Ossetic

According to the 2010 census, 459,688 Ossetians live in North Ossetia, with a total population of 712,980. In South Ossetia, there were 46,000 Ossetians, representing 90% of the population, according to the 2012 census. Significant numbers of Ossetians also live in Kabardino-Balkaria, Stavropol and Krasnodar Krai, as well as in various cities of the Russian Federation and the CIS. The total number of Ossetians in the Russian Federation is 528,515. In 2010, 451,431 people declared knowledge of Ossetic, and 92.6% of Ossetians chose Ossetic as their native language.

Apart from the Russian Federation, Ossetians also live in Turkey, Georgia, Syria and Western Europe.

The main dialects of Ossetic - Iron and Digor - show rather serious differences not only in phonetics and vocabulary, but also in morphology. The Iron dialect is spoken by approximately three-quarters of the speakers, and forms the basis of the literary language. The Digor dialect has its own literary norm.

Some scholars, along with the Iron and Digor, single out the Kudaro-Javian dialect. In its basic phonetic, morphological and lexical features, this idiom is similar to the Iron dialect, so most researchers classify it as an Iron dialect.

The generally accepted dialectal classification of Ossetic is as follows:

Iron dialect:

     Alagir tsocking variety

     Dvalsky chocking variety

     Dvalsky sockling variety

     Kurtati socking variety

     Dvalsky shocking variety

     Xanxian tsocking variety

     Roki tsocking variety

The first four accents are spread in North Ossetia, the last three in South Ossetia.

Digor dialect

Ullagkomi dialect (a mixed Iron-Digor accent)

The word "Ossetic" is derived from the name "Ossetia", which is derived from the Georgian name of Alan and Ossetic - "osi", "ovsi" (Georgian ოსები) and Georgian topoformant "-eti". From Russian the ethnonym "Ossetian" spread to other languages of the world. The Ossetians did not have a common self-name until recently. Ossetians were divided into four groups: Digorians, Irons, Tualians and Kudari.

According to V.I.Abaev the self-name of Digorians comes from an old Caucasian name of the tribe. The name of Irons is derived from Old Iranian arya 'noble' (another hypothesis: Old Iranian uira 'man, male'). There is no consensus among specialists regarding the ethnonym Tuul, Twal and Tuul'ættæ, suggesting a Georgian, local Caucasian or Indo-European origin. There is also disagreement over the self-name of Kudari; only the fact that this term coincides with the name of Kudari gorge in South Ossetia is obvious.

Religiously, Irons are Orthodox Christians and Digorians are Muslims. Both have a syncretic form that incorporates traits of traditional Ossetian religion. This folk religion derives from the ancient Iranian tradition and is characterized by monotheism.