Ossetic Grammatical Studies (Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture)

Fridrik Thordarson's book offers new insight not only into the grammar of Ossetic, but also into the history and the cultural anthropological background of the speakers of this language. Ossetic, a "North-East Iranian" language which can be traced back to the Scytho-Sarmatian dialects of antiquity, has been spoken on both sides of the main Caucasian mountains for many centuries, isolated from the rest of the Iranian world and under the strong influence of the neighbouring Caucasian and Turkic languages. The present studies can claim to be the first Ossetic grammar which systematically takes into account the results of modern Indo-European and Caucasian research. Together with the results of extensive field-research undertaken over many years, this was the main basis of the author's innovative theses and explanations on the history and the dialectology of Ossetic and the areal linguistic role this language played in past and more recent times.