casionally, though not often, it shows even more ancient forms.
The language of the Avesta is most closely allied to the Sanskrit, though individually quite distinct from the latter. Together they may be classed as making up an old Indo-Iranian group. Almost any Sanskrit word may he changed at once into its Avestan equivalent, or vice versa, merely by applying certain phonetic laws. As an example may be taken the metrical stanza Ys. 10. 8. in the Avesta:
yo ya&a puOrtm taurunam haomnm vandaSta maiyo fra ahyo tanuhyO haomo visaite baelazai.
'Whosoever kindly welcomes Haoma, even as a tender stripling, to such person Hoama ap- proaches bringing health' — becomes when ren- dered word for word in Sanskrit,
yo ydtha putrdm tdrnnam somam vundCta murtyuh prd ahhyas tanubhyali, sOnio viiute hhfsfijaya.
In its phonology the Avesta agrees with the Sanskrit in its vowels, but the Avesta sliows a greater variety in its c- and o- sounds instead of a. Final vowels, except 0, are shortened as a rule. The Skt. diphthong e appears in Av. as ae, 6i, e (final; Skt. d as Av. no iu, 6 (final). A striking peculiarity in Av. is the introduction of epenthetic vowels and help sounds, giving rise to improper diphthongs, havaiti, 'he becomes'= Skt. bhdvati; Av. haurva-, 'whole' =: Skt. sdrva- ; Av. vakludhra-, 'word' = Skt. vaktra- ; Av.hvan; 'sun'=Skt. siHtr. The Skt. voiceless stops, k, t, p, generally become spirants, kh, th, ph (i.e. X, 0, f) in Av. before consonants. The original voiced aspirates yh, dh, bh, became in Av. simply voiced stops g, b, d. They are so pre- served in the old Gāthā dialect; the younger dia- lect commonly resolves the latter before conso- nants and between vowels into spirants y, s, «,'. The sibilant s in Skt. initial becomes Av. h, as in Greek. Thus, Av. hapta, 'seven' = Skt., saptd. vVhen internal, Skt. s may also appear as oh. Thus Av. vawhana-, 'vesture'=Skt. vdsana-. Final -as of Skt. appears regularly as -d. Thus Av. aspo, 'horse' = Skt. dsvas.
The Gāthā dialect regularly lengthens all final vowels. It frequently inserts the anaptyctic vow- els: G Av., fsnj Y Av., fra, 'forth'=Skt.. pra. Original ns appears as ng ; G Av., davvjnri (ace. pi.), Y Av. dacran, 'demons'=:Skt. dcvan.
In inflection the Avesta shows nearly the rich- ness of the Vedic Sanskrit. There are three gen- ders — masculine, neuter, feminine; likewise three numbers, singular, dual, plural. The dual is not extensively used. There are eight well-developed cases of the noun and the adjective; the normal endings arc: t<i)i(jular. Nom., -s; Ace, -am; Instr., -a; Dat. e; Abl. -at ; Gen. -6 (-as) ; Loc. -i;Voc. . Dual, Nom., Aec, Voc. -a; Instr., Dat., Abl. -byd ; Gen. »s; Loc. -d, -yo. Plur. Nom. Voc. -0 (-us), -a; Aec. -d (-as), -a; Instr. -bi; Dat. -byo (byas) ; Gen. qm; Loc. -su, -hu, -sva. The classes of declension agree exactly with the Sanskrit; the method of forming com])arison of adjectives likewise corresponds. The numerals answer to Skt. forms, except Av. aero-, 'one,' but Skt. eka-, and Av. baevai; '10.000,' but Skt. ayuta. The Av. pronouns closely resemble the Skt., but show also individual peculiarities.
Noteworthy is the remote demonstrative Av. ava, hdu, 'that, yonder,' contrasted with Skt., ainu, asau. The verbal system in Av. and in Skt. is in general identical. The roots are chiefly monosyl- labic and are subject to similar modifications in both. In voice, mode, and tense, and in their con- jugation-system the two languages quite agree. The endings show equal antiquity with the San- skrit. The primary active endings in Av. are: Sing. 1, -mi, 2, -hi, 3, -ti ; Dual, 1, -vahi, 3, -to, -6u; Plur. 1, -mahi, 2, -tha, 3, -nti. The Av. possesses like facility with the Skt. in forming words by means of prefixes, and by adding suf- fixes of primary and secondary derivation. The same classes or compounds may be recognized in both tongues. The rules of Sandhi, or joining to- gether of words in a sentence, so universal in Skt., are almost wanting in Avestan. The Avesta separates every word; the vowels are fully ex- pressed as in Greek, etc., by individual letters. No diacritical points or accents are written in the texts. The metres in which the Gāthās are composed have analogues in the Veda. Almost all the metrical parts of the younger Avesta are in 8-syllable lines. The syntax, however, differs in a number of points from the Sanskrit, and shows certain marked individualities, especially in the later portions.
The best information in general will be found in the contributions by various scholars in Geiger and Kuhn, Grundriss der iranischen Philologie (Strassburg, 1895-1902). A new and complete edition of the Avesta texts has been published by Geldner (Stuttgart, 1885-96). The first full editions were bv Westergaard (Copenhagen, 1852-54), and by Spiegel (Vienna, 1853-58). The latter is complete only for the Avesta in its narrower sense (Ys. Vsp. Vd.), the Khordah Avesta being omitted; but it gives the Pahlavi version. — Translations: Best for reference is the translation bv Darmesteter and Mills in the Sacred Books of the East (3 vols., Oxford, 1880, seq.), and especially the French version by Darmesteter, Le Zend-Avesta (Paris, 1893-94). — Lexicon and Grammars, F. Justi, Handbuch der Zendsprache (Leipzig, 1864); De Harlez, Manuel de l'Avesta (Paris, 1882); Kanga, Avesta Dictionary (Bombay, 1899); Bartholomæ, Altiranisches Wörterbuch (Strassburg, 1902); Schuyler, Index of Avestan Fragments (New York, 1902); Bartholomæ, Grundriss der iranischen Philologie (Strassburg, 1895); Jackson, Avesta Grammar (Stuttgart, 1891); Geldner, Metrik (Tübingen, 1877). — Literature and Antiquities, Anquetil-Duperron, Zend-Avesta, Ouvrage de Zoroastre, etc. (Paris, 1771); Haug, Essays on the Parsis, new edition, by E. W. West (London, 1884). See also the introduction of De Harlez, Avesta (Paris, 1881); F. Spiegel, Eranische Altertumskunde (Leipzig, 1871-78); Sanjana-Geiger, Civilisation of Eastern Iran (London, 1886).
AVEYRON, a'vii'roN'.
A department in the south of France, named after the river which traverses it from east to west (Map: France, J 7). It has an area of 3370 square miles, and is one of the most mountainous parts of France, being situated between the highlands of Auvergne and the Cévennes. The principal rivers, of which the Lot alone is navigable, flow through the department from east to west. The climate is healthful, but cold and raw, especially in the north and east. North of the Lot, only rye and
