Ossetian language (self-name “iron ævzág”) — the language of the Ossetians, the General population of the Republic of North Ossetia – Alania (RSO-A) and Republic of South Ossetia (RSO). Spoken in Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Stavropol Krai and partly in some areas of Georgia. The number of speakers is estimated at 480-560 thousand people (in Russia 550 431 persons) of them in North Ossetia — around 380-450 thousand people.
According to the 2002 census, Ossetian language in Russia speak Russian 388 10, 1876 Armenians, 1107 837 Kabardians, and the Ingush, Georgians 3200.
The Ossetian language belongs to the Eastern subgroup of the Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European languages, which belonged to the ancient languages of the population of South Russia and adjacent areas of Central Asia, known under the name of Scythians, Sarmatians, massagetov, Sakas, Alans, roksalan and related tribes.
The formation of the modern Ossetian language took place gradually, first under the influence of the Ancient languages of Europe (Slavic, Baltic, Germanic) and, later, through contact with the neighboring Caucasian and Turkic peoples, the traces of which are preserved in the modern Ossetian language.
Even the first Russian and European explorers and travelers who visited the Caucasus, it was observed obvious difference of the Ossetian language from the languages of indigenous peoples. This circumstance was the reason that the question of the origin of language has long been controversial. Has confirmation of the theory of Scythian-Sarmatian-Alanian origin of the Ossetian language, well-grounded, in particular, the presence in the lexicon and even the grammar of traces close and prolonged contact with Slavic and Germanic languages. Most similar to the Ossetian language is Hungarian jars (descendants of the Alans, settled in Hungary in the XIII century), which in English literature, Iasi language (now dead) is often called a dialect of the Ossetian language.
Comparison with other languages
Ossetians for several centuries been the only representatives of the Indo-European language group in the region. Long isolation has led to the fact that the Ossetian language enriched special for their language group phenomena in phonology, in morphology, in the lexicon (words borrowed from Adyghe, Nakh-Daghestanian, and Kartvelian languages) and syntax (system of postpositions instead of Indo-European system of pretexts). Even related Ossetian language in the East-the languages group, — Yagnob and Pashto — is much different from him.