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78-419: Khvarenah (also spelled khwarenah or xwarra(h) : Avestan : 𐬓𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬥𐬀𐬵 xᵛarənah ) is an Avestan word for a Zoroastrian concept literally denoting "glory" or "splendour" but understood as a divine mystical force or power projected upon and aiding the appointed. The neuter noun thus also connotes "(divine) royal glory", reflecting the perceived divine empowerment of kings. The term also carries

156-590: A fravashi (MP: fravahr ). The Achaemenid winged sun-disk has in its entirety also been occasionally been interpreted as a representation of khvarenah . That khwarrah – in addition to its significance as "royal fortune" – also signified "fortune" in a general sense is demonstrated by the use of an Aramaic ideogram GDE in the Middle Persian texts of the Sassanid and post-Sassanid periods. The custom of using this Aramic ideogram to represent khvarenah

234-642: A borrowing in Armenian pʿarkʿ , but with a greater range of meaning than in Iranian languages. Bisyllabic khvarenah is only attested once in the Gathas , the oldest hymns of Zoroastrianism and considered to have been composed by the prophet himself. The one instance of Gathic khvarenah occurs in Yasna 51.18, where the word appears to mean royal glory. The primary source of information on khvarenah comes from

312-520: A consistent Proto-Indo-European pattern distinct from Iranian, and that the inflectional morphology was different from that of Iranian languages. The hypothesis that Greek is Armenian's closest living relative originates with Holger Pedersen (1924), who noted that the number of Greek-Armenian lexical cognates is greater than that of agreements between Armenian and any other Indo-European language. Antoine Meillet (1925, 1927) further investigated morphological and phonological agreement and postulated that

390-485: A linguistic relationship with Avestan xᵛar- "to eat". Of the numerous Iranian languages in which the word is attested, the initial xᵛ- is evident only as Avestan khvar(e)nah and as Zoroastrian Middle Persian khwarrah , from which New Persian khorra then derives. In other Iranian dialects the word has an f- form, for instance as Median and Old Persian farnah- , from which Middle- and New Persian farr(ah) and adjectival farrokh derive. For many decades,

468-468: A loan from Armenian (compare to Armenian եւ yev , ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi ). Other loans from Armenian into Urartian includes personal names, toponyms, and names of deities. Loan words from Iranian languages , along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led some linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as Paul de Lagarde and F. Müller believed that

546-425: A network of schools where modern Armenian was taught, dramatically increased the rate of literacy (in spite of the obstacles by the colonial administrators), even in remote rural areas. The emergence of literary works entirely written in the modern versions increasingly legitimized the language's existence. By the turn of the 20th century both varieties of the one modern Armenian language prevailed over Grabar and opened

624-779: A number of reasons for this shift, based on both the Old Avestan and the Young Avestan material. As regards Old Avestan, the Gathas show strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the Rigveda , which in turn is assumed to represent the second half of the second millennium BC. As regards Young Avestan, texts like the Yashts and the Vendidad are situated in the eastern parts of Greater Iran and lack any discernible Persian or Median influence from Western Iran. This

702-526: A parallel in Indic tejas, in which kingship is likewise associated with the bright splendor and power of light and fire. The concept of the royal khwarrah survived the 7th century downfall of the Sassanid Empire , and remained a central motif (for instance as the farr-e elahi ) in the culture, philosophy and epics of Islamic Iran. Avestan language The Avestan text corpus was composed in

780-564: A secondary meaning of "(good) fortune"; those who possess it are able to complete their mission or function. In 3rd- to 7th-century Sassanid -era inscriptions as well as in the 9th- to 12th-century texts of Zoroastrian tradition, the word appears as Zoroastrian Middle Persian khwarrah , rendered with the Pahlavi ideogram GDE , reflecting Aramaic gada "fortune". Middle Persian khwarrah continues as New Persian k(h)orra . These variants, which are assumed to be learned borrowings from

858-496: A seminal and germinal implication, being both fiery fluid and living seed. In Yasna 60.2, the family priest is seen to request joy and blessings for the righteous, good nature, truth, prosperity, power, and glory for the house in which he offers prayers. The hymn to Mithra speaks of the divinity as the "dispenser of khvarenah " ( Yasht 10.16, 10.128, 10.141). Other texts describe Mithra as "most endowed with glory" ( Yasht 19.35, Vendidad 19.15). In Yasht 19.46, Akem Manah ,

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936-405: Is a spiritual force that exists before the creation of the tan-gohr , the mortal body ( Bundahishn II.7ff, Zadspram 3.75). In these later texts, the glory appears to be acquirable through learning and knowledge ( Bundahishn II.9ff). Khwarrah continues to be identified with astral bodies ( Dadistan-i Denig I.25, I.35-36), but its primary function is in its role as the divine glory of kings,

1014-552: Is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages . It is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological changes within that family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization , although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups. Some linguists tentatively conclude that Armenian, Greek (and Phrygian ), Albanian and Indo-Iranian were dialectally close to each other; within this hypothetical dialect group, Proto-Armenian

1092-462: Is attested in roughly two forms, known as "Old Avestan" (or "Gathic Avestan") and "Younger Avestan". Younger Avestan did not evolve from Old Avestan; the two differ not only in time, but they are also different dialects. Every Avestan text, regardless of whether originally composed in Old or Younger Avestan, underwent several transformations. Karl Hoffmann traced the following stages for Avestan as found in

1170-455: Is between five and seven million. Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European Armenian

1248-566: Is classified as Eastern Old Iranian. But the east–west 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". Old Avestan is closely related to Old Persian and largely agrees morphologically with Vedic Sanskrit . The Avestan language

1326-561: Is clearly the dialect to be most closely related to Armenian. Eric P. Hamp (1976, 91) supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis and even anticipates a time "when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian" (meaning the postulate of a Graeco-Armenian proto-language). Armenian shares the augment and a negator derived from the set phrase in the Proto-Indo-European language * ne h₂oyu kʷid ("never anything" or "always nothing"),

1404-474: Is derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂r̥ǵipyós , with cognates in Sanskrit (ऋजिप्य, ṛjipyá ), Avestan ( ərəzifiia ), and Greek (αἰγίπιος, aigípios ). Hrach Martirosyan and Armen Petrosyan propose additional borrowed words of Armenian origin loaned into Urartian and vice versa, including grammatical words and parts of speech, such as Urartian eue ("and"), attested in the earliest Urartian texts and likely

1482-468: Is however also glory held by divinities: Ahura Mazda has it (19.9-13), the Amesha Spentas have it (19.14-20), the other yazatas as well (19.21-24). Yima loses it thrice, in turn to Mithra , Thraetaona and Keresaspa . Khvarenah assumes the shape of a bird when leaving Yima. (19.35-36, 19.82) According to Yasht 13.14, the waters flow, the plants spring forth, and the winds blow through

1560-489: Is interpreted such that the bulk of this material, which has been produced several centuries after Zarathustra, must still predate the sixth century BC. As a result, more recent scholarship often assumes that the major parts of the Young Avestan texts mainly reflect the first half of the first millennia BC, whereas the Old Avestan texts of Zarathustra may have been composed around 1000 BC or even as early as 1500 BC. The script used for writing Avestan developed during

1638-471: Is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development. There are words used in Armenian that are generally believed to have been borrowed from Anatolian languages, particularly from Luwian , although some researchers have identified possible Hittite loanwords as well. One notable loanword from Anatolian is Armenian xalam , "skull", cognate to Hittite ḫalanta , "head". In 1985,

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1716-528: Is not known what the original speakers of Avestan called the language. The modern term "Avestan" comes from the Avesta , a collection of Zoroastrian religious literature composed in the language, the name of which comes from Persian اوستا , avestâ and is of obscure origin, though it might come from or be cognate with the Avestan term 𐬎𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬙𐬁𐬬𐬀𐬐𐬀 , upastāvaka , 'praise'. The language

1794-491: Is probably inherited from Achaemenid times. "The fundamental motif of Iranian kingship, a hereditary dynastic charisma [...], which, could however be lost, was at the root of ideas that were widespread in the Hellenistic and Roman periods." For example, as the tyche basileos, fortuna regia, the saving grace (luck) of fortune of a king; and probably also the royal farrah in the tyche of the various Hellenistic rulers of

1872-531: Is the symbol of a boar, which is a representation of the protection of the yazata Verethragna (MP: Wahram) given to rulers that hold khwarrah . The ring of kingship that appears in Sassanian investiture reliefs is often identified as representing khwarrah . This is also the case for the ring held by the bearded figure in the Achaemenid winged sun-disk symbol that is traditionally considered to represent

1950-575: The c.  12th century texts of Neryosang Dhaval and other Parsi Sanskritist theologians of that era, which are roughly contemporary with the oldest surviving manuscripts in Avestan script. Today, Avestan is most commonly typeset in the Gujarati script ( Gujarati being the traditional language of the Indian Zoroastrians). Some Avestan letters with no corresponding symbol are synthesized with additional diacritical marks, for example,

2028-529: The Yasht s, the younger Avesta's collection of 21 hymns dedicated to individual divinities. Two distinct forms of khvarenah are discernible in Yasht 19: Similarly Yasht 18, although nominally dedicated to Arshtat , is a short 9-verse ode to a third variant of khvarenah ; the Iranian khvarenah ( airiianəm xᵛarənah ) that is created by Ahura Mazda and that is "full of milk and pastures," vanquishes

2106-510: The daeva s and the Un-Iranians . Yasht 19, which is nominally dedicated to Zam "Earth", further typifies khvarenah as a yazata , that is, itself "worthy of worship." The same hymn includes a list of divinities and mortals who perform their duties due to the power of khvarenah . Among these are the mythological Kayanian kings – the kavi s ( kauui s) – who are rulers through the grace of, and empowered by, khvarenah . Khvarenah

2184-524: The /z/ in zaraθuštra is written with j with a dot below. Avestan has retained voiced sibilants, and has fricative rather than aspirate series. There are various conventions for transliteration of the Avestan alphabet , the one adopted for this article being: Vowels: Consonants: The glides y and w are often transcribed as < ii > and < uu >. The letter transcribed < t̰ > indicates an allophone of /t/ with no audible release at

2262-466: The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (11–14th centuries) resulted in the addition of two more characters to the alphabet (" օ " and " ֆ "), bringing the total number to 38. The Book of Lamentations by Gregory of Narek (951–1003) is an example of the development of a literature and writing style of Old Armenian by the 10th century. In addition to elevating the literary style and vocabulary of

2340-508: The Armenian genocide , mostly in the diaspora ). The differences between them are considerable but they are mutually intelligible after significant exposure. Some subdialects such as Homshetsi are not mutually intelligible with other varieties. Although Armenians were known to history much earlier (for example, they were mentioned in the 6th-century BC Behistun Inscription and in Xenophon 's 4th century BC history, The Anabasis ),

2418-641: The Greek language , the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages . Graeco-Aryan unity would have become divided into Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian by the mid-3rd millennium BC. Conceivably, Proto-Armenian would have been located between Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian, consistent with the fact that Armenian shares certain features only with Indo-Iranian (the satem change) but others only with Greek ( s > h ). Graeco-Aryan has comparatively wide support among Indo-Europeanists who believe

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2496-643: The Indo-European homeland to be located in the Armenian Highlands , the " Armenian hypothesis ". Early and strong evidence was given by Euler's 1979 examination on shared features in Greek and Sanskrit nominal flection. Used in tandem with the Graeco-Armenian hypothesis, the Armenian language would also be included under the label Aryano-Greco-Armenic , splitting into Proto-Greek/Phrygian and "Armeno-Aryan" (ancestor of Armenian and Indo-Iranian ). Classical Armenian (Arm: grabar ), attested from

2574-542: The Mekhitarists . The first Armenian periodical, Azdarar , was published in grabar in 1794. The classical form borrowed numerous words from Middle Iranian languages , primarily Parthian , and contains smaller inventories of loanwords from Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, Arabic, Mongol, Persian, and indigenous languages such as Urartian . An effort to modernize the language in Bagratid Armenia and

2652-508: The Sasanian period ". The Avestan language is only known from the Avesta and otherwise unattested. As a result, there is no external evidence on which to base the time frame during which the Avestan language was spoken and all attempts have to rely on internal evidence. Such attempts were often based on the life of Zarathustra as the most distinct event in the Avestan period . Zarathustra

2730-653: The Seleucid and Arsacid periods as well as of the Kushan kings. Because the concepts of khvarenah / khwarrah and Aramaic gd(y) circulated in the same areas and have many characteristics in common, it is possible that the Mesopotamian concept influenced the Zoroastrian one. On the other hand, khvarenah may also be a facet of Zoroastrianism's Indo-Iranian cultural inheritance since khvarenah appears to have

2808-485: The f- form was believed to represent a specific Median sound-law change of proto-Iranian xᵛ- to f- . The hypothesis has since been shown to be untenable, and the proto-Iranian form is today reconstructed as *hu̯ , preserved in Avestan as xᵛ- and dissimilated as f- in other Iranian dialects. Pre-Christian Georgian kings of the Pharnavazid dynasty were divinely assigned kxwarrah and its loss usually led to

2886-608: The khvarenah of the Fravashis . In Yasna 68.11, the waters of Aredvi Sura are invoked to bestow radiance and glory. Khvarenah is also associated with the waters in other texts; with the world-sea Vourukasha in Yasht 19.51 and 19.56-57; with the Helmand river in Yasht 19.66ff. It is also identified with Haoma , together with which it plays a seminal role in the legend of the birth of Zoroaster. In these passages, khvarenah has

2964-414: The 3rd or 4th century AD. By then the language had been extinct for many centuries, and remained in use only as a liturgical language of the Avesta canon. As is still the case today, the liturgies were memorized by the priesthood and recited by rote. The script devised to render Avestan was natively known as Din dabireh "religion writing". It has 53 distinct characters and is written right-to-left. Among

3042-508: The 53 characters are about 30 letters that are – through the addition of various loops and flourishes – variations of the 13 graphemes of the cursive Pahlavi script (i.e. "Book" Pahlavi) that is known from the post-Sassanian texts of Zoroastrian tradition. These symbols, like those of all the Pahlavi scripts, are in turn based on Aramaic script symbols. Avestan also incorporates several letters from other writing systems, most notably

3120-408: The 5th century to the 19th century as the literary standard (up to the 11th century also as a spoken language with different varieties), was partially superseded by Middle Armenian , attested from the 12th century to the 18th century. Specialized literature prefers "Old Armenian" for grabar as a whole, and designates as "Classical" the language used in the 5th century literature, "Post-Classical" from

3198-481: The Armenian language by adding well above a thousand new words, through his other hymns and poems Gregory paved the way for his successors to include secular themes and vernacular language in their writings. The thematic shift from mainly religious texts to writings with secular outlooks further enhanced and enriched the vocabulary. "A Word of Wisdom", a poem by Hovhannes Sargavak devoted to a starling, legitimizes poetry devoted to nature, love, or female beauty. Gradually,

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3276-422: The Armenian language family. It is the native language of the Armenian people and the official language of Armenia . Historically spoken in the Armenian highlands , today Armenian is also widely spoken throughout the Armenian diaspora . Armenian is written in its own writing system , the Armenian alphabet , introduced in 405 AD by Saint Mesrop Mashtots . The estimated number of Armenian speakers worldwide

3354-525: The Avestan, are the only Iranian language forms with an initial 'xᵛ-'. In all other dialects, the word has an initial f- (see details under related terms , below). Avestan khvarenah is probably derived from Proto-Avestan *hvar "to shine", nominalized with the -nah suffix. Proto-Avestan * hvar is in turn related to Old Indic svar with the same meaning, and together descending from Proto-Indo-Iranian * súHr̥ "to shine", ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sóhr "to shine". Other proposals suggest

3432-467: The Hurro-Urartian and Northeast Caucasian origins for these words and instead suggest native Armenian etymologies, leaving the possibility that these words may have been loaned into Hurro-Urartian and Caucasian languages from Armenian, and not vice versa. A notable example is arciv , meaning "eagle", believed to have been the origin of Urartian Arṣibi and Northeast Caucasian arzu . This word

3510-669: The Russian Empire), removed almost all of their Turkish lexical influences in the 20th century, primarily following the Armenian genocide . In addition to Armenia and Turkey, where it is indigenous , Armenian is spoken among the diaspora . According to Ethnologue , globally there are 1.6 million Western Armenian speakers and 3.7 million Eastern Armenian speakers, totalling 5.3 million Armenian speakers. In Georgia, Armenian speakers are concentrated in Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki districts where they represent over 90% of

3588-459: The Russian and Ottoman empires led to creation of two separate and different environments under which Armenians lived. Halfway through the 19th century, two important concentrations of Armenian communities were further consolidated. Because of persecutions or the search for better economic opportunities, many Armenians living under Ottoman rule gradually moved to Istanbul , whereas Tbilisi became

3666-833: The Soviet linguist Igor M. Diakonoff noted the presence in Classical Armenian of what he calls a "Caucasian substratum" identified by earlier scholars, consisting of loans from the Kartvelian and Northeast Caucasian languages . Noting that Hurro-Urartian-speaking peoples inhabited the Armenian homeland in the second millennium BC, Diakonoff identifies in Armenian a Hurro-Urartian substratum of social, cultural, and animal and plant terms such as ałaxin "slave girl" ( ← Hurr. al(l)a(e)ḫḫenne ), cov "sea" ( ← Urart. ṣûǝ "(inland) sea"), ułt "camel" ( ← Hurr. uḷtu ), and xnjor "apple (tree)" ( ← Hurr. ḫinzuri ). Some of

3744-470: The ancient Iranian satrapies of Arachosia , Aria , Bactria , and Margiana , corresponding to the entirety of present-day Afghanistan as well as parts of Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , and Uzbekistan . The Yaz culture of Bactria–Margiana has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of the early " Eastern Iranian " culture that is described in the Zoroastrian Avesta . It

3822-434: The center of Armenians living under Russian rule. These two cosmopolitan cities very soon became the primary poles of Armenian intellectual and cultural life. The introduction of new literary forms and styles, as well as many new ideas sweeping Europe, reached Armenians living in both regions. This created an ever-growing need to elevate the vernacular, Ashkharhabar, to the dignity of a modern literary language, in contrast to

3900-441: The continuation of the Avestan notion of the kavam khvarenah . New in tradition is an identification of khwarrah with religion, as in "the great khwarrah -bestowing force of the pure religion" ( Dadistan-i Denig I.36) The Kar-namag i Ardashir , a collection of hagiographic legends related to Ardashir , the founder of the Sassanid Empire , includes (4.11.16 and 4.11.22-23) a tale in which Ardashir – who at that point in

3978-475: The demon of "evil purpose" attempts (but fails) to seize khvarenah . The Iranian khvarenah and Dahman , the hypostasis of prayer, render Bushyasta - the demoness of "sloth" – powerless ( Yasht 10.97, 13.4). At the final renovation of the world, the royal glory will follow the Saoshyant s ( Yasht 19.89). In the 9th-12th century texts of Zoroastrian tradition khvarenah (→ Middle Persian khwarrah )

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4056-483: The end of a word and before certain obstruents . According to Beekes, [ð] and [ɣ] are allophones of /θ/ and /x/ respectively (in Old Avestan). The following phrases were phonetically transcribed from Avestan: Armenian language Armenian ( endonym : հայերեն , hayeren , pronounced [hɑjɛˈɾɛn] ) is an Indo-European language and the sole member of the independent branch of

4134-580: The existence of the two modern versions of the same language was sanctioned even more clearly. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1920–1990) used Eastern Armenian as its official language, whereas the diaspora created after the Armenian genocide preserved the Western Armenian dialect. The two modern literary dialects, Western (originally associated with writers in the Ottoman Empire) and Eastern (originally associated with writers in

4212-513: The extant texts. In roughly chronological order: Many phonetic features cannot be ascribed with certainty to a particular stage since there may be more than one possibility. Every phonetic form that can be ascribed to the Sasanian archetype on the basis of critical assessment of the manuscript evidence must have gone through the stages mentioned above so that "Old Avestan" and "Young Avestan" really mean no more than "Old Avestan and Young Avestan of

4290-425: The hypothetical Mushki language may have been a (now extinct) Armenic language. W. M. Austin (1942) concluded that there was early contact between Armenian and Anatolian languages , based on what he considered common archaisms, such as the lack of a feminine gender and the absence of inherited long vowels. Unlike shared innovations (or synapomorphies ), the common retention of archaisms (or symplesiomorphy )

4368-470: The interests of the population at large were reflected in other literary works as well. Konsdantin Yerzinkatsi and several others took the unusual step of criticizing the ecclesiastic establishment and addressing the social issues of the Armenian homeland. These changes represented the nature of the literary style and syntax, but they did not constitute immense changes to the fundamentals of the grammar or

4446-434: The late 5th to 8th centuries, and "Late Grabar" that of the period covering the 8th to 11th centuries. Later, it was used mainly in religious and specialized literature, with the exception of a revival during the early modern period, when attempts were made to establish it as the language of a literary renaissance, with neoclassical inclinations, through the creation and dissemination of literature in varied genres, especially by

4524-635: The monarch's imminent death or overthrow in Georgian kingship. Many of the monarchs had names based on this etymological root like Pharnavaz , Pharnajom and Pharasmanes . The word was borrowed into the Georgian language as p'ar[n] . In the Iranian languages of the Middle Period, the word is also attested as Bactrian far(r)o , Khotanese pharra , Parthian farh , Sogdian f(a)rn , and Ossetic farnæ and farn , though in these languages

4602-567: The morphology of the language. Often, when writers codify a spoken dialect, other language users are then encouraged to imitate that structure through the literary device known as parallelism . In the 19th century, the traditional Armenian homeland was once again divided. This time Eastern Armenia was conquered from Qajar Iran by the Russian Empire , while Western Armenia , containing two thirds of historical Armenia, remained under Ottoman control. The antagonistic relationship between

4680-403: The now-anachronistic Grabar. Numerous dialects existed in the traditional Armenian regions, which, different as they were, had certain morphological and phonetic features in common. On the basis of these features two major standards emerged: Both centers vigorously pursued the promotion of Ashkharhabar. The proliferation of newspapers in both versions (Eastern & Western) and the development of

4758-541: The official status of the Armenian language. Eastern Armenian is the official variant used, making it the prestige variety while other variants have been excluded from national institutions. Indeed, Western Armenian is perceived by some as a mere dialect. Armenian was also official in the Republic of Artsakh . It is recognized as an official language of the Eurasian Economic Union although Russian

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4836-584: The oldest surviving Armenian-language writing is etched in stone on Armenian temples and is called Mehenagir . The Armenian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405, at which time it had 36 letters. He is also credited by some with the creation of the Georgian alphabet and the Caucasian Albanian alphabet . While Armenian constitutes the sole member of the Armenian branch of the Indo-European family, Aram Kossian has suggested that

4914-483: The parent languages of Greek and Armenian were dialects in immediate geographical proximity during the Proto-Indo-European period. Meillet's hypothesis became popular in the wake of his book Esquisse d'une histoire de la langue latine (1936). Georg Renatus Solta (1960) does not go as far as postulating a Proto-Graeco-Armenian stage, but he concludes that considering both the lexicon and morphology, Greek

4992-407: The path to a new and simplified grammatical structure of the language in the two different cultural spheres. Apart from several morphological, phonetic, and grammatical differences, the largely common vocabulary and generally analogous rules of grammatical fundamentals allows users of one variant to understand the other as long as they are fluent in one of the literary standards. After World War I ,

5070-570: The population. The short-lived First Republic of Armenia declared Armenian its official language. Eastern Armenian was then dominating in institutions and among the population. When Armenia was incorporated into the USSR, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic made Eastern Armenian the language of the courts, government institutions and schools. Armenia was also russified . The current Republic of Armenia upholds

5148-579: The ram is the manifestation of the khwarrah of the ancient Iranian kings, which is leaving Ardavan and the Parthians in favor of a new emperor. The representation of khwarrah as a ram reappears on Sassanid seals and as an ornament in Sassanid architecture. Khwarrah also appears in Sassanian crowns as a bird with a pearl in its beak. Depictions of khwarrah as a bird are allusions to the Avestan myth of Yasht 19.35-36, 19.82 in which khvarenah takes

5226-436: The representation of word-initial laryngeals by prothetic vowels, and other phonological and morphological peculiarities with Greek. Nevertheless, as Fortson (2004) comments, "by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, the evidence of any such early kinship has been reduced to a few tantalizing pieces". Graeco-(Armeno)-Aryan is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family , ancestral to

5304-500: The shape of a bird as it leaves Yima (MP: Jamshid), a metamorphosis similar to that of the yazata of victory, Verethragna . The crown as a repository of khwarrah is also attested in the Paikuli inscription of Narseh, which describes the punishment meted out to an individual who has been "driven by Ahriman and the dev s " to steal khwarrah by placing the crown on the head of a false ruler. Another ubiquitous motif in Sassanian art

5382-414: The similarities between the two languages meant that Armenian belonged to the Iranian language family . The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann (1875) used the comparative method to distinguish two layers of Iranian words from the older Armenian vocabulary . He showed that Armenian often had two morphemes for one concept, that the non-Iranian components yielded

5460-491: The story is still a vassal of the Arsacid Parthians – escapes from the court of the last Arsacid king, Ardavan . In the story, Ardashir makes off with much Ardavan's treasure, as well as Ardavan's favourite concubine, and is being chased by Ardavan and his troops. On the road, Ardavan and his contingent are overtaken by an enormous ram, which is also following Ardashir. Ardavan's religious advisors explain that

5538-519: The terms he gives admittedly have an Akkadian or Sumerian provenance, but he suggests they were borrowed through Hurrian or Urartian. Given that these borrowings do not undergo sound changes characteristic of the development of Armenian from Proto-Indo-European , he dates their borrowing to a time before the written record but after the Proto-Armenian language stage. Contemporary linguists, such as Hrach Martirosyan , have rejected many of

5616-432: The vowels, which are mostly derived from Greek minuscules. A few letters were free inventions, as were also the symbols used for punctuation. Also, the Avestan alphabet has one letter that has no corresponding sound in the Avestan language; the character for /l/ (a sound that Avestan does not have) was added to write Pazend texts. The Avestan script is alphabetic , and the large number of letters suggests that its design

5694-562: The word does not necessarily signify "glory" or "fortune": In Buddhism , Sogdian farn and Khotanese pharra signified a "position of a Buddha," that is, with "dignity" or "high position." This meaning subsequently passed into Tocharian . In Manicheanism , Sogdian frn signified "luck" and was a designator of the "first luminary". Manichean Parthian farh again signifies "glory." In Scytho - Sarmatian and Alan culture, Digor-Ossetic farnæ and Iron-Ossetic farn signified "peace, happiness, abundance, fortune." The term also appears as

5772-462: Was due to the need to render the orally recited texts with high phonetic precision. The correct enunciation of the liturgies was (and still is) considered necessary for the prayers to be effective. The Zoroastrians of India, who represent one of the largest surviving Zoroastrian communities worldwide, also transcribe Avestan in Brahmi -based scripts. This is a relatively recent development first seen in

5850-405: Was situated between Proto-Greek ( centum subgroup) and Proto-Indo-Iranian ( satem subgroup). Ronald I. Kim has noted unique morphological developments connecting Armenian to Balto-Slavic languages . The Armenian language has a long literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Another text translated into Armenian early on, and also in the 5th-century,

5928-803: Was sometimes called Zend in older works, stemming from a misunderstanding of the Zend (commentaries and interpretations of Zoroastrian scripture) as synonymous with the Avesta itself, due to both often being bundled together as "Zend-Avesta". Avestan and Old Persian are the two attested languages comprising Old Iranian , and while Avestan was localized in the northeastern parts of Greater Iran according to Paul Maximilian Tedesco  [ de ] (1921), other scholars have favored regarding Avestan as originating in eastern parts. Scholars traditionally classify Iranian languages as "old", "middle" and "new" according to their age, and as "eastern" or "western" according to geography, and within this framework Avestan

6006-682: Was the Armenian Alexander Romance . The vocabulary of the language has historically been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages , particularly Parthian ; its derivational morphology and syntax were also affected by language contact with Parthian, but to a lesser extent. Contact with Greek, Persian , and Syriac also resulted in a number of loanwords. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian (spoken mainly in Armenia) and Western Armenian (spoken originally mainly in modern-day Turkey and, since

6084-556: Was traditionally based in the 6th century BC meaning that Old Avestan would have been spoken during the early Achaemenid period . Given that a substantial time must have passed between Old Avestan and Young Avestan, the latter would have been spoken somewhere during the Hellenistic or the Parthian period of Iranian history. However, more recent scholarship has increasingly shifted to an earlier dating. The literature presents

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