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Scythian languages

Scythian
Ptolemy Cosmographia 1467 - Caspian Sea Central Asia.jpg
Ptolemy's Scythia
Native to Sarmatia, Scythia, Sistan, Scythia Minor, Alania
Region Central Asia, Eastern Europe
Ethnicity Scythians, Sarmatians, and Alans
Era Classical antiquity, late antiquity
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Variously:
xsc – Scythian
xln – Alanian
oos – Old Ossetian
Linguist list
xsc Scythian
  xln Alanian
  oos Old Ossetian
Glottolog oldo1234  (Old Ossetic)
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

The Scythian languages (/ˈsɪθiən/ or /ˈsɪðiən/) are a group of Eastern Iranian languages of the classical and late antiquity (Middle Iranian) period, spoken in a vast region of Eurasia named Scythia. Except for modern Ossetian, which descends from the Alanian variety, these languages are all considered to be extinct. Modern Eastern Iranian languages such as Wakhi, however, are related to the eastern Scytho-Khotanese dialects attested from the kingdoms of Khotan and Tumshuq in the ancient Tarim Basin, in present-day southern Xinjiang, China.

The location and extent of Scythia varied by time, but generally it encompassed the part of Eastern Europe east of the Vistula river and much of Central Asia up to the Tarim Basin. The dominant ethnic groups among the Scythians were nomadic pastoralists of Central Asia and the Pontic-Caspian steppe. Fragments of their speech known from inscriptions and words quoted in ancient authors as well as analysis of their names indicate that it was an Indo-European language, more specifically from the Iranian group of Indo-Iranian languages. Alexander Lubotsky summarizes the known linguistic landscape as follows:


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