Ossetic language

Ossetian
Spoken in	Russia (North Ossetia)  Georgia  Turkey  South Ossetia (recognized as independent by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Nauru)
Ethnicity	Ossetians
Native speakers	ca. 640,000  (no date)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Eastern Northeastern Scythian Western Ossetian
Dialects	Digor Iron
Official status
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1	os
ISO 639-2	oss
ISO 639-3	oss
Linguasphere	58-ABB-a
Ossetian text from a book published in 1935. Part of an alphabetic list of proverbs. Latin script.
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

The Ethnolinguistic patchwork of the modern Caucasus - CIA map

Ossetian (Ирон æвзаг, Iron ævzag), also sometimes called Ossete,^[1] is an East Iranian language spoken in Ossetia, a region on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains.

The area in Russia is known as North Ossetia-Alania, while the area south of the border is referred to as South Ossetia, recognized by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Nauru as an independent state but by the rest of the international community as part of Georgia. Ossetian speakers number about 525,000, sixty percent of whom live in North Ossetia-Alania, and ten percent in South Ossetia.^{[citation needed]}

History and classification

Ossetian 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 is de facto independent (belongs to the Georgian Republic according to most other states). Ossetian 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.

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, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Ossetian 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.

Ossetian, together with Kurdish, Tati and Talyshi, is one of the main Iranian languages with a sizable 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.^[2][3] 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 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).^[4]

Evidence for Medieval Ossetian

The earliest known written sample of Ossetian 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.

—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 Lak
Ani čirtī

This translates to English as "K., son of S., son of I., son of B., son of A.; [this is] their monument." ^[5]

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

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

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

τὸ φάρνετζ κίντζι μέσφιλι καίτζ φουὰ σαοῦγγε^[6]

The italicized portions above are Ossetian. 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 xʷærz,mæ sfili, (æ)xsinjæ kurθi kændæ" and "du farnitz, kintzæ mæ sfili, kajci fæ wa sawgin?"; equivalents in modern Ossetian would be "Dæ bon xwarz, me’fšini ‘xšinæ, kurdigæj dæ?" and "(De’) f(s)arm neč(ij), kinźi æfšini xæcc(æ) (ku) fæwwa sawgin".^[7] The passage translates as:

—The Alans I greet in their language:
"Good day to you my lord's lady, where are you from?"
"Good day to you my lord's lady, where are you from?" and other things:
When an Alan woman takes a priest as a lover, you might hear this:
"Aren't you ashamed, my lordly lady, that your cunt is being fucked by a priest?"
"Aren't you ashamed, my lady, to have a love affair with the priest?"^[6][7]

There are also recently found marginalia to Greek religious books with some parts (like headlines) of the book translated into Old Ossetic.

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 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 Ossetian presented above.^[8] This situation also obtains in Modern Ossetian, 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]

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 Cyrillic letter Ae (Ӕ ӕ), a letter to be found in no other language using a Cyrillic alphabet. A third dialect of Ossetian, 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 Ossetian literary language is the national poet Kosta Xetagurov (1859–1906).^[2]

Phonology

Ossetic has 7 vowels:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	и /i/	ы /ɨ/	у /u/
Mid	е /e/	æ /ə/	о /o/
Open		а /a/

Ossetian researcher V.I. Abaev distinguishes 26 consonants, to which five labialized consonants and two semivowels may be added. Unusually for an Indo-European language, there is a series of glottalized (ejective) stops and affricates. This can be considered an areal feature of languages of the Caucasus.

		Labial	Dental/ alveolar	Postalveolar /palatal	Velar[11]		Uvular[11]
					Plain	Labialized	Plain	Labialized
Stops	Voiced	б /b/	д /d/		г /ɡ/	гу /ɡʷ/
	Voiceless	п /p/	т /t/		к /k/	ку /kʷ/	хъ /q/	хъу /qʷ/
	Ejective	пъ /pʼ/	тъ /tʼ/		къ /kʼ/	къу /kʷʼ/
Affricates	Voiced		дз /dz/	дж /dʒ/
	Voiceless		ц /ts/	ч /tʃ/
	Ejective		цъ /tsʼ/	чъ /tʃʼ/
Fricatives	Voiced	в /v/	з /z/				гъ /ʁ/
	Voiceless	ф /f/	с /s/				х /χ/	ху /χʷ/
Nasals		м /m/	н /n/
Lateral			л /l/
Rhotic			р /r/
Approximants				й /j/		у /w/

The phonetic realization of /s/ and /z/ varies between [s], [z] and [ʃ], [ʒ]. Voiceless consonants become voiced word-medially (this is reflected in the orthography as well). /tʃ/, /dʒ/, and /tʃʼ/ were originally allophones of /k/, /ɡ/, and /kʼ/ when followed by /e/, /i/ and /ɨ/; this alternation is still retained to a large extent.

Stress normally falls on the first syllable, unless it has a "weak" vowel (/ə/ or /ɨ/), in which case it falls on the second syllable. In the Iron dialect, definiteness is expressed in post-initially stressed words by shifting the stress to the initial syllable. This reflects the fact that historically they received a syllabic definite article (as they still do in the Digor dialect), and the addition of the syllable caused the stress to shift.^[2]

Grammar

According to V.I. Abaev,

In the course of centuries-long propinquity to and intercourse with Caucasian languages, Ossetian became similar to them in some features, particularly in phonetics and lexicon. However, it retained its grammatical structure and basic lexical stock; its relationship with the Iranian family, despite considerable individual traits, does not arouse any doubt.

—^[2]

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica 2006^[12] Ossetian preserves many archaic features of Old Iranian, such as eight cases and verbal prefixes. It is debated what part of these cases are actually inherited from Indo-Iranian case morphemes and what part have re-developed, after the loss of the original case forms, through cliticiziation 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.^[13]

Nouns and adjectives share the same morphology and distinguish two numbers (singular and plural) and nine cases: nominative, genitive, dative, directive, ablative, inessive, adessive, equative, and comitative. Unusually for an Indo-European language, the nominal morphology is agglutinative: 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. Definiteness is also expressed. There is no grammatical gender.^[2]

Verbs distinguish six persons (1st, 2nd and 3d, singular and plural), three tenses (present, past and future, all expressed synthetically), and three moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative). The person, tense and mood morphemes are mostly fused. Passive voice is expressed periphrastically with the past passive participle and an auxiliary verb meaning "to go"; causative and reflexive meaning are also expressed by periphrastic constructions. Verbs may belong to one of two lexical aspects (perfective vs imperfective); these are expressed by prefixes, which often have prepositional origin. There is an infinitive (morphologically coinciding with the 1st person singular, but syntactically forming a nominal phrase), four participles (present and past active, past passive, and future), and a gerund. Vowel and consonant alternations occur between the present and past stems of the verb and between intransitive and transitive forms. Intransitive and transitive verbs also differ in the endings they take in the past tense (in intransitive verbs, the construction is, in origin, a periphrastic combination of the past passive participle and the verb "to be").^[2]

Ossetic uses mostly postpositions (derived from nouns), although two prepositions exist in the language. Noun modifiers precede nouns. The word order is not rigid, but tends towards SOV. The morphosyntactic alignment is nominative–accusative, although there is no accusative case: rather, the direct object is in the nominative (typically if inanimate or indefinite) or in the genitive (typically if animate or definite).^[2]

For numerals above twenty, two systems are in use - a decimal one used officially, and a vigesimal one used colloquially.^[2]

Writing system

Ossetic text written with Georgian script, from a book on Ossetian folklore published in 1940 in South Ossetia

Prior to the Russian conquest, Ossetian was reportedly an unwritten language. After the Russian conquest Ossetians used the Cyrillic script: the first Ossetian book being published in Cyrillic letters in 1798. At the same time the Georgian script was used in some regions to the south of the Caucasian mountains: in 1820 I.Yalguzidze published an alphabetic primer, modifying the Georgian alphabet with 3 special characters. That Georgian-based script was in use in the territory of South Ossetia (Georgian autonomy) in 1937–1954

A Cyrillic alphabet was created by a Russian scientist of Finnish-Swedish 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 a Latin alphabet, Soviet authorities in 1937 returned to a Cyrillic alphabet, with digraphs introduced to replace most diacritics (while the Georgian-based script was then introduced in South Ossetia and used there until 1954^[14]). The "one nation - two alphabets" issue caused an uprising in South Ossetia in the year 1951 demanding reunification of the script.

The modern Cyrillic alphabet, used since 1937, with values for the Iron dialect in the IPA. Letters in parentheses are not officially in the alphabet but are listed here to represent distinctive sounds:

Modern Cyrillic alphabet

Letter	А	Ӕ	Б	В	Г	(Гу)	Гъ	(Гъу)	Д	Дж	Дз	Е	З	И	Й	К	(Ку)	Къ	(Къу)	Л
	a	ӕ	б	в	г	(гу)	гъ	(гъу)	д	дж	дз	е	з	и	й	к	(ку)	къ	(къу)	л
IPA	/a/	/ə/	/b/	/v/	/ɡ/	/ɡʷ/	/ʁ/	/ʁʷ/	/d/	/d͡ʒ/	/d͡z/	/e/	/z~ʒ/	/i/	/j/	/k/	/kʷ/	/kʼ/	/kʷʼ/	/l/
Letter	М	Н	О	П	Пъ	Р	С	Т	Тъ	У	Ф	Х	(Ху)	Хъ	(Хъу)	Ц	Цъ	Ч	Чъ	Ы
	м	н	о	п	пъ	р	с	т	тъ	у	ф	х	(ху)	хъ	(хъу)	ц	цъ	ч	чъ	ы
IPA	/m/	/n/	/o/	/p/	/pʼ/	/r/	/s~ʃ/	/t/	/tʼ/	/u, w/	/f/	/χ/	/χʷ/	/q/	/qʷ/	/t͡s/	/t͡sʼ/	/t͡ʃ/	/t͡ʃʼ/	/ɨ/

In addition, the letters ⟨ё⟩, ⟨ж⟩, ⟨ш⟩, ⟨щ⟩, ⟨ъ⟩, ⟨ь⟩, ⟨э⟩, ⟨ю⟩, and ⟨я⟩ are used to transcribe Russian loans.

The Latin alphabet (used 1923-1937)

Letter	A	Æ	B	C	Ch	Č	Čh	D	Dz	Dž	E	F	G	Gu	H	Hu	I	J	K	Ku
	a	æ	b	c	ch	č	čh	d	dz	dž	e	f	g	gu	h	hu	i	j	k	ku
IPA	/a/	/ə/	/b/	/ts/	/tsʼ/	/t͡ʃ/	/t͡ʃʼ/	/d/	/d͡z/	/d͡ʒ/	/e/	/f/	/ɡ/	/ɡʷ/	/ʁ/	/ʁʷ/	/i/	/j/	/k/	/kʷ/
Letter	Kh	Khu	L	M	N	O	P	Ph	Q	Qu	R	S	T	Th	U	V	X	Xu	Y	Z
	kh	khu	l	m	n	o	p	ph	q	qu	r	s	t	th	u	v	x	xu	y	z
IPA	/kʼ/	/kʷʼ/	/l/	/m/	/n/	/o/	/p/	/pʼ/	/q/	/qʷ/	/r/	/s~ʃ/	/t/	/tʼ/	/u, w/	/v/	/χ/	/χʷ/	/ɨ/	/z~ʒ/

In addition, the letters ⟨š⟩ and ⟨ž⟩ were used to transcribe Russian words. The "weak" vowels ⟨æ⟩ [ə] and ⟨ы⟩ [ɨ] are extremely common in the language.

Language usage

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

The first printed book in Ossetian appeared in 1798. The first newspaper, Iron Gazet, appeared on July 23, 1906 in Vladikavkaz. The first complete translation of the Bible appeared in 2010 in Vladikavkaz, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in modern-day Ossetian.^[15]

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 (Рæстдзинад, "Truth") in the North and Xurzærin (Хурзæрин, "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. The Watchtower magazine, published by Jehovah's Witnesses, is available in a quarterly edition and a monthly study edition; as well as a web site in Ossetian from the same publishers.^[16]

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

Cognates

The following table illustrates some common words and gives cognates in other Indo-European languages.

Meaning	fire	month	new	mother	sister	night	nose	three	red	yellow	green	wolf
Translations into different languages
Ossetian	арт art	мæй mæj	нæуæг næwæg	мад mad	хо xo	æхсæв æxsæv	фындз fyndz	æртæ ærtæ	сырх syrx	бур bur	цъæх ts'æx	бирæгъ biræh
Sanskrit	agni/atar	māsa	nava	matar	svasā	rātri	nāsa	traya	rudhira	peeta	harita	vrkis
Kurdish	agir	mang	nû	mak/daik	xoşk	şev	difn/lut	sê	sor	zer	kesk/şîn	gurg
Pashto	اور or	مياشت mjāšt	نوى nəwai	مور mōr	خور xōr	شپه špa	پوزه pōza	درې drē	سور sur	ژړ žəṛ	شين šin	لېوه lewə
Persian	آتش ātaš	ماه māh	نو now	مادر mādar	خواهر xāhar	شب šab	بینی / پوزه poze / bini	سه se	سرخ sorx	بور/ زرد zard / bur	سبز sabz	گرگ gorg
Hindi	āg	mahīna	nayā	mā	behn	rāt	nāk	tīn	lāl	pīlā	harā	bheyrryā
English	fire	month	new	mother	sister	night	nose	three	red	yellow	green	wolf
German	Feuer	Monat	neu	Mutter	Schwester	Nacht	Nase	drei	rot	gelb	grün	Wolf
Latin	ignis	mēnsis	novus	māter	soror	nox	nasus	trēs	ruber	flāvus, gilvus	viridis	lupus
French	feu	mois	nouveau	mère	sœur	nuit	nez	trois	rouge	jaune	vert	loup
Italian	fuoco	mese	nuovo	madre	sorella	notte	naso	tre	rosso	giallo	verde	lupo
Spanish	fuego	mes	nuevo	madre	hermana	noche	nariz	tres	rojo	amarillo	verde	lobo
Catalan	foc	mes	nou	mare	germana	nit	nas	tres	roig / vermell	groc	verd	llop
Romanian	foc	luna	nou	mamă	soră	noapte	nas	trei	roşu	galben	verde	lup
Greek	φωτιά fotiá	μήνας minas	νέος neos	μητέρα mitera	αδελφή adhelfi	νύχτα nihta	μύτη miti	τρία tria	ερυθρός erithros	κίτρινος kitrinos	πράσσινος prassinos	λύκος likos
Lithuanian	ugnis	mėnuo	naujas	motina	sesuo	naktis	nosis	trys	raudona	geltona	žalias	vilkas
Bulgarian	огън ogən	месец mesets	нов nov	майка maika	сестра sestra	нощ nosht	нос nos	три tri	червен cherven	жълт zhəlt	зелен zelen	вълк vəlk
Russian	огонь ogón’	месяц miesyats	новый novyi	мать mat'	сестра siestra	ночь noch'	нос nos	три tri	красный, рыжий krasnyi, ryzhyi	жёлтый zholtyi	зелёный zielionyi	волк volk

See also

• Alans
• North Ossetia-Alania

Notes

1. ^ Dictionary of Languages by Andrew Dalby, Bloomsbury Press 1998
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Abaev, V. I. A Grammatical Sketch of Ossetian. Translated by Stephen P. Hill and edited by Herbert H. Paper, 1964 [1]
3. ^ Thordarson, Fridrik. 1989. Ossetic. Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, ed. by Rudiger Schmitt, 456-79. Wiesbaden: Reichert. [2]
4. ^ Ronald Kim, "On the Historical Phonology of Ossetic: Origins of the Oblique Case Suffix,"Journal of the American Oriental Society, Jan-Mar2003, Vol. 123 Issue 1, p. 69
5. ^ op. cit., pp. 55-6. The original, following Zgusta, translates only initials; presumably this is because although the uninflected forms may be inferred, no written records of them have been found to date.
6. ^ ^{a b} Ladislav Zgusta, "The old Ossetic Inscription from the River Zelenčuk" (Veröffentlichungen der Iranischen Kommission = Sitzungsberichte der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse 486) Wien:Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1987. ISBN 3-7001-0994-6 in Kim, op.cit., 54.
7. ^ ^{a b} Kambolov, Tamerlan (2007). "Some New Observations on the Zelenchuk Inscription and Tzetzes’ Alanic Phrases". Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans – Iranian-Speaking Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes (7–10 May 2007): Abstracts. Barcelona. pp. 21–22. http://seneca.uab.es/antiguitat/SCYTHIANS/CONGRESS%20Files/Abstracts%20Barcelona.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-06. 
8. ^ Ronald Kim, "On the Historical Phonology of Ossetic: Origins of the Oblique Case Suffix,"Journal of the American Oriental Society, Jan-Mar2003, Vol. 123 Issue 1, p. 47
9. ^ Zgusta, op. cit., 51
10. ^ Zgusta, op. cit., 55
11. ^ ^{a b} It should be noted that despite the transcription used here, Abaev refers to /k/ and /ɡ/ as "postpalatal" rather than velar, and to /q/, /χ/ and /ʁ/ as velar rather than uvular.
12. ^ Ossetic language. (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 26, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9057571
13. ^ Т.Т. Камболов. 2006 Очерк истории осетинского языка. p.330-339
14. ^ Correspondance table between the Georgian based and the modern script with examples of use (Russian)
15. ^ Jehovah’s Witnesses release first complete Bible in Ossetian
16. ^ Watchtower.org in Ossetian language

Bibliography

• Abaev, V.I. 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, ISBN 2-7475-6235-2.
• Nasidze et al., Genetic Evidence Concerning the Origins of South and North Ossetians. Annals of Human Genetics 68 (6), 588-599(2004)

External links

• Genetic Evidence Concerning the Origins of South and North Ossetians
• Ossetic language page at the Minority languages of Russia on the Net project (Russian)
• History of the Ossetian writing system and a comprehensive table of characters (Russian)
• Ossetic language materials in English and partly French
• Laboratory of Field Linguistics: Ossetic (studies on Ossetic grammar, modern spoken texts in Ossetic) (English)
• Ossetic section of the Rosetta Project
• Omniglot - Ossetian (Ирон æвзаг / Дигорон æвзаг)
• Ossetian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• Russian-Ossetic On-Line Dictionary