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In:Theoretical Issues in the Languages of the Caucasus
Edited by Ümit Atlamaz, Ömer Demirok and Balkız Öztürk
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 294] 2026
► pp. 146–184

Chapter 5
On development of the negative phrase in Ossetic

 | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
The Modern Ossetic languages exhibit a typologically uncommon pattern of negative concord — a combination of obligatory negative spread and obligatory movement of Neg-phrases into an immediately preverbal position. I argue that this system developed historically from a fairly common phenomenon, the preverbal placement of focus. Contacts with South Caucasian languages, Georgian and Svan, must have played a crucial role in the emergence of this system. I propose a specific development scenario, according to which the negative movement is diachronically related to focusing, whereas the negative spread is an outcome of the fact that the negation markers got reanalyzed into the negative prefixes on wh-items.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Generalities on negation and Negative Concord
    • 2.1Concepts and definitions
    • 2.2Negative concord: Idea of Analysis
  • 3.Background on Ossetic
    • 3.1History
    • 3.2An overview of Ossetic grammar
  • 4.Negation in Ossetic: The synchrony
    • 4.1Basic data
    • 4.2Synchronic analysis
  • 5.Parallels between Ossetic and South Caucasian
  • 6.Negation in Modern Iranian
  • 7.The diachronic scenario
    • 7.1Stage I: Old Indo-Iranian
    • 7.2Stage II: Later Old Iranian and Middle Iranian
    • 7.3Stage III: Obligatory movement of indefinites in the scope of negation
    • 7.4Stage IV: Split of preverbal FocP, emergence of NegP
    • 7.5Stage V: Neg-feature receives a spell-out
  • 8.South Caucasian evidence
  • 9.An alternative scenario
  • 10.Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Glosses and abbreviations
  • References
References (109)
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