Avestan

Where it was spoken

Avestan was spoken in eastern Iran or Central Asia in the late second to early first millennium BCE. We have no archaeological evidence of an “Avestan people”; the language survives entirely through the Avesta — the sacred scripture of Zoroastrianism — preserved orally for centuries before being written down. Two varieties are distinguished: Old (Gathic) Avestan, the language of Zarathustra’s hymns, and Young Avestan, the language of later liturgical texts.

What it sounded like

Avestan and Vedic Sanskrit are sister languages — close enough that many verses can be transposed word-for-word between them — both descended from Proto-Indo-Iranian.

How it’s written

The Avestan alphabet was developed during the Sasanian Empire (3rd–7th century CE) specifically to record the previously oral scripture. It writes vowels precisely and is read right-to-left.