Digor Ossetian Explained

Digor
States:North Caucasus
Speakers:ca. 100,000
Date:2010
Ref:[1]
Familycolor:Indo-European
Fam2:Indo-Iranian
Fam3:Iranian
Fam4:Eastern
Fam5:Ossetian
Isoexception:dialect
Glotto:digo1242
Glottorefname:Digor Ossetian
Pronunciation:pronounced as /[digɔːrɔːn ɐvzɑːg]/
Ethnicity:Digors (West Ossetians)
Nation:
Script:Cyrillic (current)
Arabic, Latin (historical)
Nativename:Дигорон ӕвзаг, Digoron ӕvzag

Digor Ossetian (; Ossetian; Ossetic: дигорон ӕвзаг|digoron ӕvzag pronounced as /os/) also known as Digor Ossetic or Digor-Ossetic, is a dialect of the Ossetic language spoken by the Digor people. It is less widely spoken than Iron, the other extant Ossetian dialect. The two are distinct enough to sometimes be considered separate languages; in the recently published Digor–Russian dictionary, the compiler Fedar Takazov refers to a "Digor language", though the editor in the same book uses "Digor dialect".

Digor is spoken in the west of the Republic of North Ossetia (Digora, Chikola, etc.) and in neighboring Kabardino-Balkaria.[2] Digor is used far less than Iron at about a one to five ratio while also being non-existent in the Republic of South Ossetia.

Digor and Iron are not mutually comprehensible, as there are about 2,500 words in the Digor dialect that do not exist in the Iron dialect, and some North Ossetian scholars still consider Digor a separate language, as it was considered until 1937. The phonetic, morphological, and lexical differences between the two dialects are greater than between Chechen and Ingush, often considered two separate languages.

In 2011 North Ossetia launched a Digor language version of the REGNUM News Agency and adopted two efforts to promote the study of the Digor for young students whose parents have forgotten the dialect in 2008 to 2012 and 2013 to 2015 respectively. Additionally, at this time, the government of North Ossetia started offering textbooks in Digor.

See also

Notes and References

  1. [Bernard Comrie]
  2. Web site: Fuller . Liz . One Nation, Two Polities, Two Endangered Ossetian Languages? . . 23 February 2024 . en . 28 May 2015.