My Ossetian Immersion Log

[Blue Saka]

Hello, everyone.

I think this would be a good way to begin my presence in this discussion forum. So, I decided to study the Ossetian language (Iron dialect) a while back, however, I didn't start with any specifics until yesterday. I was simply getting used to the sound of the language by listening to anything I could find in Ossetic. It's an Iranic language (descended form Alanic, a Scythian dialect), in case you're wondering.

Anyways, I will track progress, here. I guess people could check this out if they themselves are interested in the language.


September 2nd:
I learned the key words regarding identity. As in,

I = ӕz
You (singular) = dy
He/She/It = wyj
We = makh
You (plural) = symakh
They = wydon


Keep in mind that there are no genders in Ossetic. Also, the language can be written in different forms of the Latin, Arabic, and Cyrillic alphabets.

I will continue this tomorrow.


Good day, everyone.

[Blue Saka]

Hi, folks.


So, here's some background into this language.
It is descended from the Scytho-Sarmatian branch of the Eastern Iranic language family. For those who don't know, the Alani (who the Ossetians come from) were a Sarmatian tribal division. They first appeared in Roman sources in the 1st century AD, and like many nomads at the time, they came into conflict with them.

While many Alani migrated West with the Suebi and the Vandals, into Europe (likely due to Hunnic pressure), one branch travelled South towards the Caucasus. Here, they founded the kingdom of Alania, which retained independence until its destruction by the Mongols in 1239. Their cousins who travelled to Europe went on to Iberia and North Africa, where they eventually ceased to be an identifiable entity. One other Ossetic dialect survived until recently. This was known the the Jassic dialect. While the people are still around (the Jasz, in Hungary), they abandoned their language for Hungarian. It is likely that they arrived there some time in the 1200s, fleeing from the Mongol armies.

As for the modern people known as Ossetians, they have two dialects - Iron and Digor. Most speak Iron, which is found in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (in Russia), Karachay-Cherkessia (also in Russia), and South Ossetia (in Georgia). Digor is in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and Karbadino-Balkaria (Russia).

Due to proximity, the Ossetic language has taken on influence from varying Caucasian peoples. While the grammatical structure and the basic lexical information is original, in general, most of the phonetics and lexicon is borrowed. I will not go further into grammar until later on, as I don't bother with it until I have learned what I can from some certain basics, memorizing words, and mining sentences.


September 3rd's Lesson:


To Be...

To be = wӕvyn
I am = ӕz dӕn
You are (singular) = dy dӕ
He/She/It is = wyju
We are = Makh stӕm
You are (plural) = symakh stut
They are = udon sty



Word of the day:

Tsykt = Cheese

[Blue Saka]

Salam!


I hope all of you are well today.
For today, I will be sharing the next stage of this study. This means that I will increase the amount of words that I memorize in a day. I will start with three, then, in a week, I will increase it to five. I do this so that my mind may become acclimatized, and to allow the recent lessons an opportunity to "sink in" so to speak. Also, an expanded vocabulary is useful... obviously... Following that, I will begin mining sentences from various media sources. I will continue to repeat this cycle of focusing on certain areas for lengths of time.


Before I begin, I will share the alphabets used. I will continue to use the Latin-derived one for my posts, as it is the most accessible to people in the West. The Cyrillic version is the current standard, while the Latin, Georgian, and Arabic ones are mostly found in past literature. For the sake of simplicity, I will share the Omniglot link. I'm not affiliated with them or anything, but I do think they have good, basic introductions to languages in general:

https://www.omniglot.com/writing/ossetian.htm



Alright. I have decided to stick with a theme - food. I will spend the first week learning various words surrounding food. I figured, where better to start than a basic everyday thing? Yesterday was tsykt (cheese).


Today's Words:

χær = eat
ziza = meat
art = fire

[Blue Saka]

It's time...


For my next post.
Good day, folks. Today's post, like most over the next few days, will simply be word lists.
So, here we go:

ayk = egg
mar = kill
igær = liver


I would also like to share a nice picture of South Ossetia (in Georgia):

[Blue Saka]

September 6th, 2021


Dæ uæ rajsom xorz!


I was recently asked why I decided to study this language. I will explain this, here, for the record. This will include some more history surrounding the Ossetians, and the Sarmatians as a whole.

My father's family comes from a part of Western Ukraine that has seen many migrations since the Bronze Age. Due to their being on the edge of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, it was only natural that this became an area where nomads and farmers intermingled. The Yamna people, supposedly the first nomadic herders, and the supposed ancestors of most Europeans, roamed across the steppe. Long after, before the many incursions of Turkic tribes in the region, some Iranic ones were present. Although the Scythians are now known to be a number of peoples, united mostly by language, branches of their cultural sphere were well-known in this area. The so-called Royal Scythians, the Cimmerians, the Sarmatians (including their divisions - the Roxolani, Aorsi, Alani, etc.). It can be endlessly debated who the Slavs were descended from, but it is with good reason I think they have some Iranic influence.

I mean, seeing my own relatives, many of some look like people straight out of Central Asia. It has been surmised that the Slavs either absorbed the Sarmatian peoples, or were themselves Sarmatians. To me, it's not really important, but because much of my family looks like modern-day Ossetians and Jasz (and not like most Ukrainians), I sometimes wonder. Even the "reconstructions" of Sarmatian skulls catches my eye... if they're at all accurate. The proximity they have to the Jasz ethnicity doesn't help the matter. The food I was raised on is stuff familiar to the "fusion cuisine" settled nomads often adopted.

Anyways, besides all of that, I've always been interested in the history, cuisines, and peoples of Central Eurasia. It was inevitable that I would study a language from there, some day.



So, here is today's word list:

xalsærttæ = vegetable
dirg = fruit
stæɡ = bone

[Iversen]

The names of languages and tribes you list above have been mentioned in some of the things I have read along the way (or seen in museums), but I had actually not expected that the Alan(ian)s left a living legacy in the Caucasus in the form of the Ossetian language, which contrary to many of its neighbours is Indoeuropean. So I had to look a few things up, and my immediate impression is that neither Ossetian, nor its extinct relatives have any close relationship with the Slavic languages - except that both language groups are satem languages, while most European languages and the extinct Tocharian to the far East are centum languages. And I'm impressed that you have chosen to take up such a language, which can't have too many language learning resources to boast since very few outsiders even know that it exists.

By the way, I visited the Caucasian region in 2001, and I had lunch once in South Ossetia with my guide just for fun - but then South Ossetia was annexed by Russia, and now I suppose you need a Russian visum and a lot of red tape to visit the place.

[Blue Saka]

The names of languages and tribes you list above have been mentioned in some of the things I have read along the way (or seen in museums), but I had actually not expected that the Alan(ian)s left a living legacy in the Caucasus in the form of the Ossetian language, which contrary to many of its neighbours is Indoeuropean. So I had to look a few things up, and my immediate impression is that neither Ossetian, nor its extinct relatives have any close relationship with the Slavic languages - except that both language groups are satem languages, while most European languages and the extinct Tocharian to the far East are centum languages. And I'm impressed that you have chosen to take up such a language, which can't have too many language learning resources to boast since very few outsiders even know that it exists.

By the way, I visited the Caucasian region in 2000, and I had lunch once in South Ossetia with my guide just for fun - but then South Ossetia was annexed by Russia, and now I suppose you need a Russian visum and a lot of red tape to visit the place.

Thank you for your comment, Iversen.

You have helped expand on the place of the Ossetic language in its context in the region. I would have said some more down the road, but I won't begrudge someone else the right to share the information at any point. I appreciate anyone wanting to add things to this log.
As for finding resources on this stuff, it has been difficult. I enjoy searching, though. Going through Russian sources has been a real blast... good thing I can understand the Cyrillic alphabet and some Russian words. it's going to be slow.

When I visit Georgia, I know that I may end up not visiting South Ossetia (or any of the Russian regions), but there are enough Ossetian speakers elsewhere. In any case, I want to see the Caucasus.

Out of curiosity... what did you think of the Caucasus? Did you enjoy visiting there?

[Iversen]

I won't fill up your thread with a lot of my travel memories, but just mention that I arrranged my trip per e-mail and telephone through a local Tbilisi company in 2001, and that I visited Ukraine (Kiev), Georgia, Azerbaijan and then back via Georgia to Armenia - and it was a splendid trip. I needed four different visas and got them in Bruxelles. In Georgia and in Armenia I had a private driver/guide with me, while I used the train from Tbilisi to Baku and back (but I arranged some transport myself while in Azerbaijan).

I didn't learn any of the languages there, but it was so easy to learn the Georgian alphabet that I couldn't resist the temptation to do so - and also to buy a small grammar (in French) and a dictionary. So one day I might get tempted also to learn at least to read Kartuli using these resources, but we are not there yet. As for the South Ossetia detour it was my driver who suggested it, but we didn't visit any sights - and I didn't even notice what language they spoke there or which alphabet they used. I knew that we had crossed an internal border of some kind because we had to show passports (like when we went to Adjara, which still was a semi-autonomous enclave ruled by 'Baba'), but we probably didn't enter far into South Ossetia. Nevertheless it's fun to know that I have been there.

Caucasus-trip.jpg

[Blue Saka]

I won't fill up your thread with a lot of my travel memories, but just mention that I arrranged my trip per e-mail and telephone through a local Tbilisi company in 2001, and that I visited Ukraine (Kiev), Georgia, Azerbaijan and then back via Georgia to Armenia - and it was a splendid trip. I needed four different visas and got them in Bruxelles. In Georgia and in Armenia I had a private driver/guide with me, while I used the train from Tbilisi to Baku and back (but I arranged some transport myself while in Azerbaijan).

I didn't learn any of the languages there, but it was so easy to learn the Georgian alphabet that I couldn't resist the temptation to do so - and also to buy a small grammar (in French) and a dictionary. So one day I might get tempted also to learn at least to read Kartuli using these resources, but we are not there yet. As for the South Ossetia detour it was my driver who suggested it, but we didn't visit any sights - and I didn't even notice what language they spoke there or which alphabet they used. I knew that we had crossed an internal border of some kind because we had to show passports (like when we went to Adjara, which still was a semi-autonomous enclave ruled by 'Baba'), but we probably didn't enter far into South Ossetia. Nevertheless it's fun to know that I have been there.

Caucasus-trip.jpg

I don't mind at all if you share things about your travels. Previous, current, or future travel seems to be a common interest with lots of us here.

It sounds like you had a fantastic trip in general.

[Blue Saka]

Salam!


Here is today's word list, folks:

kæsaɡ = fish
don = water
bagana = Ossetian beer