Ossetic Иронау, Ironau
Spoken in:	Russia, Georgia, Turkey
Region:	North Ossetia, South Ossetia
Total speakers:	c. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Georgia ( საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a Transcontinental country in the Caucasus region situated at the dividing line between Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Респу́блика Се́верная Осе́тия–Ала́ния Ossetic: Республикӕ Цӕгат Ирыстон — Алани South Ossetia ( or; Хуссар Ирыстон Xussar Iryston; Южная Осетия Yuzhnaya Osetiya; სამხრეთი ოსეთი Samxreti 700,000
Language family:	Indo-European  Indo-Iranian   Iranian    Eastern     Northeastern      Ossetic
Official status
Official language in:	North Ossetia, South Ossetia
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	os
ISO 639-2:	oss
ISO 639-3:	oss
Ossetic text from a book published in 1935. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian. The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages emerging in Middle Iranian times (from ca The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages emerging in Middle Iranian times (from ca The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Респу́блика Се́верная Осе́тия–Ала́ния Ossetic: Республикӕ Цӕгат Ирыстон — Алани South Ossetia ( or; Хуссар Ирыстон Xussar Iryston; Южная Осетия Yuzhnaya Osetiya; სამხრეთი ოსეთი Samxreti This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages Year 1935 ( MCMXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Part of an alphabetic list of proverbs. Latin script
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

The Ethnolinguistic patchwork of the modern Caucasus - CIA map

Ossetic or Ossetian (Ossetic: Ирон ӕвзаг, Iron ævzhag or Иронау, Ironau, Persian: اوسِی) is an Iranian language spoken in Ossetia, a region on the slopes of the Caucasus mountains on the borders of Russia and Georgia. The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Ossetia (pronounced /ɒˈsɛtɪə/ or /oʊˈsiːʃə/ Ossetic: Ирыстон Iryston; Russian: Осетия Osetiya; Georgian The Caucasus ( also referred to as North Caucasus) is a geopolitical region located between Europe Asia & Middle East Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Georgia ( საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a Transcontinental country in the Caucasus region situated at the dividing line between

The area in Russia is known as North Ossetia-Alania, while the area in Georgia is called South Ossetia or Samachablo. The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Респу́блика Се́верная Осе́тия–Ала́ния Ossetic: Республикӕ Цӕгат Ирыстон — Алани South Ossetia ( or; Хуссар Ирыстон Xussar Iryston; Южная Осетия Yuzhnaya Osetiya; სამხრეთი ოსეთი Samxreti Ossetian speakers number about 700,000, sixty percent of whom live in Alania, and twenty percent in South Ossetia.

History and classification

Ossetic is the spoken and literary language of the Ossetes, a people living in the central part of the Caucasus and constituting the basic population of the republic of North Ossetia-Alania, which belongs to the Russian Federation, and of the South Ossetia, which belongs to the Georgian Republic. The Ossetians (ирæттæ irættæ are an Iranic Ethnic group indigenous to Ossetia, a region that spans the Caucasus Mountains The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Респу́блика Се́верная Осе́тия–Ала́ния Ossetic: Республикӕ Цӕгат Ирыстон — Алани Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending South Ossetia ( or; Хуссар Ирыстон Xussar Iryston; Южная Осетия Yuzhnaya Osetiya; სამხრეთი ოსეთი Samxreti Georgia ( საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a Transcontinental country in the Caucasus region situated at the dividing line between Ossetic belongs to the Northern subgroup of the Eastern-Iranian group of the Indo-European family of languages. The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian. Thus, it is genetically related to the other Eastern-Iranian languages, e. g. Pashto and Yaghnobi. Pashto ( Naskh: پښتو‎ pəʂ'to also rendered as Pakhto, Pushto, Pukhto, Pashtu, Pushtu, also known as The Yaghnobi language is a living Northeastern Iranian language (the only other living member being Ossetic)

From deep Antiquity (since the 7th-8th centuries B. C. ), the languages of the Iranian group were distributed in a vast territory including present-day Iran (Persia), Central Asia, and Southern Russia. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east and from southern Russia in the north to northern Pakistan in the south Southern Federal District ( Russian: Ю́жный федера́льный о́круг tr Ossetic is the sole survivor of the northeastern branch of Iranian languages known as Scythian. The Scythian languages form a North Eastern branch of the Iranian language family and comprise the distinctive languagesspoken by the Scythian ( Sarmatian The Scythian group included numerous tribes, known in ancient sources as the Scythians, Massagetae, Saka, Sarmatians, Alans and Roxolans. The Scythians or Scyths (Σκύθες Σκύθοι were an Iranian speaking people of horse-riding Nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic The Massageteans ( Massagetai; Massagetae or Massagetaeans were an Iranian people of antiquity known primarily from the writings of Herodotus The Sakas ( English form of Old Iranian Sakā, Nominative plural masculine case; Ancient Greek Σάκαι, The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae ( Old Iranian Sarumatah 'archer' Σαρμάτες The Alans or Alani (occasionally but more rarely termed Alauni or Halani) were an Iranian nomadic group among the Sarmatian people The Rhoxolani were a Sarmatian people who are believed to be an off-shoot of the Alans. The more easterly Khorezmians and the Sogdians were also closely affiliated, in linguistic terms. Khwarezm were a series of States centered on the Amu Darya River delta of the History Hellenistic period The Sogdian Rock or Rock of Ariamazes a fortress in Sogdiana was captured in 327 BC by the forces of Alexander the Great

Ossetian, together with Kurdish, Tati and Talyshi, is one of the main Iranian languages with a sizeable community of speakers in the Caucasus. The Kurdish language (Kurdish Kurdî or کوردی is a term used for the language spoken by Kurds. The traditional heartlands of the Talysh language are the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern regions of The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian. It is descended from Alanic, the language of the Alans, medieval tribes emerging from the earlier Sarmatians. The Scythian languages form a North Eastern branch of the Iranian language family and comprise the distinctive languagesspoken by the Scythian ( Sarmatian The Alans or Alani (occasionally but more rarely termed Alauni or Halani) were an Iranian nomadic group among the Sarmatian people The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae ( Old Iranian Sarumatah 'archer' Σαρμάτες It is believed to be the only surviving descendant of a Sarmatian language. The Scythian languages form a North Eastern branch of the Iranian language family and comprise the distinctive languagesspoken by the Scythian ( Sarmatian The closest genetically related language is the Yaghnobi language of Tajikistan, the only other living member of the Northeastern Iranian branch. The Yaghnobi language is a living Northeastern Iranian language (the only other living member being Ossetic) Tajikistan (təˈdʒɪkɨstæn or /təˈdʒiːkɨstæn/ Тоҷикистон tɔʤikɪsˈtɔn or, Persian تاجیکستان‎ taajikestaan officially the Republic of The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages emerging in Middle Iranian times (from ca ^[1][2] Ossetic has a plural formed by the suffix -ta, a feature it shares with Yaghnobi, Sarmatian and the now-extinct Sogdian; this is taken as evidence of a formerly wide-ranging Iranian-language dialect continuum on the Central Asian steppe. A dialect continuum is a range of Dialects spoken across a large geographical area differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close and gradually decreasing Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east and from southern Russia in the north to northern Pakistan in the south In physical Geography, a steppe ( German, from степь - "a flat and arid land" степ - /stɛp/ тал - tal дала - /dɑlɑ/ pronounced The Greek-derived names of ancient Iranian tribes in fact reflect this pluralization, e. g. Saromatae (Σαρομάται) and Masagetae (Μασαγέται). ^[3]

The evidence for Medieval Ossetic

The earliest known written sample of Ossetic is an inscription which dates from the 10th to 12th centuries CE and was found near the River Bolshoi Zelenchuk at Arkhyz. Epigraphy (ἐπιγραφολογία from Greek ἐπιγραφή — "inscription" is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs engraved Arkhyz ( Russian: Архыз is a mountainous region in the vicinity of the eponymous Aul sitting at an altitude of 1450 meters in the valley of the Bolshoi The text is written in the Greek alphabet, with special digraphs. The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond

—ΣΑΧΗΡΗ ΦΟΥΡΤ ΧΟΒΣ
ΗΣΤΟΡΗ ΦΟΥΡΤ ΠΑΚΑΘΑΡ
ΠΑΚΑΘΑΡΗ ΦΟΥΡΤ ΑΝΠΑΛΑΝ
ΑΝΠΑΛΑΝΗ ΦΟΥΡΤ ΛΑΚ
ΑΝΗ ΤΖΗΡΘΕ

This transliterates as

—Saxiri Furt Xovs
Istori Furt Bæqætar
Bæqætari Furt Æmbalan
Æmbalani Furt Lakani čirtī

This translates to English as "K. , son of S. , son of I. , son of B. , son of A. ; [this is] their monument. "^[4]

The only other extant record of Proto-Ossetic are the two lines of "Alanic" phrases appearing in the Theogony of John Tzetzes, a Byzantine poet and grammarian:

—Τοῖς ἀλανοῖς προσφθέγγομαι κατά τήν τούτων γλῶσσαν
Καλή ημέρα σου αὐθεντα μου αρχόντισσα πόθεν εἶσαι

Ταπαγχὰς μέσφιλι χσινὰ κορθὶ κάντα καὶ τ’άλλα
ἂν ὃ ἒχη ἀλάνισσα παπὰν φίλον ἀκούσαις ταῦτα
οὐκ αἰσχύνεσσι αὐθέντρια μου νὰ μου γαμὴ τὸ μουνί σου παπᾶς

τὸ φάρνετζ κίντζι μέσφιλι καίτζ φουὰ σαοῦγγε

^[5]

The italicized portions above are Ossetic. John (Johannes Tzetzes (Ιωάννης Τζέτζης (c 1110 &ndash 1180 was a Byzantine Poet and Grammarian known to have lived at Constantinople A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. Going beyond a direct transliteration of the Greek text, scholars have attempted a phonological reconstruction using the Greek as clues, thus, while τ (tau) would usually be given the value "t," it instead is "d," which is thought to be the way the early Ossetes would have pronounced it. Tau (uppercase Τ, lowercase τ; Ταυ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet. The scholarly transliteration of the Alanic phrases is: "dæ ban x^wærz,mæ sfili, (æ)xsinjæ kurθi kændæ" and "du farnitz, kintzæ mæ sfili, kajci fæ wa sawgin?"; equivalents in modern Ossetic would be "Dć bon xwarz, me’fšini ‘xšinć, kurdigćj dć?" and "(De’) f(s)arm neč(ij), kinźi œfšini xœcc(œ) (ku) fœwwa sawgin". The passage translates as:

—The Alans I greet in their language:
"Good day to you my lord's lady, where are you from?"
"Good day to you my lord's lady, where are you from?" and other things:
When an Alan woman takes a priest as a lover, you might hear this:
"Aren't you ashamed, my lordly lady, that your cunt is being fucked by a priest?"
"Aren't you ashamed, my lady, to have a love affair with the priest?"

^[6][7]

It is theorized that during the Proto-Ossetic phase, Ossetic underwent a process of phonological change conditioned by a Rhythmusgesetz or "Rhythm-law" whereby nouns were divided into two classes, those heavily or lightly stressed. In Linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain Syllables in a word "Heavy-stem" nouns possessed a "heavy" long vowel or diphthong, and were stressed on the first-occurring syllable of this type; "light-stem" nouns were stressed on their final syllable. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with This is precisely the situation observed in the earliest (though admittedly scanty) records of Ossetic presented above. ^[8] This situation also obtains in Modern Ossetic, although the emphasis in Digor is also affected by the "openness" of the vowel. ^[9] The trend is also found in a Jassic glossary dating from 1422. See also List of glossaries A glossary is a list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms ^[10]

Dialects

There are two important dialects: Iron and Digor—the former being the more widely spoken. Iron (Ossetic Ирон Iron or Ирон ӕвзаг Iron ævzag) is one of the two main dialects of the Ossetic language. Digorian is a Dialect of the Ossetian language. The other is Iron, which is more widely-spoken Written Ossetian may be immediately recognized by its use of the æ, a letter to be found in no other language using the Cyrillic alphabet. Æ ( minuscule: æ) is a Grapheme formed from the letters A and E. The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by A third dialect of Ossetic, Jassic, was formerly spoken in Hungary. Jassic (jász is a Dialect of the Ossetian language and the name of a nomadic tribe settled in Hungary in the 13th century Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic The overwhelming majority of Ossetes speak the Iron dialect, and the literary language is based on it. The creator of the Ossetic literary language is the national poet Kosta Xetagurov (1859-1906). Konstantin (Kosta Khetagati (Хетæгкаты Къоста &mdash) was a national poet of the Ossetian people who is generally regarded as the founder of the ^[1]

Grammar

According to Ossetic researcher V.I. Abaev,

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica 2006^[11] Ossetic preserves many archaic features of Old Iranian, such as eight cases and verbal prefixes. The eight cases are not, however, the original Indo-Iranian cases, which were eroded due to pronunciation changes. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning The modern cases, except the nominative, are derived from a single surviving oblique case that was reanalyzed into seven new cases by Ossetic speakers. An oblique case (casus generalis in Linguistics is a Noun case of Synthetic languages that is used generally when a Noun is the object This is reminiscent of the Tocharian languages. Tocharian or Tokharian is one of the branches of the Indo-European language family.

Writing system

The first page of the first issue of the Ossetic newspaper "Ræstdzinad". Sjögren's Cyrillic alphabet. 1923

Prior to the Russian conquest, Ossetic was reportedly an unwritten language. After the Russian conquest Ossetians used Cyrillic script: the first Ossetic book being published in Cyrillic letters in 1798. At the same time Georgian script was used in some regions to the south of Caucasian mountains: in 1820 I. The Georgian alphabet (ქართული დამწერლობა is the writing system currently used to write the Georgian language and other South Caucasian Yalguzidze published an alphabetic primer, modifying Georgian alphabet with 3 special characters. That Georgian-based script was in use in the territory of South Ossetia (Georgian autonomy) in 1937–1954. South Ossetia ( or; Хуссар Ирыстон Xussar Iryston; Южная Осетия Yuzhnaya Osetiya; სამხრეთი ოსეთი Samxreti

The modern Cyrillic alphabet was created by a Russian scientist of Finnish origin Andreas Sjögren in 1844: there were separate letters for each sound in that alphabet (much like in the modern Abkhaz alphabet). Year 1844 ( MDCCCXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year The Abkhaz alphabet is an Alphabet for the Abkhaz language which consists of 62 letters After a brief experiment with the Latin alphabet, Soviet authorities returned to the Cyrillic alphabet, with digraphs introduced to replace most diacritics. A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation

The modern Cyrillic alphabet (used since 1937):

The Latin alphabet (used 1923-1937):

Digraphs for representing one sound were used in the Roman alphabet too (ch, čh, th, dž and some others). The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond The æ sound (IPA: [æ]) is extremely common in the language, a feature it shares with Persian. The Persian language has six Vowels and twenty-three Consonants including two Affricates, /tʃ/ and /dʒ/

Language usage

The first printed book in Ossetic appeared in 1798. The first newspaper, Iron Gazet, appeared on July 23 1906 in Vladikavkaz. Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Vladikavkaz (Владикавка́з vladʲikaf'kas Дзæуджыхъæу ( Dzæudjyqæu) (means «Dzaug's settlement» is the capital city of the Republic

While Ossetic is the official language in both South and North Ossetia (along with Russian), its official use is limited to publishing new laws in Ossetic newspapers.

There are two daily newspapers in Ossetic: Ræstdzinad (Рæстдзинад, "Truth") in the North and Xurzærin (Хурзæрин, "The Rainbow") in the South. Some smaller newspapers, such as district newspapers, use Ossetic for some articles. There is a monthly magazine Max dug (Мах дуг, "Our era"), mostly devoted to contemporary Ossetic fiction and poetry.

Ossetic is taught in secondary schools for all pupils. Native Ossetic speakers also take courses in Ossetic literature.

Notes

See also

• Ossetia
• Alans
• North Ossetia-Alania

External links

• Abaev, V. Ossetia (pronounced /ɒˈsɛtɪə/ or /oʊˈsiːʃə/ Ossetic: Ирыстон Iryston; Russian: Осетия Osetiya; Georgian The Alans or Alani (occasionally but more rarely termed Alauni or Halani) were an Iranian nomadic group among the Sarmatian people The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Респу́блика Се́верная Осе́тия–Ала́ния Ossetic: Республикӕ Цӕгат Ирыстон — Алани I. http://www.azargoshnasp.net/languages/ossetian/ossetian.htm A grammatical sketch of Ossetic Russian version)
• Abaev, V. I. Ossetian Language and Folklore, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow-Leningrad, 1949
• Nasidze et al. , Genetic Evidence Concerning the Origins of South and North Ossetians. Annals of Human Genetics 68 (6), 588-599(2004) [4].
• Ossetic language page (in Russian) at the Minority languages of Russia on the Net project
• History of the Ossetian writing system (in Russian) and a comprehensive table of characters
• Some materials in English and partly French
• Ossetic section of the Rosetta Project
• Omniglot - Ossetian (Ирон æвзаг / Дигорон æвзаг)

Bibliography

• Lora Arys-Djanaieva. Parlons Ossète. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2004, ISBN 2-7475-6235-2.