Avestan and Old Persian

Students are introduced to the Iranian language group and its place within Indo-European languages. This is followed by an overview of the Old-Iranian grammar in confrontation with the Vedic grammatical system and its Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Indo-European background. Students learn the basics of phonology, and familiarize themselves with the formation and declension of nouns and adjectives, with pronouns and cardinal numbers, personal and impersonal verbal forms, and basic syntax. Students are encouraged to use and expand the acquired knowledge of the descriptive and diachronic grammar of Avestan and Old Persian by careful analytical reading of selected original texts.