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Despite Ossetian being the official languages of both North and South Ossetia, since 2009UNESCO has listed Ossetian as "vulnerable". In the2010 Russian census only 36% of North Ossetians claimed to be fluent in Ossetian, with the number decreasing year by year.[8]
From the 7th–8th centuries BCE, the languages of the Iranian group were distributed across a vast territory spanning present-dayIran (Persia),Central Asia,Eastern Europe, and theCaucasus. Ossetian is the sole survivor of the branch of Iranian languages known asScythian. The Scythian group included numerous tribes, known in ancient sources as theScythians, theMassagetae, theSaka, theSarmatians, theAlans, and theRoxolani. The more easterlyKhwarazm andSogdians were also closely affiliated in linguistic terms.
Ossetian, together withKurdish,Tat, andTalysh, is one of the main Iranian languages with a sizable community of speakers in the Caucasus. As it is descended from Alanic, spoken by the Alan medieval tribes emerging from the earlier Sarmatians, it is believed to be the only surviving descendant of a Sarmatian language. The closest genetically related language may be the Yaghnobi language of Tajikistan, the only other living Northeastern Iranian language.[9][10] Ossetian has a plural formed by the suffix -ta, a feature it shares with Yaghnobi, Sarmatian and the now-extinct Sogdian; this is taken as evidence of a formerly wide-ranging Iranian-languagedialect continuum on theCentral Asian steppe. The names of ancient Iranian tribes (as transmitted throughAncient Greek) in fact reflect this pluralization, e.g.Saromatae (Σαρομάται) andMasagetae (Μασαγέται).[11]: 69
"K., son of S., son of I., son of B., son of A.; [this is] their monument."[11]: 55–56
(The original, following Zgusta, translates only initials; presumably this is because although the uninflected forms may be inferred, no written records of them have been found to date.)
The only other extant record of Proto-Ossetic are the two lines of "Alanic" phrases appearing in theTheogony ofJohn Tzetzes, a 12th centuryByzantinepoet andgrammarian:
The portions in bold face above are Ossetian. Going beyond a direct transliteration of the Greek text, scholars have attempted aphonologicalreconstruction using the Greek as clues, thus, while τ (tau) would usually be given the value "t", it instead is "d", which is thought to be the way the early Ossetes would have pronounced it. The scholarly transliteration of the Alanic phrases is: "dӕ ban xʷӕrz, mӕ sfili, (ӕ)xsinjӕ kurθi kӕndӕ" and "du farnitz, kintzӕ mӕ sfili, kajci fӕ wa sawgin?"; equivalents in modern Ossetian would be"Dӕ bon xwarz, me'fšini 'xšinӕ, kurdigӕj dӕ?" and"(De') f(s)arm neč(ij), kinźi ӕfšini xӕcc(ӕ) (ku) fӕwwa sawgin".[13] The passage translates as:
The Alans I greet in their language: "Good day to you my lord's lady, where are you from?" "Good day to you my lord's lady, where are you from?" and other things: When an Alan woman takes a priest as a lover, you might hear this: "Aren't you ashamed, my lordly lady, that you are having sex with a priest?"[note 1] "Aren't you ashamed, my lady, to have a love affair with the priest?"[12][13]
Marginalia of Greek religious books, with some parts (such as headlines) of the book translated into Old Ossetic, have recently been found.[14]
It is theorized that during the Proto-Ossetic phase, Ossetian underwent a process of phonological change conditioned by aRhythmusgesetz or "Rhythm-law" whereby nouns were divided into two classes, those heavily or lightlystressed[clarification needed]. "Heavy-stem" nouns possessed a "heavy" longvowel ordiphthong, and were stressed on the first-occurring syllable of this type; "light-stem" nouns were stressed on their final syllable. This is precisely the situation observed in the earliest (though admittedly scanty) records of Ossetian presented above.[11]: 47 This situation also obtains in Modern Ossetian, although the emphasis inDigor is also affected by the "openness" of the vowel.[15] The trend is also found in aglossary of theJassic dialect dating from 1422.[16]
The first page of the first issue of the Ossetian newspaperRæstdzinad in 1923, illustrating Sjögren's Cyrillic alphabet, including the letters⟨ꚉ⟩ and⟨ԫ⟩.
The first printed book in Ossetian was a short catechism published in Moscow in 1798.[17] The first newspaper,Iron Gazet, appeared on July 23, 1906, inVladikavkaz.
While Ossetian is the official language in both South and North Ossetia (along with Russian), its official use is limited to publishing new laws in Ossetian newspapers. There are two daily newspapers in Ossetian:Ræstdzinad (Рӕстдзинад / Рӕстꚉінад, "Truth") in the North andXurzærin (Хурзӕрин, "The Sun") in the South. Some smaller newspapers, such as district newspapers, use Ossetian for some articles. There is a monthly magazineMax dug (Мах дуг, "Our era"), mostly devoted to contemporary Ossetian fiction and poetry.
Ossetian is taught in secondary schools for all pupils.[citation needed] Native Ossetian speakers also take courses inOssetian literature.
The first modern translation of the Qur'an into Ossetic took place in 2007, initiated by an Ossetian Robert Bolloev, who at that time resided in St. Petersburg.[18] The first Ossetian language Bible was published in 2010.[7][failed verification] It is currently the only full version of the Bible in the Ossetian language.[19] In May, 2021, the Russian Bible Society announced the completion of a Bible translation into Ossetian; fundraising continues in order to have it printed.[20][21]
The Ossetian researcherV. I. Abayev postulates 26 plain consonants for Ossetian, to which five labialized consonants and two semivowels may be added. Unusually for an Indo-European language, there is a series ofglottalized (ejective) stops and affricates. This may constitute anareal feature oflanguages of the Caucasus.
Voiceless consonants become voiced word-medially (this is reflected in the orthography as well)./t͡ʃ/,/d͡ʒ/, and/t͡ʃʼ/ were originallyallophones of/k/,/ɡ/, and/kʼ/ when followed by/e/,/i/ and/ɘ/; this alternation is still retained to a large extent.
Unlike all of its neighbouring languages, Ossetian largely lacks the original distinction of postalveolar/ʃ/ and/ʒ/ from the respective alveolar sibilants/s/ and/z/ (due to the early merger of Old Iranian*s/*š and*z/*ž). However, the northern variants use postalveolars, while the southern variants use the alveolars. In exchange,/ts/ and/dz/ in the north correspond into/ʃ/ and/ʒ/ (/tʃ/ and/dʒ/ after nasals or when geminated) in the south.[22]
Stress normally falls on the first syllable, unless it contains a central vowel (/ɘ/ or/ɐ/), in which case stress falls on the second syllable. Thus,су́дзаг|súdzag /ˈsud͡zag/ 'burning', butcӕнӕ́фсир/sænǽfsir /sɐˈnɐfsir/ 'grapes'. In addition, proper names are usually stressed on the second syllable regardless of their vowels, and recent Russian loanwords retain the stress they have in the source language.[24]
In the Iron dialect, definiteness is expressed in words with stress on second syllable by shifting the stress to the initial syllable. This reflects the fact that historically they received asyllabicdefinite article (as they still do in the Digor dialect), and the addition of the syllable caused the stress to shift.[9] The above patterns apply not just within the content word, rather to prosodic words, units that result from content words being joined into a single prosodic group with only one stress. Not only compound verbs, but also every noun phrase constitutes such a group containing only one stressed syllable, regardless of its length, for instanceмӕ чи́ныг/mӕ čínyg /mɐˈt͡ʃinɘg/ 'my book',мӕгуы́р зӕронд лӕг/mægwýr zærond læg /mɐˈgwɘr zɐrond lɐg/ 'a poor old man'. Since an initial particle and a conjunction are also included in the prosodic group, the single stress of the group may fall on them, too:фӕлӕ́ уый/fælǽ wyj 'but he'.[24]
In derivation or compounding, stems containing vowels /a o / <а o> change to the central vowel /ɐ/ <ӕ>, whereas those containing /i u/ < и/I у/u> may be replaced with /ɘ/:
the palatalisation of the velarsк (k) toч (č),г (g) toдж (dž) andкъ (kh) toчъ (čh) before the (currently or historically) front vowels, namelyе (e),и (i) andы (y), for instanceкарк (kark) 'hen' —карчы (karčy) 'hen (genitive)'.
the voicing of voiceless consonants in voiced environments:тых (tyx) 'strength' —ӕмдых (æmdyx) 'of equal strength'.
consonant gemination in certain grammatical forms, such as after the prefixны (ny-) and before the suffixes-ag and-on.[26]
An Old OsseticGreek script inscription of the 10th–12th centuries was found inArxyz, the oldest known attestation of the Ossetian language.
Written Ossetian may be immediately recognized by its use of theCyrillic letter Ae (Ӕ ӕ), a letter to be found in no other language usingCyrillic script. The father of the modern Ossetian literary language is the national poetKosta Khetagurov (1859–1906).[citation needed]
An Iron literary language was established in the 18th century, written using the Cyrillic script in Russia and the Georgian script in Georgia. The first Ossetian book was published in Cyrillic in 1798, and in 1844 the alphabet was revised by a Russian scientist ofFinland-Swedish origin,Andreas Sjögren. In the early 1800s,Daniel Chonkadze produced a Russian-Ossetian dictionary and translated Ossetian folklore, paving the way to establishing the Ossetian literature.[28]
A new alphabet based on theLatin script wasmade official in the 1920s, but in 1937 a revised Cyrillic alphabet wasintroduced, with digraphs replacing mostdiacritics of the 1844 alphabet.
In 1820, I. Yalguzidze published a Georgian-script alphabetic primer, adding three letters to the Georgian alphabet.[29] The Georgian orthography receded in the 19th century, but was made official with Georgian autonomy in 1937. The "one nation – two alphabets" issue caused discontent in South Ossetia in the year 1951 demanding reunification of the script, and in 1954 Georgian was replaced with the 1937 Cyrillic alphabet.
The table below shows the modern Cyrillic alphabet, used since 1937, with phonetic values for the Iron dialect in theIPA. Di- and tri-graphs in parentheses are not officially letters of the alphabet, but are listed here to represent phonemically distinctive sounds:
In addition, the letters⟨ё⟩,⟨ж⟩,⟨ш⟩,⟨щ⟩,⟨ъ⟩,⟨ь⟩,⟨э⟩,⟨ю⟩, and⟨я⟩ are used to transcribeRussian loans. The Ossetian Wikipedia uses the Latin 'æ' instead of the Cyrillic 'ӕ'.
In addition, the letters⟨š⟩ and⟨ž⟩ were used to transcribe Russian words. The "weak" vowels⟨ӕ⟩[ɐ] and⟨ы⟩[ɘ] are among the most common vowels in the language.
In the course of centuries-long propinquity to and intercourse with Caucasian languages, Ossetian became similar to them in some features, particularly in phonetics and lexicon. However, it retained its grammatical structure and basic lexical stock; its relationship with the Iranian family, despite considerable individual traits, does not arouse any doubt.
Ossetic has lost the grammatical category ofgender which many Indo-European languages have preserved until today.[9]According to the Encyclopӕdia Britannica 2006[30] Ossetian preserves many archaic features of Old Iranian, such as eight cases and verbal prefixes. It is debated how many of these cases are actually inherited from Indo-Iranian case morphemes and how many have re-developed, after the loss of the original case forms, throughcliticization of adverbs or re-interpretations ofderivational suffixes: the number of "inherited" cases according to different scholars ranges from as few as three (nominative, genitive and inessive) to as many as six (nominative, dative, ablative, directive, inessive)[clarification needed]. Some (the comitative, equative, and adessive) are secondary beyond any doubt.[31]
Definiteness in the Iron dialect is, according to Abaev, only expressed by shift of word accent from the second to the first syllable (which is not possible in all nouns):
færǽt "an axe"
fǽræt "the axe"
Erschler reported in 2021 that he has been unable to replicate Abaev's observations of a distinction between definite and indefinite nouns in Iron.[32]
There is only one plural suffix for the nominal parts of speech, -т(ӕ)-t(ӕ), with the vowel ӕӕ occurring in the nominative case (seeCases below): e.g. сӕрsӕr 'head' – сӕртӕsӕrtӕ 'heads'. Nevertheless, the complexity of the system is increased to some extent by the fact that this suffixation may be accompanied by a number of morphophonemic alternations. Asvarabhakti vowel ыy is normally inserted after stems ending in a cluster (цӕстcӕst 'eye' – цӕстытӕcӕstytӕ 'eyes'), but there are also numerous exceptions from this. This insertion of ыy regularly palatalises preceding velars to affricates in Iron: чызгčyzg 'girl' – чызджытӕčyzdžytӕ 'girls'. In words ending in -ӕгӕg, the vowel is usually elided in the plural, making the stem eligible for the above-mentioned svarabhakti insertion: барӕгbarӕg 'rider' – барджытӕbardžytӕ 'riders'. The same happens in words ending in -ыг-yg, but the consonant is also labialised there: мӕсыгmӕsyg 'tower' – мӕсгуытӕmӕsgwytӕ 'towers'. The vowels аa and оo in closed syllables are weakened to ӕӕ before the suffix – фарсfars 'side' – фӕрстӕfӕrstӕ 'sides'; this happens regularly in polysyllabic words, but with many exceptions in monosyllabic ones. Finally, the suffix consonant is geminated after sonorants: хӕдзарxӕdzar 'house' – хӕдзӕрттӕxӕdzӕrttӕ 'houses'.[33]
Nouns and adjectives share the same morphology and distinguish two numbers (singular and plural) and nine cases:nominative,genitive,dative, directive,ablative,inessive,adessive,equative, andcomitative. The nominal morphology isagglutinative: the case suffixes and the number suffix are separate, the case suffixes are the same for both numbers and the number suffix is the same for all cases (illustrated here for the Iron dialect with the noun сӕрsӕr "head"):[9]
Singular
romanization
Plural
romanization
Nominative
сӕр
sӕr
сӕртӕ
sӕrtӕ
Genitive
сӕры
sӕry
сӕрты
sӕrty
Dative
сӕрӕн
sӕrӕn
сӕртӕн
sӕrtӕn
Allative
сӕрмӕ
sӕrmӕ
сӕртӕм
sӕrtӕm
Ablative
сӕрӕй
sӕrӕj
сӕртӕй
sӕrtӕj
Inessive
сӕры
sӕry
сӕрты
sӕrty
Adessive
сӕрыл
sӕryl
сӕртыл
sӕrtyl
Equative
сӕрау
sӕraw
сӕртау
sӕrtaw
Comitative
сӕримӕ
sӕrimӕ
сӕртимӕ
sӕrtimӕ
Since inessive and genitive show the same forms in both numbers, it is sometimes debated whether Ossetian might possess eight case forms for each number instead of nine. If the addition of the case suffix would result inhiatus, the consonant йj is usually inserted between them: зӕрдӕ-й-ӕнzærdæ-j-æn 'heart (dative)'.
There is no morphological distinction between adjectives and nouns in Ossetian.[34] The suffix -дӕр-dær can express the meaning of a comparative degree: рӕсугъддӕрræsuhddær 'more beautiful'. It, too, can be added to typical nouns: лӕгlæg 'man' – лӕгдӕрlægdær 'more of a man, more manly'.[35]
The personal pronouns mostly take the same endings as the nouns. The 1st and 2nd person singular exhibit suppletion between the stem used in the nominative case and the stem used in the other (oblique) cases; the oblique stem without other endings is the genitive case form. The 1st and 2nd persons plural have only one stem each, functioning as both nominative and genitive. The third person pronoun coincides with the demonstrative 'that'. In addition, there are enclitic non-nominative forms of the pronouns of all three persons, which are somewhat deviant. Their genitive ends in -ӕ-ӕ; not only the inessive, but also the ablative coincides with the genitive; the allative ends in -м-m and the dative has the vowel -у--y- before the ending (e.g. мынmyn); and the comitative has the vowel -е--e- (e.g. мемӕmemӕ). The 3rd singular stem has the doublet forms йV-jV- and∅V- everywhere outside of the ablative and inessive, which appears as дзыdzy, and the comitative, which can only have йV-jV-.[36]
Reflexive forms are constructed from the enclitic forms of the personal pronouns and the reflexive pronoun хӕдӕгxӕdӕg 'self' (with the oblique forms хиц-xic- in the dative and ablative, хиу-xiw- in the adessive and хиxi in the other cases).
There are two demonstratives – айaj (stem а-a-, pl. адонadon) 'this' andwyj (stem уы-wy-, pl. уыдонwydon) 'that'. The interrogative pronouns are чиči (oblique stem кӕ-kӕ-) 'who' and сыcy (oblique stem сӕ-cӕ-). Indefinite pronouns meaningany- andsome- are formed from the interrogatives by means of the prefix ис-is- and the suffix -дӕр-dӕr, respectively. Negatives are formed similarly, but with the prefix ни-ni-; the totality prefix ('every-') is ал-al-, and ӕлыӕly is used adjectivally. Other pronouns meaning 'all' are ӕгасӕgas and ӕппӕтӕppӕt. There are two pronouns meaning 'other': иннӕinnӕ for 'another of two, a definite other one' and ӕндӕрӕndӕr for 'some other, an indefinite other one'.[37]
Verbs distinguish six persons (1st, 2nd and 3rd, singular and plural), three tenses (present, past and future, all expressedsynthetically), three moods (indicative,subjunctive,imperative), and belong to one of two grammatical aspects (perfective andimperfective). The person, tense and mood morphemes are mostly fused. The following description is of Iron.
Each verb has a present stem and a past stem (similar in practice toPersian), the latter normally being identical to the past participle. The past stem commonly differs from the present stem by adding тt or дd (e.g. дар-dar- : дард-dard- 'to hold'; уарз-warz : уарзтwarzt 'to love'), or, more rarely, -ст-st (e.g. бар-bar : барст-barst 'weigh') or -ыдyd (зар-zar- : зарыд-zaryd- 'sing'; nonetheless, the past participle of this type is still formed with -д/тt/d: зард-zard-). However, there are usually various other vowel and consonant changes as well. Some of the most common vowel alternations are ӕӕ : аa (e.g. кӕс-kӕs : каст-kast- 'look'), иi : ыy (e.g. риз-riz- : рызт-ryzt- 'tremble'), and уu : ыy (e.g. дзур-dzur- : дзырд-dzyrd- 'speak'); some other alternations are aa : ӕӕ (mostly in bisyllabic stems, e.g. араз-araz- : арӕз-arӕz- 'make'), ауaw : ыy, ӕуӕw : ыy, and оo : ыy. Frequent consonant changes are -дd, -тt, -ттtt, -ндnd, -нтnt > -стst (e.g. кӕрд-kӕrd- : карстkarst 'cut'), -дзdz, -ц-c, -ндз-ndz, -нц-nc > -гъдhd (лидз-lidz- : лыгъд-lyhd- 'run away'), elision of a final нn or мm (e.g. нӕмnӕm : надnad). Suppletion is found in the stem pair дӕттынdӕttyn : лӕвӕрдlӕvӕrd 'give'.[38] It is also seen in the copula, whose past stem is уыд-wyd-, whereas the present forms are highly irregular and begin in д-d-, ст-st- оr in a vowel (see below).
There are also many related transitive-intransitive verb pairs, which also differ by means of a vowel alternation (commonly аa : ӕӕ, e.g. сафынsafyn 'lose' : сӕфынsӕfyn 'be lost', and уu : уыwy, e.g. хъусынqusyn 'hear' : хъуысынqwysyn 'be heard') and sometimes by the addition of the consonant -сs (тавынtavyn 'to warm' : тафсынtæfsyn 'to be warm').[39]
The present and future tense forms use the present stem.
The indicative present endings are as follows:
singular
plural
1st person
-ын-yn
-ӕм-ӕm
2nd person
-ыс-ys
-ут-ut
3rd person
-ы-y
-ынц-ync
Only the copulawyn 'be' is conjugated differently:
singular
plural
1st person
дӕнdӕn
стӕмstӕm
2nd person
дӕdӕ
стутstut
3rd person
-и(с)i(s), -уu
стыsty
The copula also has a special iterative stem вӕйй-vӕjj-, which is conjugated regularly.
The future tense forms consist of the present stem, the element -дзы(н)- ~ -дзӕн--dzy(n)- ~ -dzæn- (originally a separate root meaning 'wish' according to Fredrik Thordarson) and endings which appear to derive from encliticised copula уынuyn 'be' (see above table) used as an auxiliary. Thus, the resulting composite endings are:[40]
singular
plural
1st person
-дзын-ӕн-dzyn-ӕn
-дзы-стӕм-dzy-stӕm
2nd person
-дзын-ӕ-dzyn-ӕ
-дзы-стут-dzy-stut
3rd person
-дзӕн-(ис)-dzӕn-(is)
-дзы-сты-dzy-sty
The past tense uses the past stem. The endings, however, are different for intransitive and transitive verbs. The intransitive endings are:
singular
plural
1st person
-(т)ӕн-(t)ӕn
-ыстӕм-ystӕm
2nd person
-(т)ӕ-(t)ӕ
-ыстут-ystut
3rd person
-(и(с))-(i(s))
-ысты-ysty
The construction appears to be, in origin, a periphrastic combination of the past passive participle and the copula; that is why the endings are similar to the ones added to -дзы(н)--dzy(n)- in the future tense.
The transitive endings, on the other hand, are:
singular
plural
1st person
-(т)он-(t)on
-(т)ам-(t)am
2nd person
-(т)ай-(t)aj
-(т)ат-(t)at
3rd person
-а-a
-(т)ой-(t)oj
Remarkably, these forms actually derive from the old pastsubjunctive rather than the indicative (which is why the endings still almost entirely coincide with those of the future subjunctive, apart from the initial consonant тt).[41] The variable -т--t of the transitive as well as the intransitive past endings appear in verbs whose present stem ends in vowels and sonorants (йj, уu, рr, лl, мm, нn), since only these consonants are phonotactically compatible with a following sequence -дт-dt, which would normally arise from the combinations of the dentals of the stem and the ending: e.g. кал-д-т-онkal-d-t-on 'I poured', but саф-т-онsaf-t-on 'I lost'.[40]
The subjunctive mood has its own forms for each tense. The endings are as follows:
present-future
past
future
singular
plural
singular
plural
singular
plural
1st person
-ин-in
-иккам-ikkam
-аин-ain
-аиккам-aikkam
-он-on
-ӕм-ӕm
2nd person
-ис-is
-иккат-ikkat
-аис-ais
-аиккат-aikkat
-ай-aj
-ат-at
3rd person
-ид-id
-иккой-ikkoj
-аид-aid
аиккой-aikkoj
-а-a
-ой-oj
In addition, a тt is added before the ending in transitive verbs. The future forms derive from the historicalsubjunctive and the others from the historicaloptative. In spite of some nuances and tendencies reflecting from their historical functions, there is a lot of overlap between the uses of the 'present-future' and the 'future' subjunctive (desire, possibility etc.), but a clear contrast between the two is found in conditional clauses, where the former expresses unreal conditions and the latter – real ones.
The imperative consists of the present stem and the following endings:[42]
singular
plural
2nd person
-∅
-ут-ut
3rd person
-ӕд-ӕd
-ӕнт-ӕnt
A special future imperative form can be formed by the addition of the independent particle иуiw.
Passive voice is expressedperiphrastically with the past passive participle and anauxiliary verb цӕуынcӕwyn 'to go': аразынarazyn 'build' – арӕзт цӕуынarӕzt cӕwyn 'be built'; causative meaning is also expressed periphrastically by combining the infinitive and the verb кӕнынkӕnyn 'to do': e.g. бадынbadyn 'to sit' – бадын кӕнынbadyn kænyn 'to seat'. Reflexive meaning is expressed by adding the reflexive pronoun хиxi: дасынdasyn 'to shave (something, somebody)' – хи дасынxi dasyn 'shave oneself'.[43]
Somewhat similarly to the Slavic languages, verbs belong to one of twolexical aspects:perfective vs.imperfective, and the aspects are most commonly expressed by prefixes of prepositional origin, which simultaneously express direction or other abstract meanings: цӕуынcӕwyn 'go (imperf.)' – рацӕуынracӕwyn 'go out (perf.). The directional prefixes simultaneously expressventive or andative direction:
'out'
'in'
'down'
'up'
neutral
away from the speaker
а-a-
ба-ba- 'in'
ны-ny-
с-s-
фӕ-fӕ-
towards the speaker
ра-ra-
ӕрба-ӕrba-
ӕр-ӕr-
NA
In addition, these prefixes may express small aspectual nuances: а-a- is used for rapid, brief and superficial motion, арба-arba- also for rapid and sudden action, ба-ba- for more substantial action, ны-ny- for especially intensive action, while фӕ-fӕ- can express habituality in the present and either repetition or rapidity and brevity in the past.[44] A morphophonological peculiarity of the prefixes is that when they are added to roots beginning in the vowel аa, as well as to the copula's form исis, the consonant цc isepenthesised: фӕ-ц-исfӕ-c-is 'became (3rd person)'.[45] The prefix ныny also causes gemination of the following consonant: кӕлынkӕlyn 'pour' – ныккӕлынnykkӕlyn 'spill'.[46]
Iterativity or habituality may be expressed with the separate particle иу iw. To make a prefixed form receive imperfective meaning, the article цӕй cӕj is inserted: рацӕйцыдиracӕjcydi 'he was going out'.[47]
There is an infinitive, four participles (present and past active, past passive, and future), and agerund.
past
present
future
active
-ӕг-ӕg
-инаг -inag
passive
-тt / -дd
(-ӕн-ӕn)
gerund
-гӕ-gӕ
infinitive
-ын-yn
Theinfinitive is formed from the present stem with the ending -ын-yn, which phonologically coincides with the 1st person singular: цӕуынcӕwyn 'to go' (and 'I go').
The past passive participle in -тt or -дd coincides with the past stem (фыссынfyssyn 'write' – фыстfyst 'written'); it is often nominalised to a verbal noun. All the other participles, as well as the gerund, are formed from the present stem. The future participle in -инаг -inag may have either active or passive meaning: фыссинагfyssinag 'who will write / will be written'. Together with the copula used as an auxiliary, it forms a periphrastic immediate future tense. The dedicated active participles in -ӕг-ӕg and receive 'present' or 'past', or more accurately, imperfective or perfective meaning depending on the aspect of the stem: фыссӕгfyssӕg 'writing' – ныффыссӕгnyffyssæg 'having written'. The participle-gerund form ending in -гӕ-gӕ (бадгӕbadgӕ '(while) sitting'), can be used adverbially, as a gerund, but also attributively like a participle with absolutive voice: кӕрдгӕkӕrdgӕ may mean '(which has been) cut', судзгӕsudzgӕ may mean '(which is) burning', etc. To receive an unambiguously adverbial, i.e. gerundial interpretation, it needs to be declined in the ablative case, as does an adjective: бадгӕйӕbadgӕjӕ '(while) sitting'.[48] There are also verbal nouns: one derived from the present stem with the suffix -ӕн-ӕn with the meaning 'fit to be X-ed' – e.g. зын ссарӕнzyn ssarӕn 'hard to find' – and one in -аг-ag denoting permanent quality – e.g. нуазагnwazag 'drunkard'.[49]
For numerals above 20, two systems are in use – adecimal one used officially, and avigesimal one used colloquially. The vigesimal system was predominant in traditional usage. The decimal one is said to have been used in pre-modern times by shepherds who had borrowed it from theBalkars, but it came into more general use only after its introduction in Ossetian schools in 1925 to facilitate the teaching of arithmetic.[50] For example, 40 is цыппорcyppor (from цыппарcyppar 'four') and 60 is ӕхсӕйæxsaj (from ӕхсӕзæxsæz 'six') in the decimal system, whereas the vigesimal designations are дыууиссӕдзыdywwissædzy (from дыууӕdywwæ 'two' and ссӕдзssædz 'twenty') and ӕртиссӕдзыærtissædzy (from ӕртӕærtæ 'three' and ссӕдзssædz 'twenty'). In the same way, the inherited decimal сӕдӕsædæ 'one hundred' has the vigesimal equivalent фондзыссӕдзыfondzyssædzy ('5 times twenty'). An additional difference is that the decimal system places tens before units (35 is ӕртын фондзærtyn fondz '30 + 5'), whereas the vigesimal uses the opposite order (35 is фынддӕс ӕмӕ сӕндзfynddæs æmæ ssædz '15 + 20'). Ordinal numbers are formed with the suffix -ӕм-æm, or, for the first three numbers, -аг-ag.[51]
1 иуiw
2 дыууӕdywwæ
3 ӕртӕærtæ
4 цыппарcyppar
5 фондзfondz
6 ӕхсӕзæxsæz
7 авдavd
8 астast
9 фарастfarast
10 дӕсdæs
11 иуæндæсiwændæs
12 дыууадæсdywwadæs
13 æртындæсærtyndæs
14 цыппæрдæсcyppærdæs
15 фынддӕсfynddæs
16 æхсæрдæсæxsærdæs
17 æвддæсævddæs
18 æстдæсæstdæs
19 нудæсnudæs
20 ссӕдзssædz
number
new (decimal) system
old (vigesimal) system
Cyrillic
Romanisation
Logic
Cyrillic
Romanisation
Logic
21
ссӕдз иу
ssædz iw
20 + 1
иу ӕмӕ ссӕдз
iw æmæ ssædz
1 + 20
30
ӕртын
ærtyn
3 × 10
дӕс ӕмӕ ссӕдз
dæs æmæ ssædz
10 + 20
35
ӕртын фондз
ærtyn fondz
30 + 5
фынддӕс ӕмӕ сӕндз
fynddæs æmæ ssædz
15 + 20
40
цыппор
cyppor
4 × 10
дыууиссӕдзы
dywwissædzy
2 × 20
50
фæндзай
fændzaj
5 × 10
дӕс ӕмӕ дыууиссӕдзы
dæs æmæ dywwissædzy
10 + 2 × 20
60
ӕхсӕй
æxsaj
6 × 10
ӕртиссӕдзы
ærtissædzy
3 × 20
70
æвдай
ævdaj
7 × 10
дӕс ӕмӕ ӕртиссӕдзы
dæs æmæ ærtissædzy
10 + 2 × 30
80
æстай
æstaj
8 × 10
цыппарыссæдзы
cypparyssædzy
4 × 20
90
нæуæдз
næwædz
9 × 10
дӕс ӕмӕ ӕртиссӕдзы
dæs æmæ ærtissædzy
10 + 4 × 20
100
сӕдӕ
sædæ
–
фондзыссӕдзы
fondzyssædzy
5 × 20
120
сӕдӕ ссӕдз
sædæ ssædz
100 + 20
ӕхсӕзыссӕдзы
æxsæzyssædzy
6 × 20
140
сӕдӕ цыппор
sædæ cyppor
100 + 40
авдыссӕдзы
avdyssædzy
7 × 20
160
сӕдӕ ӕхсӕй
sædæ æxsaj
100 + 60
астыссӕдзы
æstyssædzy
8 × 20
180
сӕдӕ æстай
sædæ æstaj
100 + 80
фарастыссӕдзы
farastyssӕdzy
9 × 20
200
дыууӕ сӕдӕ
dywwæ sædæ
2 × 100
дыууӕ фондзыссӕдзы
dywwӕ fondzyssædzy
2 × 5 × 20
дӕсыссӕдзы
dæsyssædzy
10 × 20
220
дыууӕ сӕдӕ ссӕдз
dywwæ sædæ ssædz
2 × 100 + 20
дыууӕ фондзыссӕдзы ӕмӕ ссӕдз
dywwӕ fondzyssædzy ӕmӕ ssӕdz
2 × 5 × 20 + 20
иуæндæсыссӕдзы
iwændæsyssædzy
11 × 20
1000 минmin, ӕрзӕærzæ
1100 мин сӕдӕmin sædæ ('1000 + 100'), иуæндæс фондзыссӕдзыiwændæs fondzyssædzy ('11 X 100')
One of them was born at the first crowing of the rooster, and the other was born at the second crowing of the rooster, before the rising of Bonvarnon (the Morning Star).
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^Thordarson, Fridrik. 1989.Ossetic. Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, ed. by Rudiger Schmitt, 456-479. Wiesbaden: Reichert.[2]
^abcdKim, Ronald (2003). "On the Historical Phonology of Ossetic: The Origin of the Oblique Case Suffix".Journal of the American Oriental Society.123 (1):43–72.doi:10.2307/3217844.JSTOR3217844.
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