lingvo.wikisort.org - Language

Merya or Meryanic is an extinct Finno-Ugric language, which was spoken by the Meryans.[1][2] Merya began to be assimilated by East Slavs when their territory became incorporated into Kievan Rus' in the 10th century.[3][4] However some Merya speakers might have even lived in the 18th century.[5] There is also a theory that the word for "Moscow" originates from the Merya language.[6][7] The Meryan language stretched to the western parts of Vologda Oblast and Moscow[8]

Meryan
Native speakers	0
Language family	Uralic Finno-Permic? Finnic?/Mari? Meryan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Classification

There is no general agreement on the relationship of Merya with its neighboring Uralic languages. It is sometimes left as unclassified within the western end of the family.[9]

• A traditional account places Merya as a member of the Volga-Finnic group, comprising also the Mordvinic and Mari languages.[3][10] However, Volga Finnic is today considered obsolete.
• Eugene Helimski supposed that the Merya language was part of a "northwest" group of Finno-Ugric, including also Balto-Finnic and Sami. Helimski argued that even though there are Mari parallels, they do not justify a close relationship with Mari and could be due to adjacency of the language areas.[2]
• Gábor Bereczki supposed that the Merya language was a part of the Balto-Finnic group.[11]
• One hypothesis classifies the Merya as a western branch of the Mari people rather than as a separate tribe. Their ethnonyms are basically identical, Merya being a Russian transcription of the Mari self-designation, Мäрӹ (Märӛ).[12]
• T. Semenov and M. Fasmer believed Merya to be a close relative of Mari.[13] Max Vasmer saw that many Merya toponyms have Mari parallels.[14]
• Aleksandr Sharonov claimed that Merya is an Erzyan dialect, however this doesn't have much support.[15]

Rahkonen (2013)[8] argues that the likewise unattested and unclassified-within-Uralic Muromian language was a close relative of Merya, perhaps even a dialect of Meryan.

A probable characteristic of the Merya language, which some researchers have noted is the plural -k, while most Uralic languages use -t for the plural.[16]

Reconstruction

There have been attempts to re-construct Merya based on toponyms, onomastics and words in Russian dialects by O. B. Tkachenko, Arja Ahlqvist and A. K. Matveev among others. The first reconstructions were done in 1985 by O. B. Tkachenko. The latest book about Merya reconstructions was published in 2019.[17][18][16] A Merya-Russian dictionary based on the reconstructions has also been made.[19] As an example: in Russian toponyms around where Merya was spoken, an ending -яхр (-jaxr) is regularly seen in names relating to lakes. This also resembles, but does not exactly match, the words for 'lake' in western Uralic languages, such as Finnish järvi, Northern Sami jávri, Erzya ерьке (jerʹke), Meadow Mari ер (jer) (from a common proto-form *jäwrä). From these it can be inferred that -яхр likely continues the Meryan word for 'lake', which may have had a shape such as jäkrä, jähr(e)[20] or jäγrä.

According to Rahkonen, in Merya areas there is a word veks, which is probably cognate with the Komi word вис (vis) 'middle river', and similar also to an element vieksi which appears in Finnish toponyms. From Merya toponyms it can also be seen that words such as volo 'down' (Finnish: ala), vondo 'give' (Finnish: antaa) existed in the Merya language. However some others have constructed the word 'give' as ando in Merya.[19]

From this it can be concluded that Finnish a- corresponds to vo- or o- in the Merya language. Another thing that can be observed is the Finnish sound "a" corresponding to a Merya "o", for example a hydronym kol(o) can be seen, which can be compared to Finnish kala 'fish'. In the Muroma-Merya territory a word il(e) can be observed, which can be compared to Finnic *ülä ‘upper’.[8][18] Other words reconstructed directly from toponyms are šun 'clay', vyj 'head', vur 'cow', kuvar 'bridge'.[21] Some words have also been constructed from proper names, such as the words kolyzo 'fisher' and tujba 'hope'.[21] The reconstructed native name for Merya is merjan jelma (мерян елма)[19]

Reconstructions from Malyshev 2013

Word	Meaning	Source of the word
jähre	lake	Toponym, Tkachenko
ila	live	Tkachenko
jole	be	Tkachenko
jon'	is	Tkachenko
palo	village	Tkachenko
tul	fire	Tkachenko
uhtoma	connection	Toponym
at'a	father	Tkachenko
tup	back	Matveev
pelyš	fear	Tkachenko
tohte	want	Tkachenko
kuu/kuv	moon	Matveev
ner	nose	Tkachenko
juk/jug	river	Tkachenko
voj	butter	Tkachenko
pu	tree	Toponym
kil'm	frozen	Matveev
n'orga	young	Matveev
kolema	death	Tkachenko
kol	fish	Toponym, Tkachenko
jokšo	swan	Matveev
ando	give	Tkachenko
tudo	know	Tkachenko
il(e)	upper	Toponym

Phonology

Meryan phonology has been studied only in general terms, relying on Russian dialects in the Kostroma and Yaroslavl regions. Helimski suggests[2] that Merya likely developed massive reduction of word-final syllables. The Merya language only allowed one consonant at the beginning of words, and likely places stress on the first syllable of the word. It likely did not feature vowel harmony. The vowels /ö/, /ä/ and /y/ likely existed in the Merya language.[16]

Grammar

This grammar section is the reconstructed grammar of Merya, based on linguistic evidence, while not being attested facts about the Merya language:[17][21][22]

Cases

Case	Case ending
nominative	-
Genetive	-n/-an
Partitive	-ta/da
Inessive	-sna/ssa/ššo
Illative	-s
ellative	sta
adessive	-lna/lla
allative	-l'/le
ablative	-lta
translative	-kš
vokative	-aj
abessive	-to/do
dative	-lan/len
accusative	-m/-am/-ym
comitative	-ge
prolative	-te
subessive	-nna
delative	-lta/-lda
plural	-k/-ak

Possessive suffixes

Person	Singular	Plural
1sg	-em	-en
2sg	-et	-ent
3sg	-eš	-enže
1pl	-amo	-ano
2pl	-ato	-anto
3pl	-ašto	-ažno

Present tense conjugation

Person	Ending
1sg	-am
2sg	-at
3sg	-a/-as
1pl	em/ama
2pl	et/ata
3pl	es

Past tense

Person	Ending
1sg	ym
2sg	yt
3sg	yš/ys
1pl	yma/im/ym
2pl	yta/yt/it
3pl	iš/is

See also

• Volga Finns
• Mari language

References

External links

• Grammar of Merya
• Merjamaa

На других языках

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[de] Merjanische Sprache

Das Merjanische gehört zu den finno-ugrischen Sprachen, die Zuordnung innerhalb dieser Sprachgruppe ist jedoch nicht gesichert. Gesprochen wurde es in der Region von Moskau, dessen russischer Name Moskwa vermutlich merjanischen Ursprungs ist. Die letzte Erwähnung finden die Merja in der Nestorchronik, in der sie zu den finno-ugrischen Völkern gezählt werden. Weitere Überlieferungen sind nur spärlich und lassen keine genauen Rückschlüsse auf die Position des Merjanischen innerhalb der finno-ugrischen Sprachfamilie zu. Die Sprachforschung stützt sich bisher auf die erhaltenen zahlreichen Toponyme und Hydronyme merjanischen Ursprungs. Daraus lassen sich zwar Rückschlüsse auf eine nahe Verwandtschaft zum Mari ziehen, dies kann aber nicht als wissenschaftlich gesichert angesehen werden. Das Merjanische gilt als spätestens im 14. Jahrhundert mit vollständiger Assimilation der Merja durch Slawen ausgestorben.

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- [en] Merya language

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[it] Lingua merja

La lingua merja era una lingua finnica, parlata dalle tribù merja che viveva nella regione dell'odierna Mosca. Non si sa quasi niente di questa lingua, ma era probabilmente strettamente imparentata alla lingua mokša e a quella erza. Il merja si estinse probabilmente nel Medioevo, quando i merja vennero assimilati dagli slavi. Tracce della lingua si trovano nei nomi dei luoghi della zona, tra cui forse il nome stesso di Mosca.

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[ru] Мерянский язык

Меря́нский язы́к (др.-рус. мєр(ь)скъıї) — мёртвый[1] финно-угорский язык, на котором говорило племя меря в центральной части России, проживающее, по летописным и археологическим источникам, в районе озёр Неро и Плещеево (где находятся, соответственно, Ростов и Переславль-Залесский).

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