22:00, 31 October 2012

Law "On Ossetian Family Names" adopted In South Ossetia,

Today, the Parliament of South Ossetia adopted the law, under which citizens of the republic would be able to change their family names in accordance with their historical sounding.

According to Mira Tskhovrebova, Chairman of the Committee for National Policy, Culture, Education, Science, Religion and Media, the main task of the law is "to restore the writing of Ossetian family names in their original sounding for identity of the nation, continuity of traditions, spiritual and ethnic relations between generations."

According to supporters of the adoption of the law, the practice of writing Ossetian family names with endings of "shvili", "dze", "ov", and "ev" distorts and alters their original historical form, and they are mixed with the family names of the North-Caucasian and even Asian nations, the "Res" reports.

More than half of 33 MPs voted for the law, who pointed out that the idea of reviving the identity of the nation through family names was rather attractive. In South Ossetia, the historical forms of family names ends with "-ty (-ti)", the "Novosti Vladikavkaza" reports.