The contacts between the Ossetians and their Turkic neighbours, the Karachay-Balkars

Johnny Cheung (1)

1 Mondes Iranien et Indien - UMR 7528

Ossetic is geographically the most western East Iranian language spoken in the Northern Caucasus. It is spoken in two areas, viz. in Alania - North Ossetia, which is part of the Russian Federation, and in South Ossetia which declared its independence in 2008 in the aftermath of the Georgian-Russian war. In contrast, the Karachays and Balkars speak two very closely related Turkic languages that are usually classified as “West Kıpçak”. They are settled primarily in two Russian republics, viz. in Kabardino-Balkaria (Balkars) and in Karachay- Cherkessia (Karachays), situated in the Northern Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. For this conference, I would like to present a few of my own observations and a personal assessment of Abaev’s treatment of the Ossetic and Karachay-Balkar “parallels”. I will limit myself to the categories A. and B. His work is a very instructive example of Soviet linguistics of the interbellum.

Mots clés: Ossetic; Karachay-Balkar; Iranian linguistics; Turkic; Caucasus; Soviet ideology; Nikolai Marr

Domaines: Linguistique; Littératures; Science politique

Johnny Cheung. The contacts between the Ossetians and their Turkic neighbours, the Karachay-Balkars: according to V.I. Abaev (1933) and Marrian ideology.. 1st International CUA Conference on Endangered Languages, Gürkan Doğan, Oct 2014, Ardahan, Turkey. ⟨hal-01451600⟩