Editing Alans (section)

===Later history===
Descendants of the Alans who live in the autonomous republics of Russia and Georgia speak the [[Ossetian language]] which belongs to the [[Northeastern Iranian]] language group and is the only remnant of the [[Scytho-Sarmatian]] [[dialect continuum]] left, which once stretched over much of the [[Pontic steppe]] and [[Central Asia]]. Modern Ossetian has two major dialects: ''Digor'', spoken in the western part of North Ossetia; and ''Iron'', spoken in the rest of Ossetia. A third branch of Ossetian, ''[[Jassic dialect|Jassic]]'' (''Jász''), was formerly spoken in Hungary. The literary language, based on the [[Iron dialect]], was fixed by the [[List of national poets|national poet]], [[Kosta Khetagurov]] (1859–1906).