Alan

The word “Alan” means a member of the Alans, a nomadic Iranian-speaking people who roamed the Eurasian steppe in the first millennium AD. In plain terms, as a common noun, refers to the ancient nomadic Alan people; far more familiar today as the given name Alan.

“Alan” is pronounced AL-uhn (/ˈæl.ən/ in IPA).

Here is “Alan” used in a sentence: “Historians trace the Alans' migrations from the steppes all the way into Roman Gaul and Iberia.”

“Alan” is a noun.

“Alan” is a fairly common word in modern English.

The Alans were a nomadic, Iranian-speaking people who herded livestock across the vast Eurasian steppe during the first millennium AD. Skilled horsemen and warriors, they were related to the Sarmatians and Scythians. As the Roman world declined, groups of Alans migrated widely, some reaching as far west as Gaul, Spain, and North Africa.

The Alans spoke an Eastern Iranian language, part of the same branch as Scythian and Sarmatian speech. It was quite different from the Persian of the settled empires to the south. Their tongue survives today, in changed form, as Ossetian, spoken in the Caucasus and regarded as its closest living descendant.

Yes. The Ossetians of the Caucasus are widely regarded as descendants of the Alans, and their language descends from the old Alanic speech. During the great migrations many Alans were absorbed into other peoples, but the Ossetians preserved a distinct line that scholars trace directly back to these steppe nomads.

Pressure from the Huns in the fourth century scattered the Alans. Some were swept westward, joining the Vandals and settling in Gaul, Spain, and eventually North Africa, where they were gradually absorbed. Others stayed in the Caucasus and kept their identity, forming the medieval kingdom of Alania and, later, the Ossetian people.