Martínez-Porro, J._The Indo-Iranian group *sr/a_a in the Avestan manuscripts (original) (raw)

The Indo-Iranian group *sr/a_a in the Avestan manuscripts

This paper deals with an anomaly in the Avestan orthography, viz. the group ŋr. The Avestan letter ŋ is always linked to an h. However, neither the editions have used ŋhr nor the problem itself has been analyzed by Avestan scholars. An orthographical analysis will show that the situation in the manuscripts is varied, presenting several spellings in the different manuscript traditions. In addition, a suitable explanation for the frequency of ŋr will be discussed.

On Avestan text criticism (3): the use and distribution of the letter ń in Avestan manuscripts

Wort- und Formenvielfalt. Festschrift für Christoph Koch zum 80. Geburtstag, 2021

After an exhaustive analysis of the attestation of the Avestan letter ń in the Iranian manuscripts of the Long Liturgy, it is concluded that this letter appears only before i ̯, but not before i or e with the exception of the group °niuuV, where ń is also regular. Concerning the use of the epenthesis or not, it is concluded that the epenthesis is regular before ń, except when ń appears after initial a (e.g. ańiia- vs. maińiiu- ). The comparison of acc.sg. ainīm to ańiiō and rest of the forms of the paradigm leads us to the conclusion that two successive waves of epenthesis have to be assumed: the first one affected only syllables before i̯ and was prior to the transformation of n > ń. The second one affected the syllables before i or final e and is posterior to the evolution n > ń.

The irregularities of the Avestan vowel orthography -a Reexamination

KALYANA MITRA: A Treasure House of History, Culture and Archaeological Studies (Festschrift to Prof. P. Chenna Reddy), 2023

The vowel system of Avesta presents many irregularities. In several Avestan words, the vowels are very different from those of cognate words in related languages, even when the consonant structure is identical. In this paper, we suggest that several difficulties with the Avestan vowel may stem from irregularities in the graphic system. In particular, we suggest that when vowels where incorporated into the Avestan script, they were modeled not only on existing alphabets like Greek, but also on syllabic writing systems. Some of the irregularities in Avestan vowel orthography may be vestiges of a syllabic writing system, which may have been the common source of the Avestan vowels, the Old Persian script, and the Indian syllabic scripts.

Preconsonantal nasals in the Avestan alphabet

Whereas Sanskrit has four letters representing the different places of articulation of the preconsonantal nasal (labial म m, dentoalveolar न n, postalveolar ञ n, and velar ङ ṅ ―five, if the retroflex variant ण ṇ is included―), according to the usual description of the Avestan alphabet, it has only one letter for it: ṇ. The present paper seeks to show that, when the Avestan alphabet was created, there were more preconsonantal nasals than assumed (probably four) and how rests of this original situation can be demonstrated through the extant manuscripts and, especially, with the so called “Avestan ritual alphabets”. Note: If you desire a full copy of my article, please contact me (for copyright reasons, I am not authorised to publish the whole article on-line). Full volume information at: http://www.peeters-leuven.be/boekoverz.asp?nr=10038 For quoting the article: Ferrer-Losilla, J.J. (2016): “Preconsonantal Nasals in the Avestan Alphabet”, dans É. Pirart (éd.) Études de linguistique iranienne in memoriam Xavier Tremblay, Acta Iranica 57, Leuven-Paris-Bristol, 2016, pp. 157-184.