Pazend
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Pazend | |
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Script type | |
Time period | Until 7th century |
Direction | Pahlavi script
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Pazend (
Pazend's principal use was for writing the commentaries (Zend) on and/or translations of the Avesta. The word "Pazend" ultimately derives from the Avestan words paiti zainti, which can be translated as either "for commentary purposes" or "according to understanding" (phonetically).
Pazend had the following characteristics, both of which are to be contrasted with
- Pazend was a variant of the Avestan alphabet (Din dabireh), which was a phonetic alphabet. In contrast, Pahlavi script was only an abjad.
- Pazend did not have ideograms. In contrast, ideograms were an identifying feature of the Pahlavi system, and these huzvarishn were words borrowed from Semitic languages such as Aramaicthat continued to be spelled as in Aramaic (in Pahlavi script) but were pronounced as the corresponding word in Persian.
In combination with its religious purpose, these features constituted a "sanctification" of written Middle Persian. The use of the Avestan alphabet to write Middle Persian required the addition of one symbol to the Avestan alphabet: This character, to represent the /l/ phoneme of Middle Persian, had not previously been needed.
Following the fall of the
Following Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron's translation of some of the texts of the Avesta in the late 18th century, the term "Zend-Avesta" was mistakenly used to refer to the sacred texts themselves (as opposed to commentaries on them). This usage subsequently led to the equally mistaken use of "Pazend" for the Avestan script as such and "Zend" for the Avestan language.
Bibliography
- ^ Himelfarb, Elizabeth J. "First Alphabet Found in Egypt", Archaeology 53, Issue 1 (January/February 2000): 21.
- ^ Boyce, Mary (1984), "Sanskrit, Old Gujarati and Pazand writings", Textual sources for the study of Zoroastrianism, Manchester UP, p. 5.
- ^ Boyce, Mary (1968), "Middle Persian literature: The later religious writings", Iranistik II: Literatur, Handbuch der Orientalistik, vol 4, Leiden: Brill, p. 47.
- Dhalla, Maneckji Nusservanji (1938), History of Zoroastrianism, New York: OUP