Avestan is the sacred language of the Zoroastrians in which they perform most of their rituals.
It is known only from its use in the rituals of modern Zoroastrians and the manuscripts
reproducing these rituals since the 13th century. Although sure dates cannot be provided it is
very likely that the creation of the liturgical corpus extended from the end of the 2nd
millennium BCE until the end of the Achaemenid period (4th cent. BCE). This corpus includes
texts in at least three linguistic layers (Old Middle and Young Avestan). The present manual
aims to provide a tool for facilitating the teaching of Young Avestan but keeps in mind also
the possibility of self-learning since Avestan is not well-represented in the actual academic
landscape. It includes a progressive presentation of the complex phonetic evolutions that are
very characteristic of the Avestan language as a consequence of the evolution of the recitation
until its fixation (6th cent. CE) and also of the Avestan grammar complemented with exercises
including samples of original texts of increasing difficulty. In each lesson one text is
reproduced in a manuscript introducing the students to the direct work with manuscripts.
