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History and classification. Ossetian is the spoken and literary language of the Ossetians, an Iranian ethnic group living in the central part of the Caucasus and constituting the basic population of North Ossetia–Alania, which is part of the Russian Federation, and of the de facto country of South Ossetia (recognized by the United Nations as ...
- 490,000 (2020 census)
Ossetic language, eastern Iranian language spoken in the northern Caucasus by the Ossetes. There are two major dialects: (1) eastern, called Iron, and (2) western, called Digor. The majority of the Ossetes speak Iron, which is the basis of the literary language now written in the Cyrillic alphabet.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Language. Ossetians speak Ossetian, an Eastern Iranian language, which has two major dialects: Digor and Iron. The written form of Ossetian is based on the Cyrillic alphabet, with additional characters to represent unique Ossetian sounds.
May 15, 2014 · Second, Ossetians speak an Indo-European language, in contrast to their Caucasian-speaking neighbors. Their language, as well as their genetic make-up tell an interesting story, confirming their historical connection to such ancient Iranian-speaking groups as the Scythians, the Sarmatians, and their descendants the Alans.
Most people living there are ethnic Ossetians. The Ossetian language is part of the Eastern Iranian branch of the family of Indo-European languages. [2] Most countries recognise the southern area as part of Georgia. But, Russia has created a Republic of South Ossetia there.
PHONOLOGY. Vowels. Ossetian (the iron dialect) has 7 vowels: two front vowels /i e/, two back vowels /u o/ and three central vowels /ɨ ə a/. Moreover, the vowels /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ appear in borrowed Russian words. A vowel chart is presented below. There is some debate among sources on whether /ə/ and /a/ are central vowels.
