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Alanic language

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Alanic[1]
Alanian[1]
The Zelenchuk Inscription, an inscripton in Alanic.
Native toAlania
RegionNorth Caucasus and Iberia
EthnicityAlans
Era1st–13th century AD[2]
Developed into Ossetian
unwritten, rarely Greek
Language codes
ISO 639-3xln
xln
GlottologNone

Alanic (also known as Alanian),[1] was a language spoken by the Alans from about the 1st to the 13th centuries AD.[2] It formed a dialect directly descended from the earlier Scytho-Sarmatian languages, which in its turn formed the Ossetian language. Byzantine Greek authors recorded only a few fragments of this language.[3] The Alans, which were a part of the Migration Period, they brought their language to Iberia in 409 AD before being displaced by the invading Visigoths.[1]

Unlike Pontic Scythian, Ossetian did not experience the evolution of the Proto-Scythian sound /d/ to /δ/ and then /l/, although the sound /d/ did evolve into /δ/ at the beginning of Ossetian words.[4]

According to Magomet Isayev, the Zelenchuk inscription and other historical data give reason to assume that in the 10th-13th centuries, the Alans already had their own unique written language based on the Greek alphabet, subsequent historical events resulted in this written tradition being lost.[5]

After the Mongols destroyed the Alan state, they retreated to the mountains of the Caucasus and mixed with the indigenous population, forming the modern day Ossetians and Ossetian language.[6]

Phrases

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Well-known evidence of the Alanic language are the Alanic phrases in the Theogony of the Byzantine author John Tzetzes.

In 1927, the Hungarian Byzantinist I. Moravcsik discovered the full text of the epilogue to the Theogony in the 15th-century Barberinus manuscript in the Vatican Library. He published the work in 1930, which contained greeting formulas written in the Greek alphabet in the various languages that the Byzantine Empire had come into contact with in the 12th century. These languages included "Scythian" (in fact, the Cuman language), "Persian" (in fact, Turkish-Seljuk), Latin, Arabic, Russian, Hebrew and Alanic. Thus, this is the only written monument of Alanic whose ethnolinguistic affiliation has been attested by the person who wrote it.

The translation from Greek and Latin transliteration of greeting phrases in “barbarian” languages was published by S. M. Perevalov in 1998:

τοις Άλανοις προσφθέγγομαι κατά' την τούτων γλώσσαν

[I address the Alans in their language:]

καλή' ήμερα σου, αυ'θέτα μου, αρχόντισσα, πόθεν είσαι;

["Good day, my lord, Archontissa, where are you from?"]

ταπαγχας μέσφιλι χσινά κορθι καντά, και ταλλα.

[Tapankhas mesfili khsina korthi kanda and so on]

αν δ'εχη Άλάνισσα παπαν φίλον, α'κουσαις ταύτα.

[If an Alan has a (holy) father as her lover, you will hear this:]

Ουκ αίσχύνεσαι, αυθέντριά μου, να' γαμη το μουνίν σου παπάς

["Aren't you ashamed, my lady? After all, your father has relations with you"]

То φάρνετζ κίντζι μέσφιλι καιτζ φουα σαουγγε.

[Το 'farnetz kintzi mesfili kaitzfua saunge.']

The language of these phrases is an archaic version of the Ossetian language . Thus, "Tapankhas" ("good day") corresponds to the Ironian "dæ bon xorz", the Digor "dæ bon xwarz" - "let your day be good". It is noteworthy that a similar phrase - "daban horz" - was found in the Jassic glossary of 1422.

Both phrases can be compared in their entirety with modern Ossetian analogues:

The first [Tapankhas mesfili khsina korthi kanda] corresponds to the modern Ossetian (Digor):

Dæ bon xwarz, me ’fsijni ’xsijnæ. Kurdigæj dæ?
«Good afternoon, my master's mistress (wife). Where are you from?»

The second phrase - [Farnetz kintzi mesfili kaitzfua saunge.] corresponds to the Ossetian

’F(s)arm neci (’j) kindzi ’fsijni, kæci fæwwa sawgini.
 — «“There is no shame (for) a lady-daughter-in-law who is a priest’s (given to a priest)”».[7][8]

There has also been a comparison of the word for horse in various Indo-Iranian languages and the reconstructed Alanic word for horse:[9]

Language Affiliation Horse
Alanic *aspa
Lithuanian Baltic ašvà
Sanskrit Indo-Aryan áśva
Khotanese Northeastern Iranian aśśa
Pashto East Iranian ās
Ossetian Northeastern Iranian efs
Wakhi Northeastern Iranian yaš
Yaghnobi Northeastern Iranian asp
Avestan Southeastern Iranian aspa
Balochi Northwestern Iranian asp
Kurdî Northwestern Iranian hesp
Median Northwestern Iranian aspa
Old Persian Southwestern Iranian asa
Middle Persian Southwestern Iranian asp
Persian Southwestern Iranian asb

Phonetics

[edit]

The closest phonetics to Alanic is the archaic Digor dialect of Ossetian. The main differences are:

  • In Alanic the transition a > o before nasals has not yet occurred (ban "day", nam "name")
  • Alanic lacked the plosive-glottal sounds p, t, ts, ch, k, which were adopted by Ossetian from the Caucasian substrate, as well as kh (q), which was adopted from Turkic.

Zelenchuk inscription

[edit]

The Zelenchuk inscription is a 10th-century inscription on a gravestone discovered by archaeologist Dmitry Strukov in 1888 on the right bank of the Bolshoy Zelenchuk river. It is considered the most famous written monument of the Alanic language or the oldest monument of the Ossetian language.[10]

The inscription was read and published in 1893 by Academician Vsevolod Miller[11] as follows:

Ις Χς

[Jesus Christ]

Οατς(?) Νικολαοή

[Saint (?) Nicholas]

Σαχηρη φουρτ

[Sakhir's son]

X… ρη φουρτ

[Χ... and son]

Πακαθαρ Πακαθαη φουρτ

[Bakatar Bakatai son]

Ανπαλ Αναπαλανη φουρτ

[Anbal Anabalan son]

λακανη τζηρθε (?)

[Monument to the Youth (?)]

<λακανητε ηρθε> (?)

[<Young men Ira (?)>]

According to the modern researcher T. T. Kambolov, the inscription can be deciphered as follows:

"Jesus Christ, Saint Nicholas, Sakhir son of Khors, Khors son of Bagatar, Bagatar son of Anbalan, Anbalan son of Lag - their graves."

It is assumed that the slab was installed on the site of a collective burial and that names were added as new graves appeared, which can be noticed from the some symbols being drawn differently.[12]

In 1892, the inscription was rediscovered by G. I. Kulikovsky, which he made a new imprint of. This was the last time the monument was seen as expeditions in 1946 and 1964 failed to find the gravestone.[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Alanic". LINGUIST List. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2024. The extinct unknown language of the Alans, who came from Asia and overran the Iberian Peninsula around AD 409, before being displaced by the Visigoths.
  2. ^ a b Leila Dodykhudoeva. "The socio-linguistic situation and state of research of the Ossetic language". Academia.edu. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
  3. ^ Ladislav Zgusta, "The old Ossetian Inscription from the River Zelenčuk" (Veröffentlichungen der Iranischen Kommission = Sitzungsberichte der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse 486) Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1987. ISBN 3-7001-0994-6
    Cited in Kim, Ronald (2003). "On the Historical Phonology of Ossetic: The Origin of the Oblique Case Suffix". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 123 (1): 43–72 [54]. doi:10.2307/3217844. JSTOR 3217844.
  4. ^ Ivantchik, Askold I. (1999). "Une légende sur l'origine des Scythes (HDT. IV 5–7) et le problème des sources du Scythicos logos d'Hérodote" [A Legend on the Origin of the Scythians (Hdt. IV 5–7) and the problems of the sources of Herodotus's Scythicos logos]. Revue des Études Grecques [Review of Greek Studies]. 112 (1): 156–158. doi:10.3406/reg.1999.4355. JSTOR 44260011.
  5. ^ "Всеволод Фёдорович Миллер" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2011-09-12. Retrieved 2025-02-07.
  6. ^ Jazyki mira: Iranskije jazyki. III. Vostotšnoiranskije jazyki. Indrik. 1999. pp. 105–106. ISBN 5-85759-107-4.
  7. ^ Kambolov, Tamerlan (2007). "Some New Observations on the Zelenchuk Inscription and Tzetzes' Alanic Phrases" (PDF). Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans — Iranian-Speaking Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes (7-10 May 2007): Abstracts. Barcelona. pp. 21–22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-09-11. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
  8. ^ "Источник" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2008-09-11. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
  9. ^ Abaev, Vasiliĭ Ivanovich; l'Oriente, Istituto italiano per l'Africa e (1998). Studia iranica et alanica (in Russian). Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente.[page needed]
  10. ^ "ДИГОРСКИЙ ДИАЛЕКТ ОСЕТИНСКОГО ЯЗЫКА" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2010-05-24. Retrieved 2025-01-26.
  11. ^ "Большая советская энциклопедия" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2008-06-21. Retrieved 2025-01-26.
  12. ^ a b "Зеленчукская надпись" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2007-11-07. Retrieved 2025-02-06.
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