Digor Ossetian (; ) also known as Digor Ossetic or Digor-Ossetic, is a

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

of the

Ossetic language Ossetian ( , , ), commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete, is an Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian language that is spoken predominantly in Ossetia, a region situated on both sides of the Russian-Georgian border in the ...

spoken by the Digor people. It is less widely spoken than

Iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

, 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", but 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 Kabardino-Balkaria (), officially the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus. As of the 2021 Census, its population was 904,200. Its capital is Nalchik. The area contains the highest mountain in ...

. Digor is used far less than Iron at about a one-to-five ratio and is nearly non-existent in the

Republic of South Ossetia South Ossetia, officially the Republic of South Ossetia or the State of Alania, is a landlocked country in the South Caucasus with partial diplomatic recognition. It has an officially stated population of just over 56,500 people (2022) ...

. 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 REGNUM News Agency is a Russian nationwide online news service disseminating news from Russia and abroad from its own correspondents, affiliate agencies and partners. REGNUM covers events in all regions of Russia as well as neighboring countries ...

and adopted two efforts to promote the study of the Digor for young students whose parents have forgotten the dialect, covering the periods 2008–2012 and 2013–2015 respectively. Additionally, at this time, the government of North Ossetia started offering

textbooks A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions, but also of learners ( ...

in Digor.

References

Ossetia Eastern Iranian languages Languages of Russia Ossetian language {{Ie-lang-stub

See also

References