Jassic dialect

Jassic (Hungarian: jász) is a dialect of the Ossetian language and the name of a nomadic tribe settled in Hungary in the 13th century.

The Jassic people came to Hungary together with the Cumanians, chased by the Mongol-Tatars. They were admitted by the Hungarian king Béla IV, hoping that they would assist in fighting against a Mongol-Tatar invasion. But shortly after their entry, the relationship worsened dramatically between the Hungarian nobility and the Cumanian-Jassic tribes and they left the country. After the end of the Mongol-Tatar occupation they returned and were settled in the central part of the Hungarian Plain.

Initially, their main occupation was animal husbandry. During the next two centuries they were fully assimilated to the Hungarian population, their language disappeared, but they preserved their Jassic identity and their regional autonomy until 1876. Over a dozen settlements in Central Hungary (e.g. Jászberény, Jászárokszállás, Jászfényszaru) still bear their name, and the city of Iași (yash) in Romania.

The only literary record of the Jassic language was found in the 1950s in the Hungarian National Széchényi Library. It is short 1-page glossary containing 34 words mainly related to products of agriculture (types of grain, cattle, etc.) compiled, probably, for fiscal or merchant purposes. The language was reconstructed with the help of Ossetian analogies from the Digor dialect.

See also

• Jassic people

References

• Kim, Ronald. "On the Historical Phonology of Ossetic." Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 123, No. 1. (Jan.-Mar.,2003), pp. 43–72.