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Ossetian (, , ),
/ref> commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete (), is an
Eastern Iranian language The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages emerging in Middle Iranian times (from c. the 4th century BC). The Avestan language is often classified as early Eastern Iranian. As opposed to the Middle Western Iranian dial ...
that is spoken predominantly in
Ossetia Ossetia ( , ; os, Ирыстон or , or ; russian: Осетия, Osetiya; ka, ოსეთი, translit. ''Oseti'') is an ethnolinguistic region located on both sides of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, largely inhabited by the Ossetians. ...
, a region situated on both sides of the
Greater Caucasus The Greater Caucasus ( az, Böyük Qafqaz, Бөјүк Гафгаз, بيوک قافقاز; ka, დიდი კავკასიონი, ''Didi K’avk’asioni''; russian: Большой Кавказ, ''Bolshoy Kavkaz'', sometimes translat ...
. It is the native language of the
Ossetian people 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 n ...
, and is one of the few
Iranian languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are groupe ...
spoken in
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
; it is a relative and possibly a descendant of the extinct
Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
,
Sarmatian The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic peoples of classical antiquity who dominated the Pontic steppe from about the 3rd century BC to the 4th cen ...
, and Alanic languages. The northern half of the Ossetia region is part of
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
and is known as
North Ossetia–Alania The Republic of North Ossetia–Alania; os, Республикӕ Цӕгат Ирыстон — Алани, ''Respublikæ Cægat Iryston — Alani'', ) is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. Its population acco ...
, while the southern half is part of the ''
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...
'' country of
South Ossetia South Ossetia, ka, სამხრეთი ოსეთი, ( , ), officially the Republic of South Ossetia – the State of Alania, is a partially recognised landlocked state in the South Caucasus. It has an officially stated populat ...
(recognized by the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
as Russian-occupied territory that is ''
de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legall ...
'' part of
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
). Ossetian-speakers number about 614,350, with 451,000 recorded in Russia per the 2010 Russian census.


History and classification

Ossetian is the spoken and literary language of the
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 no ...
, an Iranian ethnic group living in the central part of the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historica ...
and constituting the basic population of
North Ossetia–Alania The Republic of North Ossetia–Alania; os, Республикӕ Цӕгат Ирыстон — Алани, ''Respublikæ Cægat Iryston — Alani'', ) is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. Its population acco ...
, which is part of the
Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, and of the ''
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...
'' country of
South Ossetia South Ossetia, ka, სამხრეთი ოსეთი, ( , ), officially the Republic of South Ossetia – the State of Alania, is a partially recognised landlocked state in the South Caucasus. It has an officially stated populat ...
(recognized by the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
as ''
de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legall ...
'' part of the Republic of Georgia). The Ossetian language belongs to the Iranian group of the
Indo-European family The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
of languages (as hinted by its endonym: ). Within Iranian, it is placed in the Eastern subgroup and further to a Northeastern sub-subgroup, but these are areal rather than genetic groups. The other Eastern Iranian languages such as
Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...
(spoken in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...
and
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
) and Yaghnobi (spoken in
Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
) show certain commonalities, but also deep-reaching divergences from Ossetian. From deep
classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
(since the 7th–8th centuries BCE), the languages of the Iranian group were distributed across a vast territory spanning present-day
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
(
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
),
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...
,
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...
, and the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historica ...
. Ossetian is the sole survivor of the branch of Iranian languages known as
Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
. The Scythian group included numerous tribes, known in ancient sources as the
Scythians The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Cent ...
, the
Massagetae The Massagetae or Massageteans (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Sakā tigraxaudā (Old Persian: , "wearer of pointed caps") or Orthocorybantians (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ),: As for the term “Orthocorybantii”, this is a translati ...
, the
Saka The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who histo ...
, the
Sarmatians The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic peoples of classical antiquity who dominated the Pontic steppe from about the 3rd century BC to the 4th cen ...
, the
Alans The Alans (Latin: ''Alani'') were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the A ...
, and the
Roxolani The Roxolani or Rhoxolāni ( grc, Ροξολανοι , ; la, Rhoxolānī) were a Sarmatian people documented between the 2nd century BC and the 4th century AD, first east of the Borysthenes (Dnieper) on the coast of Lake Maeotis ( Sea of Azov), ...
. The more easterly
Khwarazm Khwarazm (; Old Persian: ''Hwârazmiya''; fa, خوارزم, ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the ea ...
and
Sogdia Sogdia ( Sogdian: ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Emp ...
ns were also closely affiliated in linguistic terms. Ossetian, together with Kurdish, Tat, and Talysh, is one of the main Iranian languages with a sizable community of speakers in the Caucasus. As it is descended from Alanic, spoken by the Alan 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 may be the Yaghnobi language of Tajikistan, the only other living Northeastern Iranian language.Abaev, V. I. ''A Grammatical Sketch of Ossetian.'' Translated by Stephen P. Hill and edited by Herbert H. Paper, 196

/ref>Thordarson, Fridrik. 1989. ''Ossetic.'' Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, ed. by Rudiger Schmitt, 456-479. Wiesbaden: Reichert

/ref> Ossetian 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 A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...
on the Central Asian steppe. The names of ancient Iranian tribes (as transmitted through
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
) in fact reflect this pluralization, e.g. ''Saromatae'' () and ''Masagetae'' ().


Evidence for Medieval Ossetian

The earliest known written sample of Ossetian is an inscription which dates back to the 10th–12th centuries and was found near the Bolshoy Zelenchuk River in
Arkhyz Arkhyz (also Nizhny Arkhyz russian: Архыз; krc, Ырхыз, ''Irxız''; "mudflows") is a village in the valley of the Bolshoy Zelenchuk River, in the Republic of Karachay–Cherkessia, Greater Caucasus, Russia, about 70 km inland fro ...
, Russia. The text is written in the
Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as ...
, with special digraphs. The only other extant record of Proto-Ossetic are the two lines of "Alanic" phrases appearing in the ''Theogony'' of
John Tzetzes John Tzetzes ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης Τζέτζης, Iōánnēs Tzétzēs; c. 1110, Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who is known to have lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He was able to pr ...
, a 12th century
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...
and
grammarian Grammarian may refer to: * Alexandrine grammarians, philologists and textual scholars in Hellenistic Alexandria in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE * Biblical grammarians, scholars who study the Bible and the Hebrew language * Grammarian (Greco-Roman ...
: The portions in bold face above are Ossetian. Going beyond a direct transliteration of the Greek text, scholars have attempted a
phonological Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology * Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
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: "dӕ ban xʷӕrz, mӕ sfili, (ӕ)xsinjӕ kurθi kӕndӕ" and "du farnitz, kintzӕ mӕ sfili, kajci fӕ wa sawgin?"; equivalents in modern Ossetian would be ''"Dӕ bon xwarz, me’fšini ‘xšinӕ, kurdigӕj dӕ?"'' and ''"(De’) f(s)arm neč(ij), kinźi ӕfšini xӕcc(ӕ) (ku) fӕwwa sawgin"''. The passage translates as:
Marginalia Marginalia (or apostils) are marks made in the margins of a book or other document. They may be scribbles, comments, glosses (annotations), critiques, doodles, drolleries, or illuminations. Biblical manuscripts Biblical manuscripts h ...
of Greek religious books, with some parts (such as headlines) of the book translated into Old Ossetic, have recently been found. It is theorized that during the Proto-Ossetic phase, Ossetian 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 A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...
or
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
, 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 Ossetian presented above. This situation also obtains in Modern Ossetian, although the emphasis in Digor is also affected by the "openness" of the vowel. The trend is also found in a
glossary A glossary (from grc, γλῶσσα, ''glossa''; language, speech, wording) also known as a vocabulary or clavis, is an alphabetical list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. Traditionally, a gl ...
of the
Jassic dialect Jassic ( hu, jász) is an extinct dialect of the Ossetian language once spoken in Hungary, named after the Jasz people, a nomadic tribe that settled in Hungary in the 13th century. History The Jasz (Jassic) people came to Hungary together with ...
dating from 1422.


Dialects

There are two important dialects: Digoron (distributed in the west of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and Kabardino-Balkaria) and
Iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...
(in the rest of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and in
South Ossetia South Ossetia, ka, სამხრეთი ოსეთი, ( , ), officially the Republic of South Ossetia – the State of Alania, is a partially recognised landlocked state in the South Caucasus. It has an officially stated populat ...
and
Karachay-Cherkessia The Karachay-Cherkess Republic (russian: Карача́ево-Черке́сская Респу́блика, ''Karachayevo-Cherkesskaya Respublika''; krc, Къарачай-Черкес Республика, ''Qaraçay-Çerkes Respublika''; Cir ...
), spoken by one-sixth and five-sixths of the population, respectively. A third dialect of Ossetian, Jassic, was formerly spoken in
Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...
.


Phonology

The Iron dialect of Ossetic has 7 vowels: The Digor dialect of Ossetic has 6 vowels: The Ossetian researcher V. I. Abayev postulates 26 plain consonants for Ossetian, to which five labialized consonants and two semivowels may be added. Unusually for an Indo-European language, there is a series of glottalized (
ejective In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some ...
) stops and affricates. This may constitute an
areal feature In geolinguistics, areal features are elements shared by languages or dialects in a geographic area, particularly when such features are not descended from a proto-language, or, common ancestor language. That is, an areal feature is contrasted to ...
of
languages of the Caucasus The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Linguistic comparison allows t ...
. Voiceless consonants become voiced word-medially (this is reflected in the orthography as well). , , and were originally
allophones In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...
of , , and when followed by , and ; this alternation is still retained to a large extent.


Lexical stress

Stress normally falls on the first syllable, unless it contains a central vowel ( or ), in which case stress falls on the second syllable. Thus, ''су́дзаг, súdzag'' /ˈsud͡zag/ 'burning', but ''cӕнӕ́фсыр/sænǽfsyr'' /sɐˈnɐfsɘr/ 'grapes'. In addition, proper names are usually stressed on the second syllable regardless of their vowels, and recent Russian loanwords retain the stress they have in the source language.Thordarson, p.466 In the Iron dialect, definiteness is expressed in words with stress on second syllable by shifting the stress to the initial syllable. This reflects the fact that historically they received a
syllabic Syllabic may refer to: *Syllable, a unit of speech sound, considered the building block of words **Syllabic consonant, a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable *Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables *Abugida, writing system ...
definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" a ...
(as they still do in the Digor dialect), and the addition of the syllable caused the stress to shift. The above patterns apply not just within the content word, rather to prosodic words, units that result from content words being joined into a single prosodic group with only one stress. Not only compound verbs, but also every noun phrase constitutes such a group containing only one stressed syllable, regardless of its length, for instance ''мӕ чи́ныг/mӕ čínyg'' /mɐˈt͡ʃinɘg/ 'my book', ''мӕгуы́р зӕронд лӕг/mæguýr zærond læg'' /mɐˈgwɘr zɐrond lɐg/ 'a poor old man'. Since an initial particle and a conjunction are also included in the prosodic group, the single stress of the group may fall on them, too: ''фӕлӕ́ уый/fælǽ uyj'' 'but he'.


Morphophonemic alternations

1.In derivation or compounding, stems containing vowels /a o / <а o> change to the central vowel /ɐ/ <ӕ>, whereas those containing /i u/ < и/I у/u> may be replaced with /ɘ/: * ''авд/avd'' /avd/ 'seven' — ''ӕвдӕм/ævdæm'' /ˈɐvdɐm/ 'seventh'. 2. Sequences /ɐ/ + /i/ (''ӕ + и/i)'', /ɐ/ + /ə/ (''ӕ + ы/y),'' and /ɐ/ + /ɐ/ (''ӕ + ӕ)'' assimilate, yielding the vowel /е/ . 3. the palatalisation of the velars ''к (k)'' to ''ч (č)'', ''г (g)'' to ''дж (dž)'' and ''къ (kh)'' to ''чъ (čh)'' before the (currently or historically) front vowels, namely ''е (e)'', ''и (i)'' and ''ы (y)'', for instance ''карк (kark)'' 'hen' — ''карчы (karčy)'' 'hen (genitive)'. 4. the voicing of voiceless consonants in voiced environments: ''тых (tyx)'' 'strength' — ''ӕмдых (æmdyx)'' 'of equal strength'. 5. consonant gemination in certain grammatical forms, such as after the prefix ''ны (ny-)'' and before the suffixes ''-ag'' and ''-on''.Abaev, p. 8-10


Grammar

According to V.I. Abaev,


Nouns

Ossetic has lost the grammatical category of
gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most culture ...
which many Indo-European languages have preserved until today. According to the Encyclopӕdia Britannica 2006Ossetic language. (2006). In Encyclopӕdia Britannica. Retrieved August 26, 2006, from Encyclopӕdia Britannica Premium Service: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ossetic-language Ossetian preserves many archaic features of Old Iranian, such as eight cases and verbal prefixes. It is debated how many of these cases are actually inherited from Indo-Iranian case morphemes and how many have re-developed, after the loss of the original case forms, through
clitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a ...
ization of adverbs or re-interpretations of derivational suffixes: the number of "inherited" cases according to different scholars ranges from as few as three (nominative, genitive and inessive) to as many as six (nominative, dative, ablative, directive, inessive). Some (the comitative, equative, and adessive) are secondary beyond any doubt.


Definiteness

Definiteness In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical ...
in the Iron dialect is, according to Abaev, only expressed by shift of word accent from the second to the first syllable (which is not possible in all nouns): * ''færǽt'' "an axe" * ''fǽræt'' "the axe" Erschler reported in 2021 that he has been unable to replicate Abaev's observations of a distinction between definite and indefinite nouns in Iron.


Number

There is only one plural suffix for the nominal parts of speech, -т(ӕ) ''-t(ӕ)'', with the vowel ӕ ''ӕ'' occurring in the nominative case (see ''Cases'' below): e.g. сӕр ''sӕr'' 'head' - сӕртӕ ''sӕrtӕ'' 'heads'. Nevertheless, the complexity of the system is increased to some extent by the fact that this suffixation may be accompanied by a number of morphophonemic alternations. A svarabhakti vowel ы ''y'' is normally inserted after stems ending in a cluster (цӕст ''cӕst'' 'flower' - цӕстытӕ ''cӕstytӕ'' 'flowers'), but there are also numerous exceptions from this. This insertion of ы ''y'' regularly palatalises preceding velars to affricates in Iron: чызг ''čyzg'' 'girl' - чызджытӕ ''čyzdžytӕ'' 'girls'. In words ending in -ӕг ''ӕg'', the vowel is usually elided in the plural, making the stem eligible for the above-mentioned svarabhakti insertion: барӕг ''barӕg'' 'rider' - барджытӕ ''bardžytӕ'' 'riders'. The same happens in words ending in -ыг ''-yg'', but the consonant is also labialised there: мӕсыг ''mӕsyg'' - мӕсгуытӕ ''mӕsguytӕ''. The vowels а ''a'' and о ''o'' in closed syllables are weakened to ӕ ''ӕ'' before the suffix - фарс ''fars'' 'side' - фӕрстӕ ''fӕrstӕ'' 'sides'; this happens regularly in polysyllabic words, but with many exceptions in monosyllabic ones. Finally, the suffix consonant is geminated after sonorants: хӕдзар ''xӕdzar'' 'house' - хӕдзӕрттӕ ''xӕdzӕrttӕ'' 'houses'.


Cases

Nouns and adjectives share the same morphology and distinguish two numbers (singular and plural) and nine cases:
nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Eng ...
,
genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can a ...
,
dative In grammar, the dative case ( abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob ...
, directive,
ablative In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. ...
,
inessive In grammar, the inessive case (abbreviated ; from la, inesse "to be in or at") is a locative grammatical case. This case carries the basic meaning of "in": for example, "in the house" is in Finnish, in Estonian, () in Moksha, in Basque, i ...
,
adessive In grammar, an adessive case (abbreviated ; from Latin '' adesse'' "to be present (at)": ''ad'' "at" + ''esse'' "to be") is a grammatical case generally denoting location at, upon, or adjacent to the referent of the noun; the term is most frequentl ...
, equative, and comitative. The nominal morphology is
agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative l ...
: the case suffixes and the number suffix are separate, the case suffixes are the same for both numbers and the number suffix is the same for all cases (illustrated here for the Iron dialect with the noun сӕр ''sӕr'' "head"): Since inessive and genitive show the same forms in both numbers, it is sometimes debated whether Ossetian might possess eight case forms for each number instead of nine. If the addition of the case suffix would result in
hiatus Hiatus may refer to: * Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure * Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy *''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes'' * G ...
, the consonant й ''j'' is usually inserted between them: зӕрдӕ-й-ӕн ''zærdæ-j-æn'' 'heart (dative)'.


Adjectives

There is no morphological distinction between adjectives and nouns in Ossetian. The suffix -дӕр ''-dær'' can express the meaning of a comparative degree: рӕсугъддӕр ''ræsuhddær'' 'more beautiful'. It, too, can be added to typical nouns: лӕг ''læg'' 'man' - лӕгдӕр ''lægdær'' 'more of a man, more manly'.


Pronouns

The personal pronouns mostly take the same endings as the nouns. The 1st and 2nd person singular exhibit suppletion between the stem used in the nominative case and the stem used in the other (oblique) cases; the oblique stem without other endings is the genitive case form. The 1st and 2nd persons plural have only one stem each, functioning as both nominative and genitive. The third person pronoun coincides with the demonstrative 'that'. In addition, there are enclitic non-nominative forms of the pronouns of all three persons, which are somewhat deviant. Their genitive ends in -ӕ ''-ӕ''; not only the inessive, but also the ablative coincides with the genitive; the allative ends in -м ''-m'' and the dative has the vowel -у- ''-y-'' before the ending (e.g. мын ''myn''); and the comitative has the vowel -е- ''-e-'' (e.g. мемӕ ''memӕ''). The 3rd singular stem has the doublet forms йV- ''jV-'' and ''∅V-'' everywhere outside of the ablative and inessive, which appears as дзы ''dzy'', and the comitative, which can only have йV- ''jV-''. Reflexive forms are constructed from the enclitic forms of the personal pronouns and the reflexive pronoun хӕдӕг ''xӕdӕg'' 'self' (with the oblique forms хиц- ''xic-'' in the dative and ablative, хиу- ''xiu-'' in the adessive and хи ''xi'' in the other cases). There are two demonstratives - ай ''aj'' (stem а- ''a-'', pl. адон ''adon'') 'this' and (stem уы- ''uy-'', pl. уыдон ) 'that'. The interrogative pronouns are чи ''či'' (oblique stem кӕ- ''kӕ-'') 'who' and сы ''cy'' (oblique stem сӕ- ''cӕ-''). Indefinite pronouns meaning ''any-'' and ''some-'' are formed from the interrogatives by means of the prefix ис- ''is-'' and the suffix -дӕр ''-dӕr'', respectively. Negatives are formed similarly, but with the prefix ни- ''ni-''; the totality prefix ('every-') is ал- ''al-'', and ӕлы ''ӕly'' is used adjectivally. Other pronouns meaning 'all' are ӕгас ''ӕgas'' and ӕппӕт ''ӕppӕt''. There are two pronouns meaning 'other': иннӕ ''innӕ'' for 'another of two, a definite other one' and ӕндӕр ''ӕndӕr'' for 'some other, an indefinite other one'.


Verbs

Verbs distinguish six persons (1st, 2nd and 3rd, singular and plural), three tenses (present, past and future, all expressed synthetically), three moods (
indicative A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Mos ...
,
subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality s ...
, imperative), and belong to one of two grammatical aspects (
perfective The perfective aspect ( abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the i ...
and
imperfective The imperfective (abbreviated or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a ge ...
). The person, tense and mood morphemes are mostly fused. The following description is of Iron.


Stems

Each verb has a present stem and a past stem (similar in practice to Persian), the latter normally being identical to the past participle. The past stem commonly differs from the present stem by adding т ''t'' or д ''d'' (e.g. дар- ''dar-'' : дард- ''dard-'' 'to hold'; уарз- : уарзт 'to love'), or, more rarely, -ст ''-st'' (e.g. бар- ''bar'' : барст- ''barst'' 'weigh') or -ыд ''yd'' (зар- ''zar-'' : зарыд- 'sing'; nonetheless, the past participle of this type is still formed with -д/т ''t/d'': зард- ''zard-''). However, there are usually various other vowel and consonant changes as well. Some of the most common vowel alternations are ӕ ''ӕ'' : а ''a'' (e.g. кӕс- ''kӕs'' : каст- ''kast-'' 'look'), и ''i'' : ы ''y'' (e.g. риз- ''riz-'' : рызт- ''ryzt-'' 'tremble'), and у ''u'' : ы ''y'' (e.g. дзур- ''dzur-'' : дзырд- ''dzyrd-'' 'speak'); some other alternations are a ''a'' : ӕ ''ӕ'' (mostly in bisyllabic stems, e.g. араз- ''araz-'' : арӕз- ''arӕz-'' 'make'), ау ''au'' : ы ''y'', ӕу ''ӕu'' : ы ''y'', and о ''o'' : ы ''y''. Frequent consonant changes are -д ''d'', -т ''t'', -тт ''tt'', -нд ''nd'', -нт ''nt'' > -ст ''st'' (e.g. кӕрд- ''kӕrd-'' : карст ''karst'' 'cut'), -дз ''dz'', -ц ''-c'', -ндз ''-ndz'', -нц ''-nc'' > -гъд ''hd'' (лидз- ''lidz-'' : лыгъд- 'run away'), elision of a final н ''n'' or м ''m'' (e.g. нӕм ''nӕm'' : над ''nad''). Suppletion is found in the stem pair дӕттын ''dӕttyn'' : лӕвӕрд ''lӕvӕrd'' 'give'. It is also seen in the copula, whose past stem is уыд- ''uyd-'', whereas the present forms are highly irregular and begin in д- ''d-'', ст- ''st-'' оr in a vowel (see below). There are also many related transitive-intransitive verb pairs, which also differ by means of a vowel alternation (commonly а ''a'' : ӕ ''ӕ'', e.g. сафын 'lose' : сӕфын ''sӕfyn'' 'be lost', and у ''u'' : уы ''uy'', e.g. хъусын 'hear' : хъуысын 'be heard') and sometimes by the addition of the consonant -с ''s'' (тавын 'to warm' : тафсын 'to be warm').


Tense and mood conjugation

The present and future tense forms use the present stem. The indicative present endings are as follows: Only the copula ''uyn'' 'be' is conjugated differently: The copula also has a special iterative stem вӕйй- ''vӕjj-'', which is conjugated regularly. The future tense forms consist of the present stem, the element -дзы(н)- ~ -дзӕн- (originally a separate root meaning 'wish' according to Fredrik Thordarson) and endings which appear to derive from encliticised copula уын ''uyn'' 'be' (see above table) used as an auxiliary. Thus, the resulting composite endings are:Abaev 1964, p.51. The past tense uses the past stem. The endings, however, are different for intransitive and transitive verbs. The intransitive endings are: The construction appears to be, in origin, a periphrastic combination of the past passive participle and the copula; that is why the endings are similar to the ones added to -дзы(н)- in the future tense. The transitive endings, on the other hand, are: Remarkably, these forms actually derive from the old past ''subjunctive'' rather than the indicative (which is why the endings still almost entirely coincide with those of the future subjunctive, apart from the initial consonant т ''t''). The variable -т- ''-t'' of the transitive as well as the intransitive past endings appear in verbs whose present stem ends in vowels and sonorants (й ''j'', у ''u'', р ''r'', л ''l'', м ''m'', н ''n''), since only these consonants are phonotactically compatible with a following sequence -дт- ''dt'', which would normally arise from the combinations of the dentals of the stem and the ending: e.g. кал-д-т-он ''kal-d-t-on'' 'I poured', but саф-т-он ''saf-t-on'' 'I lost'. The subjunctive mood has its own forms for each tense. The endings are as follows: In addition, a т ''t'' is added before the ending in transitive verbs. The future forms derive from the historical
subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality s ...
and the others from the historical
optative The optative mood ( or ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope regarding a given action. It is a superset of the cohortative mood and is closely related to the subjunctive mood but is distinct from the desiderative mood ...
. In spite of some nuances and tendencies reflecting from their historical functions, there is a lot of overlap between the uses of the 'present-future' and the 'future' subjunctive (desire, possibility etc.), but a clear contrast between the two is found in conditional clauses, where the former expresses unreal conditions and the latter - real ones. The imperative consists of the present stem and the following endings: A special future imperative form can be formed by the addition of the independent particle иу ''iu''.


Voice

Passive voice A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or '' patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing ...
is expressed
periphrastic In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one in ...
ally with the past passive participle and an
auxiliary verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a ...
цӕуын ''cӕuyn'' 'to go': аразын 'build' – арӕзт цӕуын ''arӕzt cӕuyn'' 'be built'; causative meaning is also expressed periphrastically by combining the infinitive and the verb кӕнын ''kӕnyn'' 'to do': e.g. бадын 'to sit' - бадын кӕнын 'to seat'. Reflexive meaning is expressed by adding the reflexive pronoun хи ''xi'': дасын 'to shave (something, somebody)' – хи дасын 'shave oneself'.


Aspect

Somewhat similarly to the Slavic languages, verbs belong to one of two lexical aspects:
perfective The perfective aspect ( abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the i ...
vs.
imperfective The imperfective (abbreviated or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a ge ...
, and the aspects are most commonly expressed by prefixes of prepositional origin, which simultaneously express direction or other abstract meanings: цӕуын ''cӕuyn'' 'go (imperf.)' - рацӕуын ''racӕuyn'' 'go out (perf.). The directional prefixes simultaneously express ventive or andative direction: In addition, these prefixes may express small aspectual nuances: а- ''a-'' is used for rapid, brief and superficial motion, арба- ''arba-'' also for rapid and sudden action, ба- ''ba-'' for more substantial action, ны- ''ny-'' for especially intensive action, while фӕ- ''fӕ-'' can express habituality in the present and either repetition or rapidity and brevity in the past. A morphophonological peculiarity of the prefixes is that when they are added to roots beginning in the vowel а ''a'', as well as to the copula's form ис ''is'', the consonant ц ''c'' is
epenthesis In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epent ...
ed: фӕ-ц-ис ''fӕ-c-is'' 'became (3rd person)'. The prefix ны ''ny'' also causes gemination of the following consonant: кӕлын ''kӕlyn'' 'pour' - ныккӕлын ''nykkӕlyn'' 'spill'. Iterativity or habituality may be expressed with the separate particle иу iu. To make a prefixed form receive imperfective meaning, the article цӕй cӕj is inserted: рацӕйцыди ''racӕjcydy'' 'he was going out'.


Non-finite verb forms

There is an infinitive, four participles (present and past active, past passive, and future), and a
gerund In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiab ...
. The
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is de ...
is formed from the present stem with the ending -ын ''-yn'', which phonologically coincides with the 1st person singular: цӕуын ''cӕuyn'' 'to go' (and 'I go'). The past passive participle in -т ''t'' or -д ''d'' coincides with the past stem (фыссын 'write' – фыст ''fyst'' 'written'); it is often nominalised to a verbal noun. All the other participles, as well as the gerund, are formed from the present stem. The future participle in -инаг -''inag'' may have either active or passive meaning: фыссинаг 'who will write / will be written'. Together with the copula used as an auxiliary, it forms a periphrastic immediate future tense. The dedicated active participles in -ӕг ''-ӕg'' and receive 'present' or 'past', or more accurately, imperfective or perfective meaning depending on the aspect of the stem: фыссӕг ''fyssӕg'' 'writing' – ныффыссӕг 'having written'. The participle-gerund form ending in -гӕ ''-gӕ'' (бадгӕ ''badgӕ'' '(while) sitting'), can be used adverbially, as a gerund, but also attributively like a participle with absolutive voice: кӕрдгӕ ''kӕrdgӕ'' may mean '(which has been) cut', судзгӕ ''sudzgӕ'' may mean '(which is) burning', etc. To receive an unambiguously adverbial, i.e. gerundial interpretation, it needs to be declined in the ablative case, as does an adjective: бадгӕйӕ ''badgӕjӕ'' '(while) sitting'. There are also verbal nouns: one derived from the present stem with the suffix -ӕн ''-ӕn'' with the meaning 'fit to be X-ed' - e.g. зын ссарӕн ''zyn ssarӕn'' 'hard to find' - and one in -аг ''-ag'' denoting permanent quality - e.g. нуазаг ''nuazag'' 'drunkard'.


Syntax

Ossetic uses mostly
postposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s (derived from nouns), although two prepositions exist in the language. Noun modifiers precede nouns. The
word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
is not rigid, but tends towards SOV.
Wackernagel's law In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
applies. The
morphosyntactic alignment In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the grammatical relationship between arguments—specifically, between the two arguments (in English, subject and object) of transitive verbs like ''the dog chased the cat'', and the single argument ...
is nominative–accusative, although there is no
accusative case The accusative case ( abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘t ...
: rather, the direct object is in the nominative (typically if inanimate or indefinite) or in the genitive (typically if animate or definite).


Numerals

For numerals above 20, two systems are in use – a
decimal The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers of the Hindu–Arabic numeral ...
one used officially, and a
vigesimal vigesimal () or base-20 (base-score) numeral system is based on twenty (in the same way in which the decimal numeral system is based on ten). '' Vigesimal'' is derived from the Latin adjective '' vicesimus'', meaning 'twentieth'. Places In a ...
one used colloquially. The vigesimal system was predominant in traditional usage. The decimal one is said to have been used in pre-modern times by shepherds who had borrowed it from the
Balkar The Balkars ( krc, Малкъарлыла, Malqarlıla or Таулула, , 'Mountaineers') are a Turkic people of the Caucasus region, one of the titular populations of Kabardino-Balkaria. Their Karachay-Balkar language is of the Ponto-Cas ...
s, but it came into more general use only after its introduction in Ossetian schools in 1925 to facilitate the teaching of arithmetic. For example, 40 is цыппор (from цыппар 'four') and 60 is ӕхсӕй ''æxsaj'' (from ӕхсӕз ''æxsæz'' 'six') in the decimal system, whereas the vigesimal designations are дыууиссӕдзы ''dywwissædzy'' (from дыууӕ ''dywwæ'' 'two' and ссӕдз ''ssædz'' 'twenty') and ӕртиссӕдзы ''ærtissædzy'' (from ӕртӕ ''ærtæ'' 'three' and ссӕдз ''ssædz'' 'twenty'). In the same way, the inherited decimal сӕдӕ ''sædæ'' 'one hundred' has the vigesimal equivalent фондзыссӕдзы ''fondzyssædzy'' ('5 times twenty'). An additional difference is that the decimal system places tens before units (35 is ӕртын фондз ''ærtyn fondz'' '30 + 5'), whereas the vigesimal uses the opposite order (35 is фынддӕс ӕмӕ сӕндз ''fynddæs æmæ ssædz'' '15 + 20'). Ordinal numbers are formed with the suffix -ӕм ''-æm'', or, for the first three numbers, -аг ''-ag''. * 1 иу ''iu'' * 2 дыууӕ ''dywwæ'' * 3 ӕртӕ ''ærtæ'' * 4 цыппар ''cyppar'' * 5 фондз ''fondz'' * 6 ӕхсӕз ''æxsæz'' * 7 авд ''avd'' * 8 аст ''ast'' * 9 фараст ''farast'' * 10 дӕс ''dæs'' * 11 иуæндæс ''iuændæs'' * 12 дыууадæс ''dyuuadæs'' * 13 æртындæс ''ærtyndæs'' * 14 цыппæрдæс ''cyppærdæs'' * 15 фынддӕс ''fynddæs'' * 16 æхсæрдæс ''æxsærdæs'' * 17 æвддæс ''ævddæs'' * 18 æстдæс ''æstdæs'' * 19 нудæс ''nudæs'' * 20 ссӕдз ''ssædz'' *1000 мин ''min'', ӕрзӕ ''ærzæ'' * 1100 мин сӕдӕ ''min sædæ'' ('1000 + 100'), иуæндæс фондзыссӕдзы ''iuændæs fondzyssædzy'' ('11 X 100') * 2000 дыууӕ мины ''dyuuæ miny'' ('2 X 1000') * 1 000 000 милуан ''miluan''


Writing system

An Old Ossetic
Greek Script The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as w ...
inscription of the 10th–12th centuries is found in Arxyz, the oldest known attestation of the Ossetian language. Written Ossetian may be immediately recognized by its use of the Cyrillic letter Ae (Ӕ ӕ), a letter to be found in no other language using
Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking c ...
. The father of the modern Ossetian literary language is the national poet
Kosta Khetagurov Konstantin (Kosta) Khetagkaty ( Ossetian: Хетӕгкаты Леуаны фырт Къоста, – ) was a national poet of the Ossetian people who is generally regarded as the founder of Ossetian literature. He was also a talented paint ...
(1859–1906). An Iron literary language was established in the 18th century, written using the Cyrillic script in Russia and the Georgian script in Georgia. The first Ossetian book was published in Cyrillic in 1798, and in 1844 the alphabet was revised by a Russian scientist of
Finland-Swedish Finland Swedish or Fenno-Swedish ( sv, finlandssvenska; fi, suomenruotsi) is a general term for the variety of the Swedish language and a closely related group of Swedish dialects spoken in Finland by the Swedish-speaking population, commonly ...
origin, Andreas Sjögren. A new alphabet based on the
Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern ...
was made official in the 1920s, but in 1937 a revised Cyrillic alphabet was introduced, with digraphs replacing most
diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...
s of the 1844 alphabet. In 1820, I. Yalguzidze published a Georgian-script alphabetic primer, adding three letters to the Georgian alphabet. The Georgian orthography receded in the 19th century, but was made official with Georgian autonomy in 1937. The "one nation – two alphabets" issue caused discontent in South Ossetia in the year 1951 demanding reunification of the script, and in 1954 Georgian was replaced with the 1937 Cyrillic alphabet. The table below shows the modern Cyrillic alphabet, used since 1937, with phonetic values for the Iron dialect in the
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners A ...
. Di- and tri-graphs in parentheses are not officially letters of the alphabet, but are listed here to represent phonemically distinctive sounds: In addition, the letters , , , , , , , , and are used to transcribe
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
n loans. The Ossetian Wikipedia uses the Latin 'æ' instead of the Cyrillic 'ӕ'. In addition, the letters and were used to transcribe Russian words. The "weak" vowels and are among the most common vowels in the language.


Language usage

The first printed book in Ossetian was a short catechism published in Moscow in 1798. The first newspaper, '' Iron Gâžêt'', appeared on July 23, 1906, in
Vladikavkaz Vladikavkaz (russian: Владикавка́з, , os, Дзæуджыхъæу, translit=Dzæwdžyqæw, ;), formerly known as Ordzhonikidze () and Dzaudzhikau (), is the capital city of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia. It is located i ...
. While Ossetian is the official language in both South and North Ossetia (along with Russian), its official use is limited to publishing new laws in Ossetian newspapers. There are two daily newspapers in Ossetian: '' Ræstdzinad'' (Рӕстдзинад / Рӕстꚉінад, "Truth") in the North and '' Xurzærin'' (Хурзӕрин, "The Sun") in the South. Some smaller newspapers, such as district newspapers, use Ossetian for some articles. There is a monthly magazine '' Max dug'' (Мах дуг, "Our era"), mostly devoted to contemporary Ossetian fiction and poetry. Ossetian is taught in secondary schools for all pupils. Native Ossetian speakers also take courses in Ossetian literature. The first Ossetian language Bible was published in 2010. It is currently the only full version of the Bible in the Ossetian language. In May, 2021, the Russian Bible Society announced the completion of a Bible translation into Ossetian; fundraising continues in order to have it printed.


Sample text


See also

* Jász people


Notes


References


Bibliography

* Abaev, V.I. 1964.
A grammatical sketch of Ossetic
'
Russian version
* Abaev, V.I. Ossetian Language and Folklore, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow-Leningrad, 1949 * Arys-Djanaieva, Lora. ''Parlons Ossète''. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2004, . * * * * * * *
Thordarson, Fridrik. Ossetic. In Rüdiger Schmitt (ed.), ''Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum'', 456-479. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert.
* *


External links


Web portal on documentation and grammatical studies of Ossetic
*
Ossetic National Corpus

Genetic Evidence Concerning the Origins of South and North Ossetians

An article on Ossetic grammar
by
Fridrik Thordarson Fridrik Thordarson (1928 – 2 October 2005) was an Icelandic linguist. Thordarson was born in Iceland, and studied Classical philology in Oslo. In 1963 he took exams with Latin as his major and Greek and Indian philology as his minors. From 1 ...

''Ossetic language'' page
at th

project

* ttp://ironau.ru/english.html Ossetic language materials in English and partly French
Laboratory of Field Linguistics: Ossetic (studies on Ossetic grammar, modern spoken texts in Ossetic)


* ttp://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\ier\irn&limit=-1 Ossetic (Iron and Digor) basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
Russian-Ossetic On-Line Dictionary
{{Authority control Eastern Iranian languages Languages of Russia Languages of Georgia (country) Ossetia Sarmatians