Iranisches Personennamenbuch

Ossetic personal names hold a special position within Iranian onomastics. The reason for this lies in the very specific historical development and local linguistic situation that separates Ossetic from other modern Iranian languages. Ossetic, which is represented by two main dialects (Iron / Digor) and is spoken today on both sides of the Caucasus main range, can be traced back - via medieval Alanic - to the Scytho-Sarmatian dialects of antiquity. The isolation from the rest of the Iranian world for many centuries and strong influences from non-Iranian languages (either directly from neighbouring languages or indirectly via different linguistic media or strata) led to considerable changes in phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon and idioms. These changes are not only characteristic for modern Ossetic in general, but also bear a specific importance for Ossetic onomastics. These circumstances and the fact that Ossetic shows only very few inherited genuine Iranian names, caused certain problems in preparing this fascicle.