Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The eastern dialect of Old Iranian, in which the Avesta is written.
- adjective Of or relating to Avestan.
- adjective Or or relating to the Avesta.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Belonging to the Avesta.
- noun The language of the Avesta; Zend.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the Avesta or the language of the Avesta.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun An
ancient Eastern Old Iranianlanguage that was used to compose the sacred hymns andcanon of theZoroastrian Avesta . - adjective Of or pertaining to
Avesta or Avestan.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an ancient Iranian language
- noun the script in which the ancient Persian language of the Avesta is written
- adjective of or pertaining to the Avesta (sacred text of Zoroastrianism)
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The Avestan language is called Avestan because the sacred scriptures of Zoroastrianism, Avesta, were written in this old form.
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D. Whitney suggests in his very lucid and able article in vol.v. of the Journal of the American Oriental Society most fitly be called the Avestan dialect.
The Destiny of the Soul A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life William Rounseville Alger 1863
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Some, including Avestan, the language of the Zoroastrians and their sacred religious texts, and Sogdian, which gained wide use as a lingua franca among merchants and traders along the ancient Silk Route, are extinct.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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Some, including Avestan, the language of the Zoroastrians and their sacred religious texts, and Sogdian, which gained wide use as a lingua franca among merchants and traders along the ancient Silk Route, are extinct.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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I personally find the accepted etymological cognate to Pgm *ansuz in Avestan anhu quite convincing.
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Avestan died out long before the advent of Islam and except for scriptural use not much has remained of it.
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Szemerenyi rejects this rule because of Avestan zdī from *s-dʰi "be!"
PIE "look-alike stems" - Evidence of something or a red herring? 2009
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There are three different phases in the development of Indo-Iranian languages: Old, Middle, and Modern.citation needed Old Dari/Farsi and the Avestan language represents the old stage of development and were spoken in ancient Bactria.
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This usage tends to merge the Avestan/Sanskrit meaning of "noble" or "elevated" with the idea of distinctive ancestral ethnicity marked by language distribution.
Steve Anderson: Tom Metzger & WAR: The Race is On and it Looks Like Heartaches 2008
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Aryan is an English language word derived from the Indian Vedic Sanskrit and Iranian Avestan terms ari -, arya -, ārya -, and/or the extended form aryāna -.
Steve Anderson: Tom Metzger & WAR: The Race is On and it Looks Like Heartaches 2008
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