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Ossetic Иронау, Ironau
Spoken in:	Russia, Georgia, Turkey
Region:	North Ossetia, South Ossetia
Total speakers:	c. 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. Part of an alphabetic list of proverbs. Latin script
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Ethnolinguistic patchwork of the modern Caucasus - CIA map

Ossetic or Ossetian (Ossetic: Ирон ӕвзаг, Iron ævzhag or Иронау, Ironau, Persian: اوسِتی) is an Iranian language spoken in Ossetia, a region on the slopes of the Caucasus mountains on the borders of Russia and Georgia. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Russian: Респу́блика Се́верная Осе́тия-Ала́ния; Ossetic: Цæгат Ирыстоны Аланийы Республикæ) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... Anthem unknown Capital Tskhinvali Official languages Ossetian1 Government  -  President Eduard Kokoity  -  Prime Minister Yury Morozov De facto independence from Georgia  -  Declared November 28, 1991   -  Recognition none  Currency Russian ruble (RUB) Russian in widespread use by government and other institutions. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages. ... Northeastern Iranian languages Southeastern Iranian languages See also: List of Iranian languages, Western Iranian languages. ... The Northeastern group of Iranian languages has only two living members in two widely separated areas, the Yagnobi language of Tajikistan and the Ossetic language of the Caucasus. ... The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Russian: Респу́блика Се́верная Осе́тия-Ала́ния; Ossetic: Цæгат Ирыстоны Аланийы Республикæ) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... Anthem unknown Capital Tskhinvali Official languages Ossetian1 Government  -  President Eduard Kokoity  -  Prime Minister Yury Morozov De facto independence from Georgia  -  Declared November 28, 1991   -  Recognition none  Currency Russian ruble (RUB) Russian in widespread use by government and other institutions. ... 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 is an international standard for language codes. ... Image File history File links Oseta_latina_skribo. ... Image File history File links Oseta_latina_skribo. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Farsi may refer to: The name of the the Persian language among native speakers Farsi Island, an Iranian island in the Persian Gulf The Jafari Shia Tajiks of Central Asia Salman al-Farsi, one of the prophet Muhammads companions Al-Farisi (1260-1320), Persian mathematician and physicist Jalaleddin Farsi... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Caucasus Mountains. ...

The area in Russia is known as North Ossetia-Alania, while the area in Georgia is called South Ossetia or Samachablo. Ossetian speakers number about 700,000, sixty percent of whom live in Alania, and twenty percent in South Ossetia.^{[citation needed]} The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Russian: ; Ossetic: Цгат Ирыстоны Аланийы Республик) is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). ... Anthem unknown Capital Tskhinvali Official languages Ossetian1 Government  -  President Eduard Kokoity  -  Prime Minister Yury Morozov De facto independence from Georgia  -  Declared November 28, 1991   -  Recognition none  Currency Russian ruble (RUB) Russian in widespread use by government and other institutions. ...

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. Ossetic belongs to the Northern subgroup of the Eastern-Iranian group of the Indo-European family of languages. Thus, it is genetically related to the other Eastern-Iranian languages, e.g. Pashto and Yaghnobi. ... The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Russian: ; Ossetic: Цгат Ирыстоны Аланийы Республик) is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). ... Anthem unknown Capital Tskhinvali Official languages Ossetian1 Government  -  President Eduard Kokoity  -  Prime Minister Yury Morozov De facto independence from Georgia  -  Declared November 28, 1991   -  Recognition none  Currency Russian ruble (RUB) Russian in widespread use by government and other institutions. ... Motto: áƒ«áƒáƒšáƒ ერთობაშია Strength is in Unity Anthem: áƒ—ავისუფლება Freedom Capital (and largest city) Tbilisi Official languages Georgian1 Demonym Georgian Government Unitary semi-presidential republic  -  President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili  -  Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze Consolidation  -  Georgian kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia c. ... The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... Pashto (‎, IPA: , also rendered as Pakhto, Pushto, Pukhto ‎, Pashtoe, Pashtu, Pushtu, Pathani or Pushtoo and also known as Afghan language[4][5]) is an Iranian language spoken by Pashtuns living in Afghanistan and Pakistan[6]. // Geographic distribution of Pashto (purple) and other Iranian languages Pashto is spoken by about 30... The Yaghnobi language [1] is a living Northeastern Iranian language (the only other living member being the Ossetic), and is spoken in high valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshan area of Tajikistan by Yaghnobi people. ...

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. Ossetic is the sole survivor of the northeastern branch of Iranian languages known as Scythian. The Scythian group included numerous tribes, known in ancient sources as the Scythians, Massagetae, Saka, Sarmatians, Alans and Roxolans. The more easterly Khorezmians and the Sogdians were also closely affiliated, in linguistic terms. Antiquity means different things: Generally it means ancient history, and may be used of any period before the Middle Ages. ... For other uses of this term see: Persia (disambiguation) The Persian Empire is the name used to refer to a number of historic dynasties that have ruled the country of Persia (Iran). ... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ... Southern Federal District (Russian: Ю́жный федера́льный о́круг; tr. ... The Scythian languages form a North Eastern branch of the Iranian language family and comprise the distinctive languages[1] spoken by the Scythian (Sarmatian and Saka) tribes of nomadic pastoralists in Scythia (Central Asia, Pontic-Caspian steppe) between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD. Up to the... The Scythians (, also ) or Scyths ([1]; from Greek ), a nation of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who spoke an Iranian language[2], dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity. ... The Massagetae were an Iranian people[1][2][3][4] of antiquity known primarily from the writings of Herodotus. ... A cataphract-style parade armour of a Saka royal from the Issyk kurgan. ... Sarmatia Europea in Scythia map 1697 AD Sarmatia Europæa separated from Sarmatia Asiatica by the Tanais (the River Don), based on Greek literary sources, in a map printed in London, ca 1770 Great steppe in early spring. ... The Alans, Alani, Alauni or Halani were an Iranian nomadic group among the Sarmatian people, warlike nomadic pastoralists of varied backgrounds, who spoke an Iranian language and to a large extent shared a common culture. ... The Rhoxolani were a Sarmatian people, who are believed to be an off-shoot of the Alans. ... After Islamic Conquest  Modern SSR = Soviet Socialist Republic Afghanistan  Azerbaijan  Bahrain  Iran  Iraq  Tajikistan  Uzbekistan  This box:      Khwarezm was a series of states centered on the Amu Darya river delta of the former Aral Sea, in modern Uzbekistan, extending across the Ust-Urt plateau and possibly as far west as... The Sogdians were an ancient people of Central Asia, who inhabited the region known to the West as Sogdiana. ...

Ossetian, together with Kurdish, Tati and Talyshi, is one of the main Iranian languages with a sizeable community of speakers in the Caucasus. It is descended from Alanic, the language of the Alans, medieval tribes emerging from the earlier Sarmatians. It is believed to be the only surviving descendant of a Sarmatian language. The closest genetically related language is the Yaghnobi language of Tajikistan, the only other living member of the Northeastern Iranian branch.^[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. The Greek-derived names of ancient Iranian tribes in fact reflect this pluralization, e.g. Saromatae (Σαρομάται) and Masagetae (Μασαγέται).^[3] The Kurdish language (Kurdish: Kurdî or کوردی) is the language spoken by Kurds. ... The Tat language is an Indo-Iranian language spoken by the Tat ethnic group. ... ... The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family. ... Scythian and Sarmatian are the names of the East Iranian dialects spoken by the Scythian/Sarmatian tribes of the nomadic cattlebreeders in Southern Russia between 8th century BC and 5th century AD. Sometimes, the Scythian and Sarmatian languages are combined into one name: Scytho-Sarmatian languages. ... The Alans, Alani, Alauni or Halani were an Iranian nomadic group among the Sarmatian people, warlike nomadic pastoralists of varied backgrounds, who spoke an Iranian language and to a large extent shared a common culture. ... Sarmatia Europea in Scythia map 1697 AD Sarmatia Europæa separated from Sarmatia Asiatica by the Tanais (the River Don), based on Greek literary sources, in a map printed in London, ca 1770 Great steppe in early spring. ... The Scythian languages form a North Eastern branch of the Iranian language family and comprise the distinctive languages[1] spoken by the Scythian (Sarmatian and Saka) tribes of nomadic pastoralists in Scythia (Central Asia, Pontic-Caspian steppe) between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD. Up to the... The Yaghnobi language [1] is a living Northeastern Iranian language (the only other living member being the Ossetic), and is spoken in high valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshan area of Tajikistan by Yaghnobi people. ... The Northeastern group of Iranian languages has only two living members in two widely separated areas, the Yagnobi language of Tajikistan and the Ossetic language of the Caucasus. ... 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 in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater. ... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ... This article is about the ecological zone type. ...

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. The text is written in the Greek alphabet, with special digraphs. Inscriptions are words or letters written, engraved, painted, or otherwise traced on a surface and can appear in contexts both small and monumental. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 10th century was that century which lasted from 901 to 1000. ... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ... North Church is dedicated to St. ... This page contains special characters. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

—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: John Tzetzes, was a Byzantine poet and grammarian, known to have lived at Constantinople during the 12th century. ... The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ... Sappho and Alcaeus of Mytilene, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1881). ... This article is about grammar from a linguistic perspective. ...

—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. 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. 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: Look up Τ, Ï„ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

—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. "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. 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.^[10] In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... In phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds, or with two tones) is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ... Digor is a traditional sport in Bhutan, resembling the sport of shot put. ... Jassic is a dialect of the Ossetian language and the name of a nomadic tribe settled in Hungary in the 13th century. ... Look up glossary in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Dialects

There are two important dialects: Iron and Digor—the former being the 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. A third dialect of Ossetic, Jassic, was formerly spoken in Hungary. 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).^[1] Iron is a dialect of the Ossetic language. ... Digorian is a dialect of the Ossetian language. ... For Æ, the Irish writer, see George William Russell. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (pronounced also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is actually a family of alphabets, subsets of which are used by certain Slavic languages — Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian—as well as many other languages of the former Soviet Union... Jassic (Hungarian: ) is a dialect of the Ossetian language and the name of a nomadic tribe settled in Hungary in the 13th century. ... Kosta Khetagurov Constantine Khetagati, more commonly known as Kosta Khetagurov (October 3, 1859, - March 19, 1906) was a national poet of the Ossetian people who is generally regarded as the founder of the Ossetic literature. ...

Grammar

According to Ossetic researcher V.I. Abaev, Vasilij Ivanovich Abaev (Ossetian: Васо Абайты, Russian: Василий Иванович Абаев, also transilterated as Abaity and Abayev; 15 December 1900 in Kobi, Georgia — 18 March 2001 in Saint Petersburg) was an Ossetian linguist specializing in Ossetian and Iranian linguistics. ...

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. The modern cases, except the nominative, are derived from a single surviving oblique case that was reanalyzed into seven new cases by Ossetic speakers.^{[citation needed]} Phonology (Greek phonē = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ... An oblique case (Latin: ) in linguistics is a noun case of analytic languages that is used generally when a noun is the predicate of a sentence or a preposition. ...

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.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. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1753x1274, 1008 KB) Краткое описание en: First issue of Ossetic language newspaper Rastdzinad, 1923. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1753x1274, 1008 KB) Краткое описание en: First issue of Ossetic language newspaper Rastdzinad, 1923. ... The Georgian alphabet (Georgian: ) is the script currently used to write the Georgian language and other Kartvelian languages (Mingrelian, Svan and sometimes Laz), and occasionally other languages of the Caucasus (such as Ossetic and Abkhaz in the 1940s). ... Anthem unknown Capital Tskhinvali Official languages Ossetian1 Government  -  President Eduard Kokoity  -  Prime Minister Yury Morozov De facto independence from Georgia  -  Declared November 28, 1991   -  Recognition none  Currency Russian ruble (RUB) Russian in widespread use by government and other institutions. ...

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). After a brief experiment with the Latin alphabet, Soviet authorities returned to the Cyrillic alphabet, with digraphs introduced to replace most diacritics. Jan. ... Abkhaz alphabet. ... Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz redirects here. ... Example of a letter with a diacritic A diacritic or diacritical mark, also called an accent, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. ...

The modern Cyrillic alphabet (used since 1937): The Cyrillic alphabet (pronounced also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is actually a family of alphabets, subsets of which are used by certain Slavic languages — Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian—as well as many other languages of the former Soviet Union...

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 æ sound (IPA: [æ]) is extremely common in the language, a feature it shares with Persian. Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The Persian language has six vowels and twenty-three consonants, including one glide //, and two affricates // and //. Vowels Diachronically, Persian possessed a distinction of length in its underlying vowel inventory, contrasting the long vowels , , with the short vowels , , . In Modern Persian, this distinction of quantity is neutralized in most environments...

Language usage

The first printed book in Ossetic appeared in 1798. The first newspaper, Iron Gazet, appeared on July 23 1906 in Vladikavkaz. 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Photo of Vladikavkaz cathedral mosque in 1912. ...

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

Ladislav Zgusta is a historical linguist and lexicographer. ...

See also

• Ossetia
• Alans
• North Ossetia-Alania

This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Alans, Alani, Alauni or Halani were an Iranian nomadic group among the Sarmatian people, warlike nomadic pastoralists of varied backgrounds, who spoke an Iranian language and to a large extent shared a common culture. ... The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (Russian: ; Ossetic: Цгат Ирыстоны Аланийы Республик) is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). ...

External links

Ossetic language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Abaev, V.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)

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1058x1058, 477 KB) aa Wikipedia logo, version 1058px square, no text Wikipedia logo by Nohat (concept by Paullusmagnus); compare Wikipedia File links The following pages link to this file: Arabic language Talk:Anarcho-capitalism Talk:Algorithm Talk:Anno Domini Talk:The... Wikipedia (IPA: , or ( ) is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization. ...

Bibliography

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