Editing Scythians (section)

===Language===
{{Main|Scythian languages}}
The Scythians as well as the Saka of Central Asia spoke a [[Scythian languages|group of languages]] belonging to the eastern branch of the Iranic language family.{{sfn|Ivantchik|1999a|p=501}}{{sfn|Schmitt|2018}} A specific feature of the language was the transformation of the sound /δ/ ({{IPAslink|ð}}) into {{IPAslink|l}}.{{sfn|Ivantchik|1999a|p=501}} The Scythian languages may have formed a [[dialect continuum]]: "Scytho-Sarmatian" in the west and "Scytho-Khotanese" or [[Saka language|Saka]] in the east.<ref>{{harvnb|Lubotsky|2002|pp=189–202}}</ref> The Scythian languages were mostly marginalised and  assimilated as a consequence of the late antiquity and early Middle Ages [[Slavic migrations to the Balkans|Slavic]] and [[Turkic expansion|Turkic]] expansions. The western (Sarmatian) group of ancient Scythian survived as the medieval language of the [[Alans]] and eventually gave rise to the modern [[Ossetian language]].{{sfn|Testen|1997|p=707}}