languages, mainly in Scandinavia and the British Isles, but before Christianization also on the European Continent. ...   The Gothic alphabet is an alphabetic writing system attributed by Philostorgius to Wulfila, used exclusively for writing the ancient Gothic language. ... Tablet inscribed with the Glagolitic alphabet The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavonic alphabet. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (pronounced , also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... The Samaritan alphabet is a direct descendant of the paleo-Hebrew variety of the Phoenician alphabet, the more commonly known Hebrew alphabet having been adapted from the Aramaic alphabet under the Persian Empire. ... Photograph of Botorrita 1 (both sides), 1st century BC. The Iberian scripts (or Iberian alphabet) are two scripts (or two styles of the same script) found on the Iberian peninsula, the Northeast and South Iberian script. ... The ancient South Arabian alphabet (also known as musnad) branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in ca. ...   Note: This article contains special characters. ... The Meroitic script is an alphabet of Egyptian (Hieroglyphic) origin used in Kingdom of Meroë. Some scholars, e. ... Nearly all the segmental scripts (alphabets, but see below for more precise terminology) used around the globe were apparently derived from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet. ... The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Empire (Persian: Sasanian) is the name used for the fourth Iranian dynasty, and the second Persian Empire (226 - 651). ... Avestan is an Eastern Old Iranian language that was used to compose the hymns of the Zoroastrian holy book, the Avesta. ...

As a side effect of its development, the script was also used to render the Pazend language, a form of Middle Persian that was used primarily for the Zend commentaries on the texts of the Avesta. The Pazend or Pazand language is a reduction of the middle Persian language, sanctified by the removal or replacement (with Iranian language equivalents) of loan words that had been borrowed from Semitic languages such as Arabic. ... Pahlavi is a term that refers: (1) to a script used in Iran derived from the Aramaic script, and (2) more broadly, to Middle Persian, the Middle Iranian language written in this script. ... See Avesta Municipality for the Swedish town Yasna 28. ...

History

By the early period of Sassanid epoch, the languages of the Avesta had almost ceased to be a understood by the general public, and had been supplanted by Middle Persian as the language of the laity. However, the sacred texts of the Avesta, which had probably been transmitted orally for centuries before then, continued to be recited by all in the Avestan language (and continue to be so to this day). Pahlavi is a term that refers: (1) to a script used in Iran derived from the Aramaic script, and (2) more broadly, to Middle Persian, the Middle Iranian language written in this script. ... See Avesta Municipality for the Swedish town Yasna 28. ... Avestan is an Eastern Old Iranian language that was used to compose the hymns of the Zoroastrian holy book, the Avesta. ...

It is not known what precisely prompted the development of an alphabet for spoken Avestan. It may have been to facilitate the compilation of the Zend commentaries and translations of the Avesta. Alternatively, the need for such an alphabet may have become apparent during the reconstruction of the royal library by Ardashir I (226-241) and Shapur II (309-379), that was said to have been destroyed by the Alexander's troops in 330 BCE (see below). Silver coin of Ardashir I with a fire altar on its verso (British Museum London). ... Events: Accession of Wei Mingdi as emperor of the Kingdom of Wei of China. ... Events Shapur I of Persia succeeds Ardashir I Births Deaths Ardashir I, first ruler of the Sassanids Categories: 241 ... Head of King Shapur II (Sasanian dynasty 4th century). ... Events The Spanish provinces revolt from the control of Maxentius, acknowledging Constantine as their Emperor Pope Marcellus I is banished from Rome, as is his successor Eusebius later that year Shapur II becomes king of Persia. ... Events January 19 - Theodosius I is elevated as Roman Emperor at Sirmium. ... Alexander the Great (Greek: [1], Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC — June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of the most successful military commanders in history, conquering most of the known world before his death; he is frequently included in a... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC - 330s BC - 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 335 BC 334 BC 333 BC 332 BC 331 BC - 330 BC - 329 BC 328 BC 327...

Din dabireh may not have been the first script used for rendering spoken Avestan. The Arda-Viraf Nameh, a second century semi-religious work, suggests that Avesta texts existed in written form at the time of Alexander's invasion of Persia in 330 BCE. However, those texts have not survived and it is not known what script those texts might have been in. The Book of Arda Viraf is a Zoroastrian religious text which describes the dream-journey of a devout Zoroastrian through the next world. ... Alexander the Great (Greek: [1], Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC — June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of the most successful military commanders in history, conquering most of the known world before his death; he is frequently included in a... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC - 330s BC - 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 335 BC 334 BC 333 BC 332 BC 331 BC - 330 BC - 329 BC 328 BC 327...

Immediately prior to the innovation of din dabireh, which probably occurred in the 5th or 6th century CE, the Avestan language was very likely rendered using either the Pahlavi or Parthian script. In the Denkard, a 9th century text, the development of din dabireh is attributed to a Zoroastrian priest named Abarbad Maraspand. The Pahlavi script was used broadly in the Sasanid Persian Empire to write down Middle Persian for secular, as well as religious purposes. ... The Aramaic alphabet is an abjad alphabet designed for writing the Aramaic language. ... The Denkard is the largest encyclopedia of Zoroastrianism written in 9th century. ...

Genealogy and development

The Pahlavi script, upon which Din dabireh is based, was in common use for representing middle Persian, but was not adequate for representing Avestan since Pahlavi was an abjad syllabry which only contained a handful of consonant characters (most with multiple pronunciations), and left most vowels unexpressed. Pahlavi script had at most 22 characters (the number varied by region and epoch), and as "Book Pahlavi", the most common form of the script, had only 12 characters representing 24 sounds. Pahlavi is a term that refers: (1) to a script used in Iran derived from the Aramaic script, and (2) more broadly, to Middle Persian, the Middle Iranian language written in this script. ... An abjad is a type of writing system where there is one symbol per consonantal phoneme, sometimes also called a consonantary. ...

In contrast, Din dabireh was a full alphabet, with explicit characters for vowels, and allowed for phonetic disambiguation of allophones. The alphabet included many of the Pahlavi script consonantal characters, to which it assigned inherent vowel sounds (for example, k'→ka), and also added some several more. In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ...

Both Pahlavi script and Din dabireh are written right-to-left.

Graphemes

Image showing the Avestan letter LE (leftmost letter) in a Pazand title for a published Avesta. The text (transliterated in the Hoffmann system) is pargat auual.

In total, the Avestan alphabet has 37 consonants and 16 vowels. Later, when writing middle Persian in the script, another consonant was added to it to represent the [l] phoneme that didn't exist in the Avestan languages. There are two main transcription schemes for Avestan, the older style used by Christian Bartholomae, and the newer style used by Karl Hoffmann. Pahlavi is a term that refers: (1) to a script used in Iran derived from the Aramaic script, and (2) more broadly, to Middle Persian, the Middle Iranian language written in this script. ...

The following list shows the letters as ordered and transcribed in the Hoffmann style.

Vowels:

a ā å ā̊ ą ą̇ ə ə̄ e ē o ō i ī u ū

Consonants:

k x x́ xᵛ g ġ ɣ c j t ϑ d δ t̰ p f b β ŋ ŋ́ ŋᵛ n ń ṇ m m̨ ẏ y v r s z š ž š́ ṣ̌ h

ii and uu represent semi-vocalic glides, which in the Bartholomae system are transcribed as y and w.

Confusion with Pazend

Din dabireh is sometimes confused with the Pazend language, a reduced form of middle Persian that excluded vocabulary of non-Persian origin. This error is due to a 19th century confusion of the Zend (the commentaries on the Avesta) with the Avesta proper, which resulted in Pazend (literally: language of the Zend) being mistaken for the "language" (Din dabireh script) of the Avesta texts. The Pazend or Pazand language is a reduction of the middle Persian language, sanctified by the removal or replacement (with Iranian language equivalents) of loan words that had been borrowed from Semitic languages such as Arabic. ... Pahlavi is a term that refers: (1) to a script used in Iran derived from the Aramaic script, and (2) more broadly, to Middle Persian, the Middle Iranian language written in this script. ...

References

• Dhalla, Maneckji Nusservanji (1963). History of Zoroastrianism. Bombay: K.R. Cama Oriental Institute.
• Hoffmann, Karl, Bernhard Forssman (1996). Avestische Laut- und Flexionslehre (in German). Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft. ISBN 3-85124-652-7.
• Rashed Mohassel, Mohammad Taghi (1382 AP). The Avesta: Praise to Truth and Purity (in Persian). Tehran: Cultural Research Bureau. ISBN 964-379-008-8.

The Iranian calendar (also known as Persian calendar or the Jalaali Calendar) is a solar calendar currently used in Iran and Afghanistan. ...

See also

• Avestan language
• Avesta
• Pazend language
• Pahlavi script

Avestan is an Eastern Old Iranian language that was used to compose the hymns of the Zoroastrian holy book, the Avesta. ... See Avesta Municipality for the Swedish town Yasna 28. ... The Pazend or Pazand language is a reduction of the middle Persian language, sanctified by the removal or replacement (with Iranian language equivalents) of loan words that had been borrowed from Semitic languages such as Arabic. ... The Pahlavi script was used broadly in the Sasanid Persian Empire to write down Middle Persian for secular, as well as religious purposes. ...

External links

• Avestan alphabet
• Pahlavi alphabet