Ossetians

Ossetians
Ирæттæ, Дигорæнттæ / Irættæ, Digorænttæ
Flag of Ossetia
Ossetian folk dancer in North Ossetia (Russia), 2010
Total population
c. 700,000[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
 Russia558,515[1]
( North Ossetia–Alania)480,310[2]
 South Ossetia51,000[3][4]
 Georgia
(excluding South Ossetia P.A.)		14,385[5]
 Syria58,700[6]
 Turkey20,000–50,000[7][8][9][10]
 Tajikistan7,861[11]
 Uzbekistan5,823[12]
 Ukraine4,830[13]
 Kazakhstan4,308[14]
 Turkmenistan2,066[15]
 Azerbaijan1,170[16]
 Kyrgyzstan758[17]
 Belarus554[18]
 Moldova403[19]
 Armenia331[20]
 Latvia285[21]
 Lithuania119[22]
 Estonia116[23]
Languages
Ossetian
Religion
Majority:
Eastern Orthodoxy (70–85%)[24]
Minority:
Islam (15–30%)[25]
Uatsdin
Related ethnic groups
other Iranian peoples
a. ^ The total figure is merely an estimation; sum of all the referenced populations.

The Ossetians (/ɒˈsiːʃənz/ oss-EE-shənz or /ɒˈsɛtiənz/ oss-ET-ee-ənz;[26] Ossetic: ир, ирæттæ / дигорӕ, дигорӕнттӕ, romanized: ir, irættæ / digoræ, digorænttæ),[27] also known as Ossetes (/ˈɒsiːts/ OSS-eets),[28] Ossets (/ˈɒsɪts/ OSS-its),[29] and Alans (/ˈælənz/ AL-ənz), are an Iranian[30][31][32][33] ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the northern and southern sides of the Caucasus Mountains.[34][35][36] They natively speak Ossetic, an Eastern Iranian language of the Indo-European language family, with most also being fluent in Russian as a second language.

Currently, the Ossetian homeland of Ossetia is politically divided between North Ossetia–Alania in Russia, and the de facto country of South Ossetia (recognized by the United Nations as Russian-occupied territory that is de jure part of Georgia). Their closest historical and linguistic relatives, the Jász people, live in the Jászság region within the northwestern part of the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County of Hungary. A third group descended from the medieval Alans are the Asud of Mongolia. Both the Jász and the Asud have long been assimilated; only the Ossetians have preserved a form of the Alanic language and Alanian identity.[37]

The majority of Ossetians are Eastern Orthodox Christians,[38] with sizable minorities professing the Ossetian ethnic religion of Uatsdin as well as Islam.

  1. ^ "Russian Census 2010: Population by ethnicity". Perepis-2010.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original (XLS) on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  2. ^ "Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года". Perepis2002.ru. Archived from the original on 2 February 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  3. ^ South Ossetia's status is disputed. It considers itself to be an independent state, but this is recognised by only a few other countries. The Georgian government and most of the world's other states consider South Ossetia de jure a part of Georgia's territory.
  4. ^ "PCGN Report "Georgia: a toponymic note concerning South Ossetia"" (PDF). Pcgn.org.uk. 2007. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 June 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  5. ^ "Ethnic Composition of Georgia" (PDF). Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  6. ^ "Ossetian". Ethnologue. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  7. ^ "Lib.ru/Современная литература: Емельянова Надежда Михайловна. Мусульмане Осетии: На перекрестке цивилизаций. Часть 2. Ислам в Осетии. Историческая ретроспектива". Lit.lib.ru. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  8. ^ "Официальный сайт Постоянного представительства Республики Северная Осетия-Алания при Президенте РФ. Осетины в Москве". Noar.ru. Archived from the original on 1 May 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  9. ^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld – The North Caucasian Diaspora In Turkey". Unhcr.org. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  10. ^ "Göç edeli 100 yıl oldu ama Asetinceyi unutmadılar". 17 August 2008.
  11. ^ Национальный состав, владение языками и гражданство населения республики таджикистан (PDF). Statistics of Tajikistan (in Russian and Tajik). p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  12. ^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР". Archived from the original on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  13. ^ "2001 Ukrainian census". Ukrcensus.gov.ua. Retrieved 21 August 2017.[permanent dead link‍]
  14. ^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР". Archived from the original on 3 January 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  15. ^ "Итоги всеобщей переписи населения Туркменистана по национальному составу в 1995 году". Archived from the original on 13 March 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  16. ^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР". Archived from the original on 4 January 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  17. ^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР". Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  18. ^ Национальный статистический комитет Республики Беларусь (PDF). Национальный статистический комитет Республики Беларусь (in Russian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  19. ^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР". Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  20. ^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР". Archived from the original on 4 January 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  21. ^ "Latvijas iedzīvotāju sadalījums pēc nacionālā sastāva un valstiskās piederības (Datums=01.07.2017)" (PDF) (in Latvian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  22. ^ "Lietuvos Respublikos 2011 metų visuotinio gyventojų ir būstų surašymo rezultatai". p. 8. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  23. ^ "2000 Estonian census". Pub.stat.ee. Retrieved 21 August 2017.[permanent dead link‍]
  24. ^ "Ossetians". 19 June 2015.
  25. ^ "Ossetians". 19 June 2015.
  26. ^ "Ossetian". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  27. ^ Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v. "Ossete".
  28. ^ Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v. "Ossete".
  29. ^ Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v. "Ossete".
  30. ^ Akiner, Shirin (2016) [1987]. Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union. Routledge. p. 182. ISBN 978-0710301888. The Ossetians are an Iranian people of the Caucasus.
  31. ^ Galiev, Anuar (2016). "Mythologization of History and the Invention of Tradition in Kazakhstan". Oriente Moderno. 96 (1): 61. doi:10.1163/22138617-12340094. The Ossetians are an East Iranian people, the Kalmyks and Buryats are Mongolian, and the Bashkirs are Turkic people.
  32. ^ Rayfield, Donald (2012). Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. Reaktion Books. p. 8. ISBN 978-1780230702. For most of Georgian history, those Ossetians (formerly Alanians, an Iranian people, remnants of the Scythians)...
  33. ^ Saul, Norman E. (2015). "Russo-Georgian War (2008)". Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Foreign Policy. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 317. ISBN 978-1442244375. The Ossetians are a people of Iranian descent in the Caucasus that uniquely occupy territories on both sides of the Caucasus Mountain chain.
  34. ^ Bell, Imogen (2003). Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia. London: Taylor & Francis. p. 200.
  35. ^ Mirsky, Georgiy I. (1997). On Ruins of Empire: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Former Soviet Union. p. 28.
  36. ^ Mastyugina, Tatiana. An Ethnic History of Russia: Pre-revolutionary Times to the Present. p. 80.
  37. ^ Foltz, Richard (2022). The Ossetes: Modern-Day Scythians of the Caucasus. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 50–52. ISBN 9780755618453.
  38. ^ Cite error: The named reference encarta2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).