----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2000 1:42
AM
Subject: Re: [cybalist] avestan and
vedic
Mark,
They are far from being the same language,
though it's true that sometimes whole sentences can be translated from Vedic
into Avestan or back without changing the word order or using non-cognate
words. However, there are some very important differences as well, and the
ancestral language of the Indo-Iranians can hardly have been uniform after
2000 BC. In other words, at the time when the Avesta was composed, the two
branched had been drifting apart for one and a half millennia at least.
Piotr
My understanding is that Avestan and Sanskrit are essentially the same
language, very closely related dialects. I'm not sure how to compare
closeness, but it seems closer than Danish/Swedish; the differences, such as
they are, might be likened to those between Czech and Slovakian. In any
event, the conclusion is that the immediate ancestor of both Vedic Sanskrit
and Gathic Avestan is proto-Indo-Iranian.
As for dates, I've seen dates as early as 1500 BCE for the earliest RV
hymns, with the place of composition probably north of Afganistan, at the
back-end of modern China. Yes, some seem to have been composed on the
eastermost steppe, or at least, faithfully reflects traditional material
dating from the steppe period.
I really would like to be able to talk as well about the Asvins as
I can about Leda's two boys.
