Ossetic language

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{{language |name=Ossetic |nativename=Ирон æвзаг, Iron ăvzag |familycolor=Indo-European |states=Russia, Georgia, Turkey |region=North Ossetia, South Ossetia |speakers=~0.5 Million |fam2=Indo-Iranian |fam3=Iranian |fam4=Northeastern Iranian |nation=North Ossetia, South Ossetia |iso1=os|iso2=oss|iso3=oss |map=Image:Oseta latina skribo.jpg}}

Image:Caucasus-ethnic.jpg Template:InterWiki

Ossetic or Ossetian (in Ossetic: Template:Lang or Template:Lang) is an Iranian language spoken in Ossetia, a region on the slopes of the Caucasus mountains on the borders of Russia and Georgia.

The area in Russia is known as North Ossetia-Alania, while the area in Georgia is called South Ossetia. Ossetian speakers number about 500,000, 60 percent of whom live in Alania, and 15 percent in South Ossetia.

Ossetian, together with Tati and Talyshi, is one of the main Iranian languages with a sizeable community of speakers in the Caucasus. It is descended from the language of the Alans, a group within the nomadic Sarmatians. It is believed to be the only surviving descendant of a Sarmatian language.

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 literary form of the language has 35 phonemes—26 consonants, 7 vowels and 2 diphthongs. Among the consonants ejectives and uvular /q/ are not quite common for Iranic languages, being a result of very close contacts with Turk and Caucasian languages.

The Cyrillic Alphabet (used since 1937): А/а, Ӕ/ӕ, Б/б, В/в, Г/г, Гъ/гъ, Д/д, Дж/дж, Дз/дз, Е/е, Ё/ё, Ж/ж, З/з, И/и, Й/й, К/к, Къ/къ, Л/л, М/м, Н/н, О/о, П/п, Пъ/пъ, Р/р, С/с, Т/т, Тъ/тъ, У/у, Ф/ф, Х/х, Хъ/хъ, Ц/ц, Цъ/цъ, Ч/ч, Чъ/чъ, Ш/ш, Щ/щ, Ъ/ъ, Ы/ы, Ь/ь, Э/э, Ю/ю, Я/я.

The Roman Alphabet (used 1923-1937): A/a, Æ/æ, B/b, C/c, Č/č, D/d, E/e, F/f, G/g, H/h, I/i, J/j, K/k, L/l, M/m, N/n, O/o, P/p, Q/q, R/r, S/s, Š/š, T/t, U/u, V/v, X/x, Y/y, Z/z, Ž/ž. Digraphs for representing one sound were used in this alphabet too (ch, čh, th, dž and some others). The æ sound is extremely common in the language, being simply the short vowel "a", a feature it shares with Persian. As such, it can also be transscripted as ă, like in Latin or Romanian.

For a time (1938–mid 1950s), the Georgian script was in use in South Ossetia.

1 Use
2 See also
3 External links
4 Bibliography

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Use

While Ossetic is the official language in both South and North Ossetia (along with the Russian), its official use is limited to publishing new laws in Ossetic newspapers.

There are two daily newspapers in Ossetic: "Rastdzinad" (Рæстдзинад, "Truth") in the North and "Xurzarin" (Хурзæрин, "The Sun") in the South. Some smaller newspapers—such as district newspapers—use Ossetic for part of 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.

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