Ossetian language
Ossetian (/ɒˈsɛtiən/, /ɒˈsiːʃən/, /oʊˈsiːʃən/),[1][2] commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete[note 1][8] (Lua error in Module:Unicode_data at line 293: attempt to index local 'data_module' (a boolean value).), is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken mostly in Ossetia.
| Ossetian | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ирон ӕвзаг (irōn ævzag) дигорон ӕвзаг (digōrōn ævzag) | ||||
| Pronunciation | [iˈɾon ɐvˈzaɡ] [digoˈɾon ɐvˈzaɡ] | |||
| Native to | Ossetia | |||
| Region | Caucasus | |||
| Ethnicity | Ossetians | |||
| Native speakers | 597,450 (2010)e23 | |||
| Language family | ||||
| Writing system | Cyrillic (Ossetian alphabet) | |||
| Official status | ||||
| Official language in |
Partially recognised country:  South Ossetia | |||
| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-1 | os | |||
| ISO 639-2 | oss | |||
| ISO 639-3 | oss | |||
| Linguasphere | 58-ABB-a | |||
 Latin-script Ossetian text from a book published in 1935; part of an alphabetic list of proverbs. | ||||
| ||||
Ossetian Language Media
Ethnolinguistic groups in the Caucasus region. Ossetian-speaking regions are shaded gold.
Зеленчукская надпись
Ossetic text written with Georgian script, from a book on Ossetian folklore published in 1940 in South Ossetia
The first page of the first issue of the Ossetian newspaper Ræstdzinad in 1923, illustrating Sjögren's Cyrillic alphabet, including the letters ⟨ꚉ⟩ and ⟨ԫ⟩.
Notes
- ↑ The expressions "Ossetic language" and "Ossetian language" are about equally common in books,[3] but dictionaries show that there are differences between British and North American usage. The Collins English Dictionary mentions only "Ossetic" for American usage and lists it first for British usage, and the US dictionaries Merriam-Webster,[4] Random House,[5] and American Heritage[1] do not even mention the language as a meaning of "Ossetian", whereas the Oxford University Press (as quoted in the Lexico.com entries for Ossetic and Ossete) clearly considers "Ossetian" more common than "Ossetic" for the language. So US dictionaries agree on "Ossetic" for the language, whereas UK dictionaries do not agree on whether it or "Ossetian" are more common. "Ossetic" is apparently preferred in scientific use (linguistics), as shown by this article's references, including the entries in Ethnologue[6] and the Encyclopaedia Britannica.[7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 AHD:Ossetian
- ↑ OED:Ossetian.
- ↑ "Google Ngram Viewer". Retrieved 2022-03-18.
- ↑ "Ossete". Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
- ↑ Random House Dictionary
- ↑ "Ossetic". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
- ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica
- ↑ Dalby 1998.
Sources
- Dalby, Andrew (1998). Dictionary of Languages: The Definitive Reference to More Than 400 Languages. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-11568-1.
