Ossetians

The Ossetians or Ossetes (, ; os, ир, ирæттæ / дигорӕ, дигорӕнттӕ, translit= ir, irættæ / digoræ, digorænttæ, label=Ossetic) are an Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the northern and southern sides of the Caucasus Mountains. They natively speak Ossetic, an Eastern Iranian language of the Indo-European language family, with most also being fluent in Russian as a second language. Ossetic, a remnant of the Scytho-Sarmatian dialect group which was once spoken across the Pontic–Caspian Steppe, is one of the few Iranian languages remaining inside Europe.

Currently, the Ossetian homeland of Ossetia is politically divided between North Ossetia–Alania in Russia, and the ''de facto'' country of South Ossetia (recognized by the United Nations as Russian-occupied territory that is ''de jure'' part of Georgia). Their closest historical and linguistic relatives, the Jász people, live in the Jászság region within the northwestern part of the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County of Hungary. A third group descended from the medieval Alans are the Asud of Mongolia. Both the Jász and the Asud have long been assimilated; only the Ossetians have preserved a form of the Alanic language.

The majority of Ossetians are Eastern Orthodox Christians, with sizable minorities professing the Ossetian ethnic religion of Uatsdin as well as Islam.

Etymology

The Ossetians and Ossetia received their name from the Russians, who had adopted the Georgian designations ''Osi'' (ოსი, pl. ''Osebi'', ოსები) and ''Oseti'' ('the land of the Osi', ოსეთი), used since the Middle Ages for the single Iranian-speaking population of the Central Caucasus and probably based on an old Alan self-designation ''As'', which is cognate with the Jassic self-designation Jasz, both probably being based on the Scytho-Sarmatian name of the Iazyges, or ''Yazigi'' as they called themselves. Since Ossetian speakers lacked any single inclusive name for themselves in their native language beyond the traditional Iron– Digoron subdivision, these terms came to be accepted by the Ossetians as an endonym already before their integration into the Russian Empire.

This practice was put into question by the new Ossetian nationalism in the early 1990s, when the dispute between the Ossetian subgroups of Digoron and Iron over the status of the Digor dialect made Ossetian intellectuals search for a new inclusive ethnic name. This, combined with the effects of the Georgian–Ossetian conflict, led to the popularization of ''Alania'', the name of the medieval Sarmatian confederation, to which the Ossetians traced their origin and to the inclusion of this name into the official republican title of North Ossetia in 1994.

The root ''os/as''- could also stem from an earlier *''ows''/''aws''-, whose meaning is unknown. This is suggested by the archaic Georgian root ''ovs''- (cf. ''Ovsi'', ''Ovseti''), documented in the ''Georgian Chronicles''; the long length of the initial vowel or the gemination of the consonant ''s'' in some forms ( NPers. ''Ās'', ''Āṣ''; Lat. ''Aas'', ''Assi''); and by the Armenian ethnic name *''Awsowrk (''Ōsur''-), referring to an Alan tribe dwelling near modern Georgia by the time of Anania Shirakatsi (7th century AD).

Subgroups

*Iron in the east and south form a larger group of Ossetians. They speak Iron dialect. Irons are divided into several subgroups: Alagirs, Kurtats, Tagaurs, Kudar, Tual, Urstual and Chsan.
**Kudar are the southern group of Ossetians.
**Tual are in the central part of Ossetia (see also Dvals).
**Chsan are in the east of South Ossetia.
* Digoron in the west. Digors live in Digora district, Iraf district and some settlements in Kabardino-Balkaria and Mozdok district. They speak Digor dialect.
* Iasi, who settled in the Jászság region in Hungary during the 13th century. They spoke the extinct Jassic dialect.

Culture

Mythology

The native beliefs of the Ossetian people are rooted in their Sarmatian origin, which have been syncretized with a local variant of Folk Orthodoxy, in which some pagan gods having been converted into Christian saints. The Narts, the Daredzant, and the Tsartsiat, serve as the basic literature of folk mythology in the region.

Music

Genres

Ossetian folk songs are divided into 10 unique genres:

* Historic songs
* War songs
* Heroic songs
* Work songs
* Wedding songs
* Drinking songs
* Humorous songs
* Dance songs
* Romantic songs
* Lyrical songs

Instruments

Ossetians use the following Instruments in their music:

* String Instruments:
** Plucked strings:
*** ''Dyuuadæstænon'' - a twelve-stringed Harp
*** ''Fændyr'' - an Harp with two or three plucked strings
** Bowed strings
*** ''Hysyn'' - two or three string Fiddle
*** ''Hyyrnæg'' - is a double-bridged instrument, a kind of Cello

* Wind instruments
** ''Uadyndz'' - Flute
** Khyozyn - Reed Flute
** Lalym - Bagpipes
** Udaevdz - Double-reeds
** Fidiuæg - some kind of instrument made from a bull's horn

* Percussion instruments
** Kartsgænæg - Rattles
** Gymsæg - Drum
** Dala - Tambourine

History

Pre-history (Early ''Alans'')

The Ossetians descend from the Iazyges tribe of the Alans, a Sarmatian sub-tribe, which in turn is a Scythian subgroup itself. The Alans were the only branch of the Sarmatians to keep their culture in the face of a Gothic invasion (c. 200 AD) and those who remained built a great kingdom between the Don and Volga Rivers, according to Coon, ''The Races of Europe''. Between 350 and 374 AD, the Huns destroyed the Alan kingdom and the Alan people were split in half. One half fled to the west, where they participated in the Barbarian Invasions of Rome, established short-lived kingdoms in Spain and North Africa and settled in many other places such as Orléans, France, Iași, Romania, Alenquer, Portugal

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