Iron Ossetian

Iron
ирон ӕвзаг (iron ӕvzag)
Pronunciation[iron ɐvzag]
Native toNorth Caucasus
RegionNorth Ossetia, South Ossetia
Native speakers
(5/6 of Ossete speakers cited 1981)[1]
Dialects
  • Ir
  • Tagaur
  • Alagir
  • Kurtat
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologiron1242
Alana speaking Iron Ossetian

Iron Ossetian (Ossetian: ирон ӕвзаг, romanized: iron ӕvzag pronounced [iˈron ɐvˈzäɡ]) also known as Iron Ossetic or Iron-Ossetic, is one of the two main dialects of the Ossetic language along with Digor[2] spoken in the Caucasus. The majority of Ossetians speak Iron, notably in the East, South and Central parts of North Ossetia–Alania, while in the West the Digor dialect is more prevalent. The Iron dialect has been the basis of the Ossetian written language since the abolition of the Digor standard in 1939.[2]

The Iron dialect is spoken by the majority of North Ossetians (most of flat Ossetia, as well as the Kurtatin, Tagaur and Alagir gorges).[3]

With insignificant lexical borrowings from Digor dialect, it is the basis of one of the variants of the literary Ossetian language. The North Ossetian radio and television broadcasts in it, and the daily republican newspaper Ræstdzinad (in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania) is published.

  1. ^ Bernard Comrie, 1981. The Languages of the Soviet Union, p. 164.
  2. ^ a b Thordarson, Fridrik. 1989. Ossetic. Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, ed. by Rudiger Schmitt, 456-79. Wiesbaden: Reichert. [1]
  3. ^ История Северо-Осетинской АССР (in Russian). Изд-во Академии наук СССР. 1959.