Ossetian language - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ossetian
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	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Eastern Ossetian; ; ; ;
Writing system	Cyrillic (Ossetian alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Russia North Ossetia–Alania ; Georgia Provisional Administration of South Ossetia ; Partially recognised country:; South Ossetia
Language codes
ISO 639-1	os
ISO 639-2	oss
ISO 639-3	oss
Glottolog	osse1243
Linguasphere	58-ABB-a
	Latin-script Ossetian text from a book published in 1935; part of an alphabetic list of proverbs.
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Ossetian (/ɒˈsɛtiən/, /ɒˈsiːʃən/, /oʊˈsiːʃən/),^[1]^[2] commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete^{[note 1]}^[8] (ирон ӕвзаг, irōn ӕvzag), is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken mostly in Ossetia.

Notes[change | change source]

↑ 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,^[source?] 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]

This short article can be made longer. You can help Wikipedia by adding to it.

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	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Eastern Ossetian
Writing system	Cyrillic (Ossetian alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Russia North Ossetia–Alania Georgia Provisional Administration of South Ossetia Partially recognised country: South Ossetia
Language codes
ISO 639-1	`os`
ISO 639-2	`oss`
ISO 639-3	`oss`
Glottolog	`osse1243`
Linguasphere	`58-ABB-a`
Latin-script Ossetian text from a book published in 1935; part of an alphabetic list of proverbs.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.