Iron Ossetian also known as Iron Ossetic or Iron-Ossetic, is one of the two main dialects of the Ossetic language along with Digor spoken in the Caucasus. The majority of Ossetians speak Iron, notably in the East, South and Central parts of North Ossetia–Alania, while in the West the Digor dialect is more prevalent. The Iron dialect has been the basis of the Ossetian written language since the abolition of the Digor standard in 1939. The Iron dialect is spoken by the majority of North Ossetians (most of flat Ossetia, as well as the Kurtatin, Tagaur and Alagir gorges). With insignificant lexical borrowings from Digor dialect, it is the basis of one of the variants of the literary Ossetian language. The North Ossetian radio and television broadcasts in it, and the daily republican newspaper Ræstdzinad (in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania) is published.

Phonology

In North Ossetia, as a result of migration from the mountains to the foothill plains, the vocal differences in the Iron dialect leveled out with the displacement of other dialects by the "socating" (by the pronunciation of ts - phoneme /s/) Kurtatin dialect.