Alanic[1] | |
---|---|
Alanian[1] | |
![]() The Zelenchuk Inscription, an inscripton in Alanic. | |
Native to | Alania |
Region | North Caucasus and Iberia |
Ethnicity | Alans |
Era | 1st–13th century AD[2] Developed into Ossetian |
unwritten, rarely Greek | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | xln |
xln | |
Glottolog | None |
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]
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.