ossetic/en — Лаборатория полевых исследований

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Ossetic belongs to the Iranian genus of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family and is considered, along with Yaghnobi, to be one of the only two surviving North-East Iranian languages. According to official data of the Russian census of 2002, there are more than 500 000 Ossetians living in Russia; their total number is about 700 000. According to Ethnologue, the number of speakers is 641 450. Based on recent data, however, presented in Kambolov 2007 and in the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (vulnerable status, 550 000 speakers estimated), and also based on the project participants’ personal experience, the real number of speakers is much lower than officially stated and is steadily decreasing due to growing urbanization and the influence of Russian.

For the most part, Ossetic is spoken on the territory of the Republic of North Ossetia—Alania, part of Russia, and in South Ossetia, located in South Caucasus. There are also small communities of Ossetic speakers in Turkey, Georgia and other countries.

Ossetic is traditionally considered to consist of two major dialects: Iron and Digor. Recently, however, some scholars have started to consider Kudar (traditionally regarded as a sub-dialect of Iron, cf. e. g. Bekoev 1985 in the Monographs section below) a separate, third dialect of Ossetic (for more information see: Dziccojty Ju. A. Ètnogenez južnyx osetin po dannym dialektologii. In: Izvestija Jugo-Osetinskogo naučno-issledovatel’skogo instituta im. Z. N. Vaneeva, issue XXXV, 1998).

On this site we provide materials on all dialects of Ossetic: spoken and written interlinear texts, handouts and papers by the project’s participants, and also scans of grammars, dissertations and articles. For the most part, the material presented herein has been collected during fieldtrips to North Ossetia in 2007-2009.

Any original materials presented herein can only be used with reference to this webpage.

Project participants

Current participants of the project are:

Arseniy Vydrin (Institute of Linguistic Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia)

Oleg Belyaev (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia)

Julia Mazurova (Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia)

Natalia Serdobolskaya (Russian State University for Humanities, Moscow, Russia)

Fieldwork in North Ossetia

The first fieldtrip to the Republic of North Ossetia—Alania took place in winter 2007 with the following participants: Arseniy Vydrin (lead member), Vitaly Volk, Nataliya Stoynova. Invaluable aid in organizing this field trip was provided by Aslanbek Guriev. Most of the time in the field was spent in the village of Dargavs (Prigorodniy district). It was during this trip that most of the Iron oral texts presented here were recorded.

Since then, five more fieldtrips have been carried out. Their participants were Oleg Belyaev, David Erschler, Julia Mazurova, Vitaliy Volk and Arseniy Vydrin. In summer 2007 we worked in Dargavs, in winter 2008 — in Dargavs and in the Department of Ossetic philology of the North Ossetian State University, in the city of Vladikavkaz. In autumn 2008 and spring 2009 some of the participants (Arseniy Vydrin, Oleg Belyaev, Julia Mazurova) undertook a field trip to the area where Digor is spoken: the villages of Zadalessk, Nar, Macuta, Dzinaga, Galiat, Akhsau, Makhchesk, Vakac, and where the mixed Iron-Digor Wallagkom dialect is spoken: the villages of Kamunta and Dunta. During these fieldtrips the Digor oral texts presented here have been recorded and analysed.

In the classification proposed by D. R. Bekoev (Bekoev 1985), inhabitants of Dargavs speak on the Kurtati patois of the Iron dialect (orthographic ‘с’ is pronounced as [š], ‘з’ as [ž], ‘ц’ as [s], ‘дз’ as [z]).

In the areas where Digor is spoken which we have visited, the inhabitants speak the Stur-Digor patois of the Digor dialect. One of the peculiarities of this dialect is the pronounciation of the phonemes /dz/, /c/, /c’/, /z/ and /s/ as /dž/, /č/, /č’/, /ž/ and /š/ before front vowels, and it is reflected in our notes on transliteration here.

Fieldwork in South Ossetia

In the beginning of 2010 a field trip to South Ossetia was undertaken for the first time by Oleg Belyaev and Natalia Serdobolskaya. During this field trip the researchers have visited the city of Tskhinval and the village of Khetagurovo, where about 4 hours of oral texts in the Kudar dialect have been recorded.

Acknowledgements

The project participants are thankful to the Russian Scientific Foundation for Humanities (RGNF) for financial support. The research of Ossetic has been carried out with support from the following grants:

RGNF No. 07-04-18013е «Modern Ossetic language: aspects of grammar, lexicon, ethnolinguistics», 2007

RGNF No. 08-04-18019е «A field trip to rural regions of North Ossetia», 2008

RGNF No. 08-04-95371и/Мл «An internship in North Ossetic State University, Vladikavkaz», 2008

RGNF No. 09-04-00168а «An exploration of the modality system of Ossetic and its main dialects» 2009–2010

We are thankful to the following scholars of Ossetic and other fellow researchers in Vladikavkaz for their help in finding informants and for consulting us on various aspects of Ossetic grammar:

Doctor of History, Prof. Bzarov R. S. (deputy director of the Institute of History and Archaeology); Doctor of Philology, Prof. Gacalova L. B. (deputy director of the Vasily Abaev North Ossetic Institute of Humanitarian and Social Research); Doctor of Philology, Prof. Guriev T. A. (head of the Department of Language of the Vasily Abaev North Ossetic Institute of Humanitarian and Social Research); Doctor of Philology, Prof. Kambolov T. T. (chair of the UNESCO Department of North Ossetic State Pedagogical Institute); Candidate of Philology, Prof. Takazov F. M. (research fellow of the Vasily Abaev North Ossetic Institute of Humanitarian and Social Research).

We would like to express our special gratitude to Aslanbek Guriev, who helps us in organizing regular field trips to North Ossetia; to Islam Sasiev for his cordial hospitality in Dargavs during fieldtrips of 2007 and 2008; and also to Doctor of Philology, Prof. Takazov Kh. A. (chair of the Department of Ossetic Philology of North Ossetic State University) and Mairbek Khaymanov (director of the V. A. Gacolaev boarding school, village of Macuta), without whose support our fieldwork in Digor areas would not have been possible.

We express our special gratitude to the vice-speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of South Ossetia, Doctor of Philology Dziccojty Yu. A. who has greatly aided us during our visit to South Ossetia in winter 2010.

We are also thankful to all of the native speakers who had agreed to work with us: the inhabitants of the villages of Dargavs and Macuta, the teachers and students of the boarding school in Macuta, the students of the Department of Ossetic Philology in Vladikavkaz, PhD students and fellows of the V.I. Abaev North Ossetian Institute of Humanitarian and Social Research.

Finally, we would like to thank the Laboratory of Field Research of the Institute of Philological Research, St. Petersburg State University, and its system administrator, Kirill Maslinsky, for providing us web hosting for this resource.

Texts

Interlinear texts that have been analyzed by our project can be accessed here.

For writing down the texts we are using the standard Ossetic orthography which adequately reflects the phonology and morphology of the language, however the phonetic value of a few signs is not trivial. You can find a table of correspondences between this orthography, IPA symbols and the working transcription we use in our English-language publications here.

The oral texts in the Iron dialect have been recorded and analyzed (to varying degree) by Oleg Belyaev, David Erschler, Julia Mazurova, Nataliya Stoynova, Vitaly Volk and Arseniy Vydrin. Final editing of the texts to be published online has been carried out by Oleg Belyaev.

The oral and written texts in the Digor dialect have been recorded and analyzed by Oleg Belyaev, Julia Mazurova and Arseniy Vydrin. Final editing of the texts to be published online has been carried out by Oleg Belyaev and Arseniy Vydrin.

Our publications

Vydrin, A.P. Uslovnye konstrukcii v osetinskom jazyke [Conditional clauses in Ossetic]. In Četvertaja konferencija po tipologii i grammarike dlja molodyx issledovatelej. St. Petersburg, 2007. In Russian. (pdf)

Vydrin, A.P. Grammatičeskie sposoby vyraženija vnutrennej i vnešnej vozmožnosti v osetinskom jazyke [Grammatical means of expressing internal and external possibility in Ossetic]. In N.N. Kazanskiy (ed.), Acta linguistica Petropolitana. Trudy ILI RAN. Vol. 4, pt. 2. Saint-Petersburg, 2008, pp. 34-42. In Russian. (pdf)

Vydrin, A.P. Sovremennyj osetinskij jazyk: opyt polevogo izučenija [Modern Ossetic: an experience of fieldwork]. In Vestnik Rossijskogo Gumanitarnogo Naučnogo fonda 2009, 1 (54), pp. 176-182. In Russian. (pdf)

Vydrin, A.P. O leksičesko-sintaksičeskix sposobax vyraženija real’nyx i irreal’nyx značenij (na materiale osetinskogo jazyka) [On lexical and syntactic means of expressing real and irreal meanings (on the material of Ossetic)]. In Izvestija Severo-Osetinskogo instituta gumanitarnyx i social’nyx issledovanij im. V.I. Abaeva VNC RAN i pravitel’stva RSO-A, No. 3(42), 2009, pp. 171-182. In Russian. (MS, pdf)

Vydrin, A. Counterfactual mood in Ossetic // 3rd International Conference on Iranian Linguistics. September 11-13, 2009, Paris, p. 37. [See full version in «Talks, presentations»]

Belyaev, O. and A. Vydrin. On two verbal derivates in Ossetic // 3rd International Conference on Iranian Linguistics. September 11-13, 2009, Paris, p. 9. [See full version in «Talks, presentations»]

In print:

Vydrin, A.P. Passivnye i modal’no-passivnye konstrukcii v osetinskom jazyke [Passive and modal-passive constructions in Ossetic]. In Russian (in print) (MS, pdf).

Vydrin, A.P. Vyraženie imperativnogo značenija v osetinskom jazyke [Expression of imperative meaning in Ossetic]. In Russian (in print).

Vydrin, A.P. Dve konstrukcii vozmozhnosti v osetinskom jazyke [On two constructions of possibility in Ossetic]. In Russian (in print) (MS, pdf)

Talks, presentations

Arkhangelskiy, T. and O. Belyaev. A Comparison of Eastern Armenian and Ossetic Spatial Systems. Talk at Current Advances in Caucasian Studies, December 21-24, Macerata, Italy. (abstract, pdf) (presentation, pdf) (handout, pdf)

Vydrin, A.P. Uslovnye konstrukcii v osetinskom jazyke [Conditional clauses in Ossetic]. Talk at Četvertaja konferencija po tipologii i grammarike dlja molodyx issledovatelej [Fourth Conference on Typology and Grammar for Young Researchers], 2007, St. Petersburg, Russia. In Russian.

Vydrin, A.P. Grammatičeskie sposoby vyraženija vnutrennej i vnešnej vozmožnosti v osetinskom jazyke [Grammatical means of expressing internal and external possibility in Ossetic]. Talk at Pjataja konferencija po tipologii i grammarike dlja molodyx issledovatelej [Fifth Conference on Typology and Grammar for Young Researchers], 6-8 November 2008, St. Petersburg, Russia. In Russian. (handout, pdf)

Vydrin, A.P. Passivnye i modal’no-passivnye konstrukcii v osetinskom jazyke [Passive and modal passive constructions in Ossetic]. Talk at Šestaja konferencija po tipologii i grammarike dlja molodyx issledovatelej, November 26-28 2009, St. Petersburg, Russia. In Russian. (handout, pdf)

Vydrin, A. Counterfactual mood in Iron Ossetic. Talk at Third International Conference on Iranian Linguistics, September 11-13 2009, Paris, Sorbonne Nouvelle. (handout, pdf)

Belyaev, O. and A. Vydrin. On two verbal derivates in Ossetic. Talk at Third International Conference on Iranian Linguistics, September 11-13 2009, Paris, Sorbonne Nouvelle. (handout, pdf)

Working papers

Vydrin, A. P. Sfera upotreblenija naklonenij v osetinskom jazyke [Mood in Ossetic]. (MS, pdf)

Articles, dissertations

Abaev, V. I. O jazyke južnyx osetin [On the language of South Ossetians]. In Jazyki Severnogo Kavkaza i Dagestana: Sbornik lingvističeskix issledovanij. Moscow-Leningrad, 1935, pp.87-96. In Russian. (pdf)

Alborov, B. A. Govor osetin-ironcev Mozdokskogo rajona [The dialect of Iron Ossetians of Mozdok region]. In Izvestija 2-go Severo-Kavkazskogo pedagogičeskogo instituta imeni Gadieva, vol. IX, 1932, pp. 273-306. (djvu)

Cabolov, R. L. Sostavnye glagoly v osetinskom jazyke [Complex verbs in Ossetic]. In Izvestiya Severo-Osetinskogo naučno-issledovatel’skogo instituta, vol.XXIV, issue 1 (1964), pp. 113-121. (pdf)

Cxovrebova, Z. D. O poslelogax v osetinskom jazyke [On postpositions in Ossetic]. In Izvestija Jugo-Osetinskogo naučno-issledovatel’skogo instituta Akademii nauk Gruzinskoj SSR, issue XII, 1963, pp. 143-159 (pdf)

Takazov, X. A. Kategorija glagola v sovremennom osetinskom jazyke. PhD thesus. Мoscow, 1992. (djvu)

Monographs on Ossetic

In Russian and Ossetic:

Abaev, V.I. Grammatičeskij očerk osetinskogo jazyka [A Grammatical Sketch of Ossetic]. Ordžonikidze, 1959. In Russian. Download from allingvo.ru

Abaev, V.I. Istoriko-ètimologičeskij slovar’ osetinskogo jazyka [Historical Etymological Dictionary of Ossetic]. In 4 volumes. Leningrad, 1958-1984. In Russian. Download from allingvo.ru

Abaev, V.I. Osetinskij jazyk i fol’klor [Ossetic language and folklore]. Vol. 1. Moscow—Leningrad, 1949. In Russian.

Abaev, V.I. Russko-osetinskij slovar’ [Russian-Ossetic dictionary] (edited by Isaev M.I.). 3rd edition. Moscow, 2000. In Russian.

Abaev, V.I. Skifo-evropejskie izoglossy. Na styke Vostoka i Zapada. [Scytho-European isoglosses. Between Orient and Occident]. Мoscow, 1965. In Russian.

Axvlediani, G.S. (ed.) Grammatika osetinskogo jazyka, t.1. Fonetika i morfologija [A Grammar of Ossetic, Vol.1. Phonetics and morphology]. Ordžonikidze, 1963. In Russian. Download from allingvo.ru

Axvlediani, G.S. (ed.) Grammatika osetinskogo jazyka, t.2. Sintaksis [A Grammar of Ossetic, Vol.2. Syntax]. Ordžonikidze, 1969. In Russian. Download from allingvo.ru

Bagaev, N.Ya. Sovremennyj osetinskij yazyk, č.1 [Modern Ossetic Language, pt.1]. Ordžonikidze, 1965. In Russian. Download from allingvo.ru

Bagaev, N.Ya. Sovremennyj osetinskij yazyk, č.2. Sintaksis [Modern Ossetic Language, pt.2. Syntax]. Ordžonikidze, 1982. In Russian. Download from allingvo.ru

Bekoev, N.Ya. Ironskij dialekt osetinskogo yazyka [Iron Dialect of Ossetic]. Cxinvali, 1985. In Russian. Download from allingvo.ru

Benvenist, È. Očerki po osetinskomu jazyku [Studies on Ossetic]. Moscow, 1965. [translation of Benveniste 1959]

Gabaraev, N.Ya. Morfologičeskaja struktura slova i slovoobrazovanie v sovremennom osetinskom jazyke [Morphological Structure of Words and Derivation in Modern Ossetic]. Tbilisi, 1977. In Russian.

Gæbærаty, N. (ed.) Iron orfografion dzyrduat [Orthographic dictionary of Ossetic]. Dzæudžyqæu, 2002. In Ossetic. Contains irregular forms and past stems of verbs

Gagkaev, K.E. Očerki grammatiki osetinskogo jazyka [Sketches of Ossetic Grammar]. Dzaudžikau, 1952.

Gagkaev, K.E. Sintaksis osetinskogo jazyka [Ossetic Syntax]. Ordžonikidze, 1956. Download from allingvo.ru

Guriev, T.A. (ed.) Osetinsko-russkij slovar’. 5-e izd. [Ossetic-Russian dictionary. 5th edition]. Vladikavkaz, 2004. In Russian.

Isaev, M.I. Digorskij dialekt osetinskogo jazyka [Digor Dialect of Ossetic]. Moscow, 1966. In Russian. Download from allingvo.ru

Isaev, M.I. Očerki po frazeologii osetinskogo jazyka [Sketches of Ossetic phraseology]. Ordžonikidze, 1964. In Russian.

Kambolov, T.T. Očerk istorii osetinskogo jazyka [A Historical Sketch of Ossetic]. Vladikavkaz, 2006. In Russian. Download from ironau.ru

Kambolov, T.T.. Jazykovaja situacija i jazykovaja politika v Severnoj Osetii: istorija, sovremennost’, perspektivy [Linguistic Situation and Language Planning in North Ossetia: Past, Present and Future]. Vladikavkaz, 2007. In Russian. Download from ironau.ru

Kudzoeva, A.F. Porjadok slov i aktualnoe členenie v osetinskom jazyke [Word Order and Information Structure in Ossetic]. Vladikavkaz, 2003. In Russian.

Kulaev, N.X. Sojuzy v sovremennom osetinskom jazyke [Conjunctions in Modern Ossetic]. Ordžonikidze, 1959. In Russian. Download from allingvo.ru

Miller, Vs. F. Osetinskie ètjudy [Studies in Ossetic]. In 3 volumes. St. Petersburg, 1881-1887. Download from iriston.com

Miller, Vs. F. Jazyk osetin [Language of the Ossetes]. Moscow, 1962. In Russian. [translation of Miller 1903]

Takazov, F.M. Digorsko-russkij slovar’ [Digor-Russian dictionary]. Vladikavkaz, 2003. In Russian.

Tedeev, G.Z. Semantičeskaja struktura osetinskogo glagola [Semantic Structure of Ossetic Verbs]. Tbilisi, 1989. In Russian.

Texov, F.D. Vyraženie modal’nosti v osetinskom jazyke [Expression of Modality in Ossetic]. Tbilisi, 1970. In Russian.

Čëng, Dž. Očerki istoričeskogo razvitija osetinskogo vokalizma [Studies in the historical development of the Ossetic vocalism]. Vladikavkaz — Cxinval, 2008. In Russian. [translation of Cheung 2002]

Šëgren, A.M. Osetinskaja grammatika i slovar’ [Ossetic Grammar and Dictionary]. In 2 volumes. St. Petersburg, 1844.

In other languages:

Abaev, V.I. 1964. A Grammatical Sketch of Ossetic. The Hague: Mouton. [translation of Абаев 1949]

Benveniste, E. Études sur la langue ossète. Paris. 1959.

Cheung, J. Studies in the historical development of the Ossetic vocalism. Beiträge zur Iranistik, Band 21. Wiesbaden. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2002.

Miller, W. Die Sprache der Osseten. Strassburg, 1903.

Thordarson, F. Ossetic Grammatical Studies. Wien, 2009.

Weber D. Beiträge zur historischen Grammatik der Ossetischen. Indogermanische Forschungen. B. 5, 1981.

Sites on Ossetic

ironau.ru — Ossetic language on-line. Reference and study material on Ossetic, including texts in Ossetic and scans of some grammatical works. Forum.

allingvo.ru — Alan language club. A large collection of texts in Ossetic (including those with parallel Russian translation) and scanned grammatical works. Ossetic dictionaries in ABBYY Lingvo format.

iriston.com — History and culture of Ossetia. This site contains some scans of grammars, including «Ossetic sketches» by Vs. F. Miller. Has a forum.

Ossetic dictionaries

ABBYY Lingvo dictionaries at allingvo.ru — Ossetic (Iron and Digor) dictionaries in ABBYY Lingvo format (for different languages, including English).

Ossetic dictionaries on-line on iriston.com — web versions of various Ossetic dictionaries.

Web-based Ossetic-Russian and Russian-Ossetic at ironau.ru — also includes Ossetic-Russian dictionary in .doc format.

Photos

Photos are available here.

This section of the website is being supported and updated by Oleg Belyaev (obelyaev[at]gmail.com) and Arseniy Vydrin (senjacom[at]mail.ru). All technical questions related to the format of this section and the Ossetic texts should be directed to the following e-mail: ossetic.studies[at]gmail.com .