Avestan Language - Genealogy

Genealogy

Originally Avestan is associated with northeastern Iran, while Old Persian belongs to the southwest. Avestan parent(s) are thought to have shared a common origin with the preceding Gathic or Old Avestan, which is the language of the Gathas (the Hymns of Zarathushtra – 2nd millennium BC). These ancient Iranian languages are some of the few languages among what must have been a great variety, to have left written traces; they together with their subsidiaries constitute what is called the Old Iranian Languages. The Old Iranian language group is a branch of the Indo-Iranian language group, which is in turn a branch of the Indo-European language group.

Iranian languages are traditionally classified as "eastern" or "western", and within this framework Avestan is classified as Eastern Iranian. But this distinction is of limited meaning for Avestan, as the linguistic developments that later distinguish Eastern from Western Iranian had not yet occurred. Avestan does not display some typical (South-)Western Iranian innovations already visible in Old Persian, and so in this sense, "eastern" only means "non-western". That is not to say that Avestan does not display any characteristic innovations of its own – e.g., the sibilant pronunciation of the consonant in aša, corresponding to original /rt/ that is preserved in the Old Persian form (arta), as well as Sanskrit (rta).

Old Avestan is closely related to Old Persian and also fairly close in nature to Vedic Sanskrit, and the Old Eastern Iranian ancestor dialect of Pashto.