XISTӔR AND KӔSTӔR: LANGUAGE PORTRAIT OF THE OSSETIAN PAIR SENIOR/JUNIOR


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Home Editorial board Publication ethics Information Current Archive Rules for authors Contacts	DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2025.30.23.001 XISTӔR AND KӔSTӔR: LANGUAGE PORTRAIT OF THE OSSETIAN PAIR SENIOR/JUNIOR Gutieva, Elmira T. Kavkaz Forum. 2025. Issue 23. Abstract: Absence of an established system of titles or formal positions in the traditional Ossetian society accounts for the fact, that age has long been one of the main indicators of social status. This explains the importance of the words histær "senior" and kæstær "junior" for the Ossetian linguoculture. They are distinguished by high frequency of usage, including paired usage, emphasizing their interdependence and mutual influence, by positive connotation, and high phraseological activity. Related phraseological units, in their turn, are frequently reproduced. A comprehensive analysis of the words under consideration is undertaken. Both words are not autochthonous, and their borrowing into the Ossetian language dates back to a very early period. Both forms, were produced not according to the model of the Ossetian language proper, and could have been inherited from an ancient proto-language, more likely, they are borrowings from some Iranian language, or were the result of the coincidence of forms that developed differently. The absence of productive bases and word-forming formants in the language determined the plurality of etymologies and admissible algorithms of morphological analysis: as adjectives in the comparative degree, as composites, and as prefixed derivatives. The Eastern Iranian nature of both words does not exclude the existence of cognates of these roots in other Indo-European languages. The long-term nature and extent of the Scythian-Greek cultural and linguistic continuum, accompanied by mutual lexical borrowings, allows us to consider the ancient Greek word hístōr "a knowledgeable, well-informed person", recognized as the etymon of the term "history", and the Ossetian хистæр as reflexes of the same root. They could have been inherited by both languages from the languages of the Scythian peoples. The sparseness of the mytho-epic Scythian-Greek space allows us to revise the etymology of the name of the mythical hero Castor. The hero might not have been a Scythian himself, but he could have been called by the Eastern Iranian word kastar-, if it was sufficiently assimilated in the language of the ancient Hellenes. Perhaps its rapid archaization does not allow us to trace this root in ancient Greek sources. Keywords:* the Ossetian language, the Scythian languages, the ancient Greek language, etymology, degrees of comparison, borrowings, semantics. Language: Russian Download the full text For citation: Gutieva, E.T. Xistær and Kæstær: Language Portrait of the Ossetian Pair Senior/Junior. KAVKAZ-FORUM. 2025, iss. 23 (30), pp. 19-31. (In Russian). DOI 10.46698/VNC.2025.30.23.001 + References 1. Guriev, T.A., Gutieva, Eh.T. (comps.). Osetinsko-russkii slovar’. V 4 t. [Ossetian-Russian dictionary. In 4 volumes]. Vladikavkaz, North Ossetian Institute for Humanitarian and Social Studies, 2017, vol. 2. 724 p. (in Ossetian). 2. Guriev, T.A., Gutieva, Eh.T. (comps.). Osetinsko-russkii slovar’. V 4 t. [Ossetian-Russian dictionary. In 4 volumes]. Vladikavkaz, North Ossetian Institute for Humanitarian and Social Studies, 2019, vol. 4. 749 p. (in Ossetian). 3. Nartovskie skazaniya. Ehpos osetinskogo naroda [Nart legends. Epic of the Ossetian people]. Vladikavkaz, Iriston, 2003. 592 p. (in Ossetian). 4. Osetinskii natsional’nyi korpus [Ossetian National Corpus] [web-site]. 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