The Ossetians or Ossetes (, ; дигорæ, дигорæнттæ, ) are an Iranian  ethnic group  of the Caucasus Mountains, indigenous to the region known as Ossetia. They speak Ossetic, an Iranian language of the Eastern branch of the Indo-European languages family, with most also fluent in Russian as a second language. The Ossetians are mostly Eastern Orthodox Christian, with a Muslim minority.