Jassic ( hu, jász) is an extinct

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

of the

Ossetian language Ossetian (, , ), commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete (), is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken predominantly in Ossetia, a region situated on both sides of the Greater Caucasus. It is the native language of the Ossetia ...

once 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, Croatia a ...

, named after the

Jasz people The Jász (''Latin'': Jazones) are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group who have lived in Hungary since the 13th century. They live mostly in a region known as ''Jászság'', which comprises the north-western part of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county. ...

, a nomadic tribe that settled in Hungary in the 13th century.

History

The Jasz (Jassic) people came to Hungary together with the

Cumans The Cumans (or Kumans), also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy (plural only, from the Russian language, Russian Exonym and endonym, exonym ), were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confede ...

, chased by the

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...

. They were admitted by the Hungarian king

Béla IV Béla may refer to: * Béla (crater), an elongated lunar crater * Béla (given name), a common Hungarian male given name See also * Bela (disambiguation) * Belá (disambiguation) * Bělá (disambiguation) Bělá, derived from ''bílá'' (''whit ...

, hoping that they would assist in fighting against a Mongol-Tatar invasion. But shortly after their entry, the relationship worsened dramatically between the Hungarian nobility and the Cumanian-Jassic tribes and they left the country. After the end of the Mongol-Tatar occupation they returned and were settled in the central part of the

Hungarian Plain The Great Hungarian Plain (also known as Alföld or Great Alföld, hu, Alföld or ) is a plain occupying the majority of the modern territory of Hungary. It is the largest part of the wider Pannonian Plain. (However, the Great Hungarian plain ...

. Initially, their main occupation was animal husbandry. During the next two centuries they were assimilated into the Hungarian population and their language disappeared, but they preserved their Jassic identity and their regional autonomy until 1876. Over a dozen settlements in Central Hungary (e.g.

Jászberény Jászberény is a city and market centre in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in Hungary. Location Jászberény is located in central Hungary, on the Zagyva River, a tributary of the Tisza River. It is about from Budapest. History The oldest a ...

Jászárokszállás Jászárokszállás is a town in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county, in the Northern Great Plain region of central Hungary. Geography It covers an area of and has a population of 7914 people (2014). History First mention of Jászárokszállás was ...

, and

Jászfényszaru Jászfényszaru is a town in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county, in the Northern Great Plain region of central Hungary. Geography It covers an area of and has a population of 5567 people (2015). It is the meeting of three regions: the North-Hungary ...

) still bear their name. The historical, ethnographical and geographical region of

Jászság Jászság ("Jaszygia", la, Jazigia) is a historical, ethnographical and geographical region in Hungary. Its territory is situated in the north-western part of the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county. The main town in the region is Jászberény. Jás ...

, as well as of the modern

Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok ( hu, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok megye, ) is the name of an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus or ''megye'') in Hungary. It lies in central Hungary and shares borders with the Hungarian counties Pest ...

, are among the many place names linked to them. The name of the city of

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...

in Romania may also derive from the name of the people. The only literary record of the Jassic language was found in the 1950s in the Hungarian National Széchényi Library. It is a one-page glossary containing 34 words mainly related to products of agriculture (types of grain, cattle, etc.) probably compiled for fiscal or mercantile purposes. The glossary was interpreted with the help of Ossetian analogues from the Digor dialect. (Németh 1959)

References

* Németh, J. 1959. "Eine Wörterliste der Jassen, der ungarländischen Alanen." ''Abhandlungen der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Klasse für Sprachen, Literatur, und Kunst'', Jahrgang 1958, Nr. 4. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. * Kim, Ronald
"On the Historical Phonology of Ossetic."
''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', Vol. 123, No. 1. (Jan.-Mar.,2003), pp. 43–72. {{Iranian languages Eastern Iranian languages 13th century in Hungary Extinct languages of Europe Languages extinct in the 15th century