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46-770: The population of the South Ossetian AO consisted mostly of ethnic Ossetians , who made up roughly 66% of the 100,000 people living there in 1989, and Georgians, who constituted a further 29% of the population as of 1989. Following the Russian revolution , the area of modern South Ossetia became part of the Democratic Republic of Georgia . In 1918, conflict began between the landless Ossetian peasants living in Shida Kartli (Interior Georgia), who were influenced by Bolshevism and demanded ownership of

92-470: A Sarmatian tribal name of the Alans called * Yazig , from Proto-Iranian * Yaz , meaning 'those who sacrifice', perhaps referring to a tribe associated with ritual sacrifice, although the broader Sarmatians apparently called themselves "Ariitai" or "Aryan", preserved in modern Ossetic Irættæ . Since Ossetian speakers lacked any single inclusive name for themselves in their native language beyond

138-517: A writing system . Latinisation began to slow in the Soviet Union during the 1930s and a Cyrillisation campaign was launched instead. Latinization had effectively ended by the 1940s. Most of these Latin alphabets are defunct and several (especially for languages in the Caucasus ) contain multiple letters that do not have Unicode support as of 2023. Since at least 1700, some intellectuals in

184-460: A gradual slowdown of the campaign. By 1933, attitudes towards latinisation had shifted dramatically and all the newly romanised languages were converted to Cyrillic. The only language without an attempt to latinise its script was Georgian . In total, between 1923 and 1939, Latin alphabets were implemented for 50 out of 72 languages of the USSR that were written, and Latin alphabets were developed for

230-759: A great kingdom between the Don and Volga Rivers, according to Coon , The Races of Europe . Between 350 and 374 AD, the Huns destroyed the Alan kingdom and the Alan people were split in half. A few fled to the west, where they participated in the Barbarian Invasions of Rome, established short-lived kingdoms in Spain and North Africa and settled in many other places such as Orléans, France , Iași, Romania , Alenquer, Portugal and Jászberény, Hungary . The other Alans fled to

276-510: A hindrance to literacy, particularly for Turkic languages because of its lack of scripted vowels . In the 1920s, efforts were made to modify the Arabic (such as the Yaña imlâ alphabet developed for Tatar ), but some groups adopted Latin-based alphabets instead. Because of past conflict with tsarist missionaries, a Latin-based script was viewed as "less odious" than a Cyrillic one. By the end of

322-516: A new inclusive ethnic name. This, combined with the effects of the Georgian–Ossetian conflict , led to the popularization of Alania , the name of the medieval Sarmatian confederation, to which the Ossetians traced their origin and to the inclusion of this name into the official republican title of North Ossetia in 1994. The root os/as - probably stems from an earlier * ows / aws -. This

368-518: A number of previously exclusively oral languages. In the Mari , Mordvinic and Udmurt languages, the use of the Cyrillic alphabet continued even during the period of maximum latinisation due in part to a growing body of literature written with the Cyrillic alphabet in those languages. In 1936, a new Cyrillisation campaign began to move all the languages of the peoples of the USSR to Cyrillic, which

414-666: A region situated across the northern and southern sides of the Caucasus Mountains . They natively speak Ossetic , an Eastern Iranian language of the Indo-European language family , with most also being fluent in Russian as a second language. Currently, the Ossetian homeland of Ossetia is politically divided between North Ossetia–Alania in Russia , and the de facto country of South Ossetia (recognized by

460-728: A strong economy that benefited from the Silk Road . After the Mongol invasions of the 1200s, the Alans migrated further into Caucasus Mountains, where they would form three ethnographical groups; the Iron, the Digoron and the Kudar. The Jassic people are believed to be a potentially fourth group that migrated in the 13th century to Hungary . In more-recent history, the Ossetians participated in

506-689: Is divided into two main dialect groups: Ironian ( os . – Ирон) in North and South Ossetia and Digorian ( os . – Дыгурон) in Western North Ossetia. In these two groups are some subdialects, such as Tualian, Alagirian and Ksanian. The Ironian dialect is the most widely spoken. Ossetian is among the remnants of the Scytho-Sarmatian dialect group, which was once spoken across the Pontic–Caspian Steppe. The Ossetian language

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552-433: Is not mutually intelligible with any other Iranian language. Prior to the 10th century, Ossetians were strictly pagan, though they were partially Christianized by Byzantine missionaries in the beginning of the 10th century. By the 13th century, most of the urban population of Ossetia gradually became Eastern Orthodox Christian as a result of Georgian missionary work. Islam was introduced shortly after, during

598-585: Is suggested by the archaic Georgian root ovs - (cf. Ovsi , Ovseti ), documented in the Georgian Chronicles ; the long length of the initial vowel or the gemination of the consonant s in some forms ( NPers . Ās , Āṣ ; Lat . Aas , Assi ); and by the Armenian ethnic name * Awsowrk' ( Ōsur -), probably derived from a cognate preserved in the Jassic term *Jaszok , referring to the branch of

644-668: The Georgia's October elections to the Supreme Soviet , on December 11 1990, the autonomous oblast illegally held rival elections . On 12 December, gunmen driving a car in Tskhinvali opened fire from a submachine gun, killing three Georgians and wounding two in what has been described as a terrorist attack and an act of ethnic violence. The Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR responded to these illegal actions by annulling

690-740: The Karachays and the Balkars . Most Ossetians belong to the Haplogroup G2a1a-P18, which is found almost exclusively in the Caucuses. Given the following evidence the Ossetes seem to be an Alanized local population, who became Alanized in the middle ages and their original language is not known. According to this study, Ossetians are more related to Georgians (60–70%) than to most other Caucasian ethnic groups. Latinisation in

736-1180: The Latinization campaign of the Soviet Union . This was abandoned in 1938, with nearly every Latinized language switching to a Cyrillic script. Ossetian and Abkhaz were the only exceptions; both used a Georgian script (only in South Ossetia; North Ossetia used Cyrillic). This policy lasted until 1953 when South Ossetia abandoned the Georgian script for a Cyrillic-based one. 42°20′N 44°00′E  /  42.333°N 44.000°E  / 42.333; 44.000 Ossetians The Ossetians ( / ɒ ˈ s iː ʃ ə n z / oss- EE -shənz or / ɒ ˈ s ɛ t i ən z / oss- ET -ee-ənz ; Ossetic : ир, ирæттæ / дигорӕ, дигорӕнттӕ , romanized:  ir, irættæ / digoræ, digorænttæ ), also known as Ossetes ( / ˈ ɒ s iː t s / OSS -eets ), Ossets ( / ˈ ɒ s ɪ t s / OSS -its ), and Alans ( / ˈ æ l ə n z / AL -ənz ), are an Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia ,

782-562: The Ossetian–Ingush conflict (1991–1992) and Georgian–Ossetian conflicts ( 1918–1920 , early 1990s ) and in the 2008 South Ossetia war between Georgia and Russia. Key events: Ever since de facto independence, there have been proposals in South Ossetia of joining Russia and uniting with North Ossetia. The Ossetian language belongs to the Eastern Iranian ( Alanic ) branch of the Indo-European language family . Ossetian

828-782: The Russian Empire had sought to Latinise the Russian language , written in Cyrillic script , in their desire for closer relations with the West . The early 20th century, the Bolsheviks had four goals: to break with Tsarism , to spread socialism to the whole world, to isolate the Muslim inhabitants of the Soviet Union from the Arabic –Islamic world and religion, and to eradicate illiteracy through simplification. They concluded

874-810: The United Nations as Russian-occupied territory that is de jure part of Georgia ). Their closest historical and linguistic relatives, the Jász people , live in the Jászság region within the northwestern part of the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County of Hungary . A third group descended from the medieval Alans are the Asud of Mongolia . Both the Jász and the Asud have long been assimilated; only

920-709: The United States (primarily New York City , Florida and California ), Canada ( Toronto ), Australia ( Sydney ) and other countries all around the world. The vast majority of Ossetians live in Russia (according to the Russian Census (2002) ): The Ossetians are a unique ethnic group of the Caucasus, speaking an Indo-Iranian language surrounded mostly by Vainakh-Dagestani and Abkhazo-Circassian ethnolinguistic groups, as well as Turkic tribes such as

966-668: The 1500s and 1600s, when the members of the Digor first encountered Circassians of the Kabarday tribe in Western Ossetia, who themselves had been introduced to the religion by Tatars during the 1400s. According to a 2013 estimate, up to 15% of North Ossetia’s population practice Islam. In 1774, Ossetia became part of the Russian Empire , which only went on to strengthen Orthodox Christianity considerably, by having sent Russian Orthodox missionaries there. However, most of

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1012-817: The 1980s. Outside of South Ossetia , there are also a significant number of Ossetians living in Trialeti , in North-Central Georgia . A large Ossetian diaspora lives in Turkey and Syria . About 5,000–10,000 Ossetians emigrated to the Ottoman Empire, with their migration reaching peaks in 1860–61 and 1865. In Turkey, Ossetians settled in central Anatolia and set up clusters of villages around Sarıkamış and near Lake Van in eastern Anatolia. Ossetians have also settled in Belgium , France , Sweden ,

1058-547: The 72 written languages in the USSR. There also existed plans to latinise Chinese , Korean , and Russian , along with other Slavic languages . By mid-January 1930, the VTsK NA had officially completed its work. However, on 25 January 1930, General Secretary Joseph Stalin ordered to halt the development of the question of the latinisation of the Cyrillic alphabet for Russian. Belarusian and Ukrainian were similarly placed off limits for latinisation. Stalin's order led to

1104-565: The Caucasus). Sergo Orjonikidze had opposed incorporating the proposed state into Russia, fearing it would lead to unrest in Georgia, so Mikoyan asked Stalin about placing all of Ossetia within Georgia. Stalin initially approved, but later decided against it, fearing it would lead to other ethnic groups in Russia demanding to leave the RSFSR, which would destroy the federation. Thus South Ossetia

1150-608: The Iazyges Alanic tribe dwelling near modern Georgia by the time of Anania Shirakatsi (7th century AD). The native beliefs of the Ossetian people are rooted in their Sarmatian origin, which have been syncretized with a local variant of Folk Orthodoxy , in which some pagan gods have been converted into Christian saints. The Narts , the Daredzant, and the Tsartsiat, serve as the basic literature of folk mythology in

1196-579: The Latin alphabet was the right tool to do so and, after seizing power during the Russian Revolution of 1917, they made plans to realise these ideals. Although progress was slow at first, in 1926, the Turkic -majority republics of the Soviet Union adopted the Latin script, giving a major boost to reformers in neighbouring Turkey . In 1928, when Turkish president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk adopted

1242-468: The National Guard to the area. However, the Georgian unit retreated after they had engaged the Ossetians. Ossetian rebels then proceeded to occupy the town of Tskhinvali and began attacking ethnic Georgian civilian population. During uprisings in 1919 and 1920, the Ossetians were covertly supported by Soviet Russia , but even so, were defeated. Between 3,000 and 7,000 Ossetians were killed during

1288-643: The Osi'. Osi ( ოსი , pl. Osebi , ოსები ) has been used in Georgian since the Middle Ages to refer to the sole Iranian -speaking population of the Central Caucasus and is probably based on the old Sarmatian self-designation As (pronounced Az ) or Iasi (pronounced Yazi ), cognate with Hungarian Jasz , both derived from the Latin Iazyges , which is a latinization of

1334-502: The Ossetian folk religion, is also widespread among Ossetians, with ritual traditions like animal sacrifices, holy shrines, annual festivities, etc. There are temples, known as kuvandon, in most villages. According to the research service Sreda , North Ossetia is the primary center of Ossetian Folk religion and 29% of the population reported practicing the Folk religion in a 2012 survey. Assianism has been steadily rising in popularity since

1380-590: The Ossetians have preserved a form of the Alanic language and Alanian identity. The majority of Ossetians are Eastern Orthodox Christians , with sizable minorities professing the Ossetian ethnic religion of Uatsdin as well as Islam . The Ossetians and Ossetia received their name from the Russians, who adopted the Georgian designation Oseti ( ოსეთი – note the personal pronoun), which means 'the land of

1426-546: The Russian Empire, support for literacy and national languages became a major political project. Soviet nationalities policy called for conducting education and government work in national languages, which spurred the need for linguistic reform. Among the Islamic and Turkic peoples of Central Asia , the most common literary script for their languages was based on Arabic or Persian script ; however, these were considered

South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast - Misplaced Pages Continue

1472-607: The Soviet Union Latinisation or latinization ( Russian : латиниза́ция , romanized :  latinizatsiya ) was a campaign in the Soviet Union to adopt the Latin script during the 1920s and 1930s. Latinisation aimed to replace Cyrillic and traditional writing systems for all languages of the Soviet Union with Latin or Latin-based systems, or introduce them for languages that did not have

1518-786: The Soviet Union. In 1929, the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR formed a committee to develop the question of the latinisation of the Russian alphabet , the All-Union Committee for the New Alphabet  [ ru ] ( Russian : ВЦК НА , VTsK NA), led by Professor N. F. Yakovlev  [ ru ] and with the participation of linguists , bibliographers , printers , and engineers . By 1932, Latin-based scripts were developed for almost all Turkic, Iranian , Mongolic , Tungusic , and Uralic languages , totalling 66 of

1564-429: The autonomy of South Ossetia and declaring the state of emergency to restore order. The main ethnic group of the South Ossetian AO was the Ossetians . Throughout the entire existence of the region, the Ossetians represented a stable majority of over two-thirds of the population. Georgians constituted the only significant minority, with between 25 and 30% of the population. No other ethnic group constituted more than 3% of

1610-400: The crushing of the 1920 uprising; according to Ossetian sources ensuing hunger and epidemics were the causes of death of more than 13,000 people. There was discussion to create a united republic for Ossetians, incorporating both North and South Ossetia. This was indeed proposed by Ossetian authorities in July 1925 to Anastas Mikoyan , the head of the kraikom (Bolshevik committee in charge of

1656-552: The decade, the move towards latinisation was in full swing. On 8 August 1929, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR issued the decree "On the New Latinised Alphabet of the Peoples of the Arabic Written Language of the USSR" the transition to the Latin alphabet was given an official status for all Turko-Tatar languages in the Soviet Union. Efforts then began in earnest to expand beyond replacing Arabic script and Turkic languages and to develop Latin-based scripts for all national languages in

1702-462: The lands they worked, and the Menshevik government backed ethnic Georgian aristocrats, who were legal owners. Although the Ossetians were initially discontented with the economic policies of the central government, the tension soon transformed into ethnic conflict. The first Ossetian rebellion began February 1, 1918, when three Georgian princes were killed and their land was seized by the Ossetians. The central government of Tiflis retaliated by sending

1748-423: The missionaries chosen were churchmen from Eastern Orthodox communities living in Georgia, including Armenians and Greeks , as well as ethnic Georgians . Russian missionaries themselves were not sent, as this would have been regarded by the Ossetians as too intrusive. Today, the majority of Ossetians from both North and South Ossetia follow Eastern Orthodoxy . Assianism ( Uatsdin or Aesdin in Ossetian),

1794-410: The new Turkish Latin alphabet to break with Arabic script , this in turn encouraged the Soviet leaders to proceed. By 1933, it was estimated that among some language groups that had shifted from an Arabic-based script to Latin, literacy rates rose from 2% to 60%. After the Russian Revolution, as the Soviets looked to build a state that better accommodated the diverse national groups that had made up

1840-429: The region. Ossetian folk songs are divided into 10 unique genres : Ossetians use the following Instruments in their music: The Ossetians descend from the Iazyges tribe of the Sarmatians , an Alanic sub-tribe, which in turn split off from the broader Scythians itself. The Sarmatians were the only branch of the Alans to keep their culture in the face of a Gothic invasion (c. 200 AD) and those who remained built

1886-418: The south and settled in the Caucasus, where they established their medieval kingdom of Alania. In the 8th century, a consolidated Alan kingdom, referred to in sources of the period as Alania , emerged in the northern Caucasus Mountains, roughly in the location of the latter-day Circassia and the modern North Ossetia–Alania. At its height, Alania was a centralized monarchy with a strong military force and had

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1932-400: The total population. About half of all families in the region were of mixed Ossetian–Georgian heritage. Considerable numbers of Ossetians lived elsewhere in Georgia as well, with upwards of 100,000 spread across the country. Most people in the South Ossetian AO spoke Ossetian , with smaller numbers using Russian and Georgian ; all three were official languages of the region. Though Georgian

1978-404: The traditional Iron – Digoron subdivision, these terms came to be accepted by the Ossetians as an endonym even before their integration into the Russian Empire . This practice was put into question by the new Ossetian nationalism in the early 1990s, when the dispute between the Ossetian subgroups of Digoron and Iron over the status of the Digor dialect made Ossetian intellectuals search for

2024-444: Was largely completed by 1940. German , Georgian , Armenian and Yiddish remained non-cyrillised from the languages common in the USSR, with the last three never being latinised either. Later, Polish , Finnish , Latvian , Estonian and Lithuanian languages also remained un-cyrillised. The following languages were latinised or adapted new Latin-based alphabets during the 1920s and 1930s: Projects were created and approved for

2070-477: Was made subordinate to Georgia, while North Ossetia remained in the RSFSR. In 1989, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union , violent unrest broke out in Tskhinvali between the Georgian independence-minded population of the region and Ossetians loyal to the Soviet Union. In September 1990 Ossetian nationalists in the South Ossetia's regional soviet declared independence from Georgia by announcing "South Ossetian Soviet Democratic Republic" loyal to Moscow. After

2116-420: Was the language of the Georgian SSR, of which South Ossetia was part, most people in the South Ossetian AO did not speak the language; as late as 1989, only 14 per cent knew Georgian, and it was a proposal in August 1989 to make Georgian the only official language of public use that instigated the independence movement. Originally written in Cyrillic, Ossetian was switched to a Latin-based script in 1923, as part of

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