Ossetian language

The modern Ossetian language was formed as a result of introducing the language of the Iranian-speaking Alans , who left the invasions of the Mongol-Tatars and Tamerlane from the foothills of the North Caucasus into the mountains of the Central Caucasus, on Wednesday living in this region an indigenous population (speaking, presumably, a language or several Caucasian languages ) ^{[8 ]} .

According to S. Kullanda, the Scythian language, contrary to popular belief, was not identical to the Sarmatian and therefore was not an ancestor of the Ossetian language ^[9] .

Even the first Russian and European researchers and travelers who visited the Caucasus noticed a clear difference between the Ossetian language and the languages ​​of neighboring (Caucasian and Turkic ) peoples. For a long time, the question of the origin of the Ossetian language was debatable and various hypotheses were put forward.

Long isolation (the Ossetians were the only Indo-European people in the region for several centuries) led to the fact that the Ossetian language was enriched by unusual phenomena for the Indo-European languages in phonology ( abruptive "guttural-laryngeal" consonants ), in morphology (developed agglutinative case system), in vocabulary ( words with obscured etymology, semantic parallels ^[10] and explicit borrowings from Adyghe , Nakh-Dagestan and Kartvelian languages) and syntax ( group inflection , system of postpositions instead of Indo-European system of redlogs, the non-accusative decline paradigm) ^[8] .

The Ossetian language retains traces of ancient contacts with Germanic , Turkic , Slavic and Finno-Ugric languages ^[11] .

Although the Ossetian language belongs to the Iranian languages , it is very different from other Iranian languages. Even the languages ​​related to the Ossetian in the East Iranian group - Yagnob and Pashto - are significantly different from it.

The theory of the Scythian-Sarmatian-Alan origin of the Ossetian language is confirmed, in particular, by the presence in vocabulary and even grammar ^{[12] of} traces of close and long contacts with Slavic and Germanic languages.

The most similar to Ossetian is the language of the Hungarian Yasses (descendants of the Alans who moved to Hungary in the 13th century), which is why in English literature the Yasian language (now dead) is often called the dialect of the Ossetian language.

In the XIX century, Zelenchuk inscription (X century) was found with the text in Ossetian in Greek letters. Currently, the tombstone is lost.

The Zelenchuk inscription is characterized by the constancy of the transmission of the same Ossetian sounds by the same Greek characters, which indicates the existence of well-known skills and traditions in this area ^[13] .

Until the second half of the 18th century, there is no information about Ossetian writing.

In order to spread Christianity among Ossetians, towards the end of the 18th century, Ossetian translations of religious texts began to appear. In 1798, the first Ossetian printed book ( catechism ) was published, typed in the Cyrillic alphabet. Another attempt to create writing took place 20 years later on the other side of the Caucasus Range: Ivan Yalguzidze published several church books in the Ossetian language, using the Georgian alphabet Hutsuri .

Modern Ossetian writing was created in 1844 by Andreas Sjogren , a Russian philologist of Finnish origin. With some modifications, it was used to print the first translation of the Four Gospels in the Ossetian language (in an ironic dialect form) in 1861 ^[14] , it published the first literary works and periodicals.

In 1923-1938, the written language was translated into Latin, since 1938 in North Ossetia - Russian graphics, in South Ossetia - the Georgian alphabet (since 1954 - Russian graphics). When switching to Russian graphics in 1938, a number of characters of the Shogren alphabet were replaced by digraphs ( dz , j , xb , etc.), and of the characters that are not included in the Russian alphabet, only the letter ӕ remained . The letter ӕ / ӕ is an unmistakable determinant of Ossetian texts: of all Cyrillic alphabets it is only in Ossetian.

The modern Ossetian alphabet includes 44 letters ^[15] (digraphs dz , j , z and others are also considered letters), and some of them ( e , u , b , i , etc.) are found only in borrowings from (or through) Russian language. There are suggestions for optimizing spelling, in particular, Professor T. T. Kambolov proposes to reduce the Ossetian alphabet by 16 characters by designating the pharyngeal with the diacritical mark, and other digraphs and symbols in the borrowed words “withdraw from the alphabet to the level of writing” ^[16] .

In the Ossetian language, two dialects are distinguished - Digor (widespread in the west of the North Ossetia-A and in Kabardino-Balkaria ) and Ionian (in the rest of the North Ossetia-A and in South Ossetia , Georgia , and Karachay-Cherkessia ).

Iron dialect

In South Ossetia, the ironic dialect is represented by three dialects - Kudar (the main one in terms of the number of speakers), Ksan and Urstual. The first (also called kudaro-java, java) is characterized by regular transitions of consonants ( dz in j and others) and the quality of the front row vowels in all the main phonetic, morphological and lexical signs is interconnected with the ironic and opposes Digor dialect ^[17] . In southern dialects there are more Georgian borrowings, in northern ones, on the same borrowing place, there are Russian roots (for example, “rose” in the north is called roseӕ , and in the south is wardi ).

Some authors, such as G.S. Akhvlediani, Yu. A. Dzizzoyty, and I. Gershevich, distinguish the Kudar-Java dialect as the third dialect in the Ossetian language (in particular, on the basis of a special future-tense paradigm of the verb). I. Gershevich In addition, he pointed to the proximity of Kudar-Java to a number of Scythian reflexes, considering this dialect a descendant of the Scythian, in contrast to the Iron dialect, which, in his opinion, is a descendant of the Sarmatian. In turn, F. Tordarson He believed that the Kudar-Djava dialect in some respects represents a more archaic dialect, in contrast to its sister North Iron, and J. Harmatt He expressed the opinion about the possible connection of some reflexes in Old Kudarodzhavsky directly with the ancient Iranian ^{[18] [19] [20] [21] [22]} .

The Ironian dialect, with minor lexical borrowings from Digor, is the basis of the literary Ossetian language. It broadcasts North Ossetian radio and television, the daily republican newspaper " Rustdzinad " is published. The founder of Ossetian literature is considered the poet Konstantin Levanovich Khetagurov (Osset. Khetgkaty Kosta ).

Digor Dialect

Until 1937, the Digor dialect of the Ossetian language in the RSFSR was considered a language, a special alphabet was developed for it, and a literary tradition was founded. However, in 1937 the Digor alphabet was declared “counter-revolutionary”, and the Digor language was again recognized as a dialect of the Ossetian language ^[23] .

Today, the Digor dialect has a literary tradition, the newspaper Digori Hubartӕ and the literary journal Irӕf are published, a voluminous Digor-Russian dictionary has been published ^[24] , and the Digor Drama Theater is working. The Constitution of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania essentially recognizes both dialects of the Ossetian language as the state languages ​​of the republic, in Art. 15 says ^[25] :

1. The official languages ​​of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania are Ossetian and Russian.

2. The Ossetian language (ironic and Digor dialects) is the basis of the national identity of the Ossetian people. The preservation and development of the Ossetian language are the most important tasks of state authorities of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania.

Differences between dialects

Digorian and Ironian dialects of the Ossetian language differ mainly in phonetics and vocabulary ; to a lesser extent - in morphology (in particular, discrepancies in the case system and a mismatching set of productive word-building suffixes).

In Digorsky, for example, there is no vowel / s / - Ironic / s / in Digorsky dialect correspond to / u / or / and /: mud - mud "honey", cheese - surkh "red", tsych - cikht "cheese". In Digorskoye, there was no palatalization of the posterolinguistic k , g , kb with the transition to h , j , ch, respectively; from here: iron. chyzg (from * kyzg ) - dig. kizgӕ “girl”, karchy (from kark ) - kark of “chicken” (genitive), etc.

There are a large number of lexical differences between dialects. These are words that are completely different in both dialects, words are consonant, but with going beyond the usual phonetic correspondences, and words differing in usage. Among the words that are completely different in two dialects, we can name Gudy - tikis “cat”, tӕbӕgъ - tefseg “plate”, ӕвзӕр - лӕгуз “bad”, rudzing - кӕӕразгӕ “window”, ӕmbaryn - lӕdӕrun “understand” and others. According to M. I. Isaev , in the Digor dialect there are up to 2500 words that are not in the Iron language ^[26] .

Grammatical differences boil down to the absence in the Digorian commitee (joint case): iron. ӕmbalimӕ - dig. ӕmbali hӕstӕӕ “with a friend” (where is the case ending and hӕӕӕӕ is the postposition). Otherwise, the set of grammatical categories is the same, although the case and temporal indicators are very different (for example, the local external case is “ -y in ironic ” and “ -bӕӕ in Digor: ӕ vzagyl - ӕ vzagbӕl “ in the language ”).

In many Digorian words, the indicator of the nominative case is preserved - ӕ , lost in the ironic dialect: chyzg - kizgӕ “girl”, myst - mystӕ “mouse”, mad - madӕ “mother”. In the Digor dialect there are a number of suffixes that are not represented in the Iron dialect, for example, -gon ( don “water”, dongon “near water”) ^[27] .

Both Ossetian dialects, in turn, are divided into dialects (see the Kudar-Java dialect of the Ossetian language ).

Some examples of correspondences between the Iron and Digor dialects are presented in the table:

In addition to the two main dialects, there are many small dialects in the regions of Ossetia, for example, on the western outskirts of the Irafsky district , in the villages there are many words that have passed from the Kabardino-Circassian language , for example, dig. uaskh "oath" - cab. Waschue , Dig. fece "wretched" - cab. feitey , dig. tashkhӕ "intelligence" - cab. taskhe ^[29] . In the southern borders there are a lot of words and sounds that have passed from the Georgian language . On the eastern outskirts of the Ossetian plain - in particular, in the villages of Tsalyk , Razdzog and Stary Batako , many words and intermittent sounds flowed from the Chechen and Ingush languages ​​firmly based on the inhabitants, and in many Ossetian words the emphasis shifted to the first syllable ^[30] . For example, the word "abundance" is pronounced barkӕd , while in the rest of Ossetia they say bӕrkad ; “Work” - Bolkh / Kuyst (meaning manual labor); “Tombstone” - chirt , and in the rest of Ossetia - tsirt / circt ; “Mane” - hees , close to the Chechen khesus , absent in the Ossetian language; “Business” - hilӕ , close to the Chechen hill , absent in the Ossetian language; the rez “contentment, satisfaction” is consonant with the Chechen rez and close to Ingush raz , in Ossetian raz ; ball “ care, experience” is close to the Chechen ball , absent in the Ossetian ^[31] .

Anatolian Ossetian language

In the 1860s, a significant group of Muslim Ossetians, together with representatives of other Caucasian peoples, moved to the Ottoman Empire . The descendants of the immigrants today live in large Turkish cities and in rural areas near the cities of Kars , Mush , Erzurum and others. According to F. Tordarson, the number of Anatolian Ossetians in the 1970s was 4-5 thousand people ^[32] .

In conditions of isolation from the main range of the language, the Ossetian language in Turkey has acquired a number of interesting features. So, the synthetic future tense with the suffix -zi began to be used as the Turkish Aorist II, and complex constructions of the Feninag d « n “see” type are used as the future tense (instead of fenzynӕn ). Nouns with numerals appear in the nominative case (as in Turkish): fonds bon (instead of fonds bon , as in Caucasian Ossetian).

The Ossetian language is one of the few Indo-European languages ​​that have long existed in the Caucasus. Having experienced the influence of the Caucasian and Turkic languages , he was enriched by interesting phenomena that are not in the Russian language. Among these features:

• a rich system of agglutinative declension uncharacteristic of Iranian languages ^[33] ;
• decimal notation ^[34] ;
• three tenses in the subjunctive verb;
• the almost complete absence of prepositions (there are only three of them: ӕд "с", ӕнӕ "without", fӕӕӕӕ "by") with the active use of postpositions ;

and others.

Phonetics and Phonology

The total number of phonemes in the modern Ossetian language is 35: 7 vowels, 2 half-vowels, the rest are consonants.

Ossetian pharyngeal consonants do not have a correspondence in Iranian languages ​​(indicated on the letter as k , p , t , t and t ). Especially often these consonants are found in Caucasian borrowings and in words with a darkened etymology (presumably substratum ): kuyri “week”, chiri “pie”, chyr “lime”, bityna “mint”, etc.

Phrasal stress ( syntagmatic ) falls on the first or second syllable of the syntagma, depending on the quality of the syllable-forming vowel in the first syllable.

Morphology

Agglutinative declension of names (distinguish 9 or 8 cases, depending on the criteria; rich case system - presumably Caucasian influence) and inflective conjugation of the verb.

The plural is formed regularly using the suffix - t - (in the nominative case with the ending - ӕ ): lӕg “man” - lӕgtӕ “men”, dur “stone” - durtӕ “stones”. With the formation of the plural, alternations are possible in the basis: chingig “book” - chingyutӕ “books”, ӕzag “language” - ӕvzӕgtӕ “languages”, zargz “song” - zarjytӕ “songs”.

The most common grammatical tool, as in the Russian language, is affixation ( suffixing to a greater extent than prefixation ).

The verb system has retained its Iranian character. In particular, in the system of tenses there are two foundations - present and past tense - dating back to the ancient Iranian basis of the present tense and to the ancient Iranian past participle of the passive voice, respectively. Four moods are preserved: indicative, imperative, desirable and conditional. The old causative is manifested in some paired verbs with the rise of a vowel ( ӕ → a ): m ӕ lyn “die” - and the market “kill”; to ӕ lyn “pour, flow” - to л lyn “pour”. The main part of Iranian verbal prefixes (preverbs), which acquired additional spatial meaning, has also been preserved ^[35] .

Colors

The foundations of Ossetian studies were laid by the memoirs and diaries of 18th-century travelers who visited Ossetia at that time. Among them are the works of N. Witsen, I. A. Güldenstedt, J. Reineggs. The most significant contribution to the creation of both a source and theoretical basis for Ossetian science was the work “Journey to the Caucasus and Georgia” by the famous German orientalist J. von Klaproth, published in 1812. Von Klaprot first put forward the assumption of the continuity of the Ossetian and Alanian languages ​​and defined the Digor type of speech as a dialect of the Ossetian language, and not as a separate language.

The work of von Klaproth interested other researchers. So, a Russian researcher of Finnish origin Andreas Sjogren decides to go to Ossetia in order to make “every possible effort on the most accurate and detailed knowledge of the inner spirit and structure of the language in all its grammatical composition and volume from the very first sonorous elements to the highest true development in syntactic use " ^[36] . Sjogren was in the Caucasus in 1835-1836. During this time, he visited different regions of Ossetia, got acquainted with various aspects of life and life of Ossetians. He deeply studied the Ossetian language in its "Tagaurian" form (the Iron dialect), he attached great importance to the study of the Digor dialect, the forms of which Shogren first established archaic forms. The main results of Shogren's research were published in St. Petersburg in 1844.

The next stage in the development of Ossetian studies is associated with the name of V.F. Miller (1848-1913). In the writings of Miller ("Ossetian Studies": 1881, 1882, 1887) the Iranian character of the Ossetian language and its place among the Indo-European languages ​​are finally established. He laid the scientific foundations of the history of the Ossetian language and created the basis for the study of Ossetian folklore.

I. M. Abaev published several works on stress in the Ossetian language and an article on "A single literary language for all dialectic branches of the Ossetian people." In this article, Abaev advocates recognition of a single literary language for all Ossetians.

A great contribution to modern Ossetian studies was made by his son V.I. Abaev . The range of his research covers almost all aspects of the linguistic structure, in each of which he managed to reach a new level of description and systematization. Abaev proposed dividing the Ossetian vowels into “strong” and “weak”. Abaev established the dual Iranian-Caucasian nature of the Ossetian language, put forward the theory of "Caucasian substrate". The scientist’s main work is recognized as the “Historical and Etymological Dictionary of the Ossetian Language” (published in four volumes, from 1958 to 1989). The famous Iranian M.I. Isaev writes about this dictionary:

The crown of a comprehensive study of Ossetians, the main result of an in-depth study of phonetics and morphology, vocabulary and lexicography, dialectology and contacts, substrate, isogloss and history ... was the main work of his life - “The Historical and Etymological Dictionary of the Ossetian Language” ... ^[37] .

Ossetian language researcher T. T. Kambolov so evaluates the meaning of Abaev’s dictionary:

The significance of this work goes far beyond not only Ossetian studies and Iranian studies, but even Indo-European linguistics, opening new pages in the history of Turkic, Caucasian, Finno-Ugric and other languages ^[38] .

Currently, the study of the Ossetian language continues on the basis of the North Ossetian Institute for Humanitarian and Social Research (SOIGSI) and the South Ossetian Research Institute, as well as in specialized educational institutions (faculty of Ossetian philology of SOGU and others).

The first printed book in the Ossetian language - "Initial teaching by a person who wants to learn books of divine writing" - was published by the Moscow printing house of the Synod in 1798. Prepared by the bishop of Mozdok and Mazharsky Gai Tokaov with the help of the Ossetian priest Pavel Gentsaurov (Kesaev), the book was a collection of religious texts in Ossetian with a parallel Russian translation ( catechism ).

In 1844, the Ossetian Grammar by Andreas Szogren was published ^[39] , in which a draft of the Ossetian alphabet based on the civil Cyrillic alphabet was presented. This alphabet was used in Ossetian book publishing until the translation into the Latin alphabet in Soviet times (1923).

Over the entire 19th century, 43 books were published in the Ossetian language, of which 24 were religious (translated), 13 were educational, 3 were ethnographic, and 3 were fiction (A. Kubalov “ Ufkhurdy Husan ”, B. Gurzhibekov “ Sakhi rusugd ”, K. Khetagurov “ Iron Fundyr ”) ^[40] .

From 1901 to 1917, 41 editions were published in the Ossetian language. At the same time, the expansion of the theme is noted: science, folklore , religion , dramaturgy, poetry, medicine, textbooks on the Ossetian language, prose, children's literature, philology , ethnography , economics, history. The first periodicals appeared: newspapers and magazines.

After the revolution and civil war, book publishing resumed in 1921. Since 1931, about 30 titles of books a year were published in the Ossetian language. However, in the late 1940s, a gradual reduction in thematic areas was planned. Since the 1960s, only prose, textbooks on the Ossetian language, poetry, journalism, party documents, and folklore have been published. This thematic spectrum is preserved to the present, with the exception of party documents - they were replaced by other official publications ^[38] .

In 2007, the philologist and folklorist Fedar Takazov completed the complete translation of the Koran into the Ossetian ( Digor ) language ^[41] .

On August 21, 2010, a translation of the Bible into Ossetian (Ironi) was provided by Jehovah's Witnesses ^{[42] [43]} . Now a group of several people, including Ossetian poets Kazbek Mamukaev , Lisa Kochieva , under the patronage of the Russian Bible Society , is preparing a new translation of the Bible ^[44] . To date, the New Testament has already been translated and published ^[45] .

In 2011, an Orthodox prayer book in Ossetian (the Iron dialect) was released; with the blessing of the then Archbishop of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz Theophanes, with a 10-thousandth edition, in November 2011 Akathist (prayer book) was published to Saint George the Victorious, and then the Psalter in Ossetian was released.