| Sattsaev E.B. Transformation of the Flexia in the Ossetian Language |
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The ancient Iranian language epoch covers the period from the VII–VIth to the IV–IIIth centuries BC, the Middle Iranian from the IV–IIIrd centuries BC to the VIII–IXth centuries AD, while the New Iranian epoch begins from the VIII–IXth centuries AD and continues to our time. The ancient Iranian languages are Avestan, Ancient Persian, Median and Scythian. The modern Ossetian belongs to the modern Iranian languages. Alanian is considered its immediate ancestor. Considerable data enable to state Iranian nature of the language of the Alans. The lack of the necessary number of written sources that would reflect the state of the Ossetian language after the ancient Iranian period significantly complicates the investigation of its features. Its distinctive features are considered to be the influence of the Caucasian substrate. Ossetian is considered one of the well-studied modern Iranian languages. According to ancient Greek and Chinese sources, all ancient Iranian languages were very close creating no language barrier for speakers of them. Ancient authors fixed a large number of Scythian words. The scientific analysis of these words leaves little doubt about the Iranian ancestry of the Scythians. Bearing in mind the significant affinity of the Scythian with other ancient Iranian languages, it is possible to assert the proximity of the inflections of these languages. The processes of separation between the Iranian languages began from the Ist millennium BC. Ossetian inflections have for long been the object of research by scholars, according to whom a part of the case system of the Ossetian directly goes back to the ancient Iranian cases, while others were formed from their own Iranian elements, primarily postpositions. Unlike other Iranian languages, the Ossetian retained a number of reflexes of the ancient Iranian system of declensions. Among the Iranian languages, the most similar to the Ossetian declension is observed in the Khotan-Saka, Sogdian and Khorezmian languages of the Middle Iranian period. The case system of the Caucasian languages, with the exception of Georgian, is significantly different from the case system of Ossetian. Keywords: Iranian languages, the Scythian language, the Alanian language, the Ossetian language, inflectional-agglutinative system, declension types, Iranian elements. References: 1. Oranskii I.M. Vvedenie v iranskuyu filologiyu [Introduction into Iranian Philology]. Moscow, Nauka, 1988. 392 p. 2. Kambolov T.T. Ocherk istorii osetinskogo yazyka. Uchebnoe posobie dlya vuzov [Essay on the History of the Ossetian Language. Textbook for High Schools]. Vladikavkaz, Ir, 2006. 463 p. 3. Abaev V.I. Osetinskii yazyk i fol'klor [Ossetian Language and Folklore]. Moscow-Leningrad, Publ. House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1949, vol. 1. 603 p. 4. Miller Vs. Yazyk osetin [The Language of Ossetians]. Moscow-Leningrad, Publ. House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1962. 191 p. 5. Osnovy iranskogo yazykoznaniya. Drevneiranskie yazyki [Fundamentals of Iranian Linguistics. Old Iranian Languages]. Moscow, Nauka, 1979. 387 p. 6. Osnovy iranskogo yazykoznaniya. Sredneiranskie yazyki [Fundamentals of Iranian Linguistics. Middle Iranian Languages]. Moscow, Nauka, 1981. 544 p. 7. Osnovy iranskogo yazykoznaniya. Novoiranskie yazyki: vostochnaya gruppa [Fundamentals of Iranian Linguistics. New Iranian Languages: Eastern Group]. Moscow, Nauka, 1987. 718 p. 8. Yazyki Azii i Afriki. Indoevropeiskie yazyki: iranskie yazyki, dardskie yazyki. Dravidiiskie yazyki [Languages of Asia and Africa. Indo-European Languages: Iranian Languages, Dardic Languages. Dravidian Languages]. Moscow, Nauka, 1978, vol. II. 439 p. 9. Osnovy iranskogo yazykoznaniya. Novoiranskie yazyki: zapadnaya gruppa [Fundamentals of Iranian Linguistics. New Iranian Languages: Western Group]. Moscow, Nauka, 1982. 571 p. 10. Bagaev N.K. Sovremennyi osetinskii yazyk. Chast’ I (fonetika i morfologiya) [The Modern Ossetian Language. Part I (Phonetics and Morphology)]. Ordzhonikidze, North Ossetian Book Publ., 1965. 488 p. 11. Grammatika osetinskogo yazyka. T. I. Fonetika i morfologiya. Pod redaktsiei K.S. Akhvlediani [Grammar of the Ossetian Language. Vol. I. Phonetics and Morphology. Ed. K.S. Akhvlediani]. Ordzhonikidze, North Ossetian Book Publishing house, 1963. 368 p. 12. Edelman D.I. Sravnitel'naya grammatika vostochnoiranskikh yazykov. Morfologiya. Elementy sintaksisa [Comparative Grammar of the Eastern Iranian Languages. Morphology. Elements of Syntax]. Moscow, Nauka, 1990. 288 p |