Merya is a deid Finno-Ugric langage.[1] Merya began to be assimilated by East Slavs whan thair laund becam a pairt o Kievan Rus' in the 10t centurie.[2][3] Houaniver thare micht been some Merya speakers in the 18t centurie.[4] The ar a theorie that the wird for "Moscow" comes frae the Merya langage.[5][6] The Meryan langage wis spoken in the pairts o the Vologda oblast in the wast and Moscow.

Clessification eedit

The ar nae general greement on hou Merya is relate til the ither Uralic langages nearby. It is left as unclassified within the waster end o the faimilie whiles.[7]

  • A tradietional accoont pits Merya as a member o the Volga-Finnic group (that haes the Mordvinic and Mari langages),[2][8] Houanever Volga Finnic is thocht tae be obselete.
  • Eugene Helimski supposed that the Merya langage wis pairt o a "northwast" group o Finno-Ugric, (that Balto-Finnic and Sami is a pairt o an aa).[9]
  • Gábor Bereczki supposed that the Merya langage wis a pairt o the Balto-Finnic group.[10]
  • Ae hypothesis clesses the Merya as a wastren brainch o the Mari fowk insteid o a sindrie tribe. Thair ethnonyms is basicalie the same, Merya bein a Russian transcription o the Mari self-designation, Мäрӹ (Märӛ).
  • A.Castren, T. Semenov and M. Fasmer thocht Merya wis a close relative o Mari. Max Vasmer saw that a wheen o Merya toponyms haes Mari parralers.
  • Aleksandr Sharonov claimed that Merya is a Erzyan dialect an aa, houaniver this haesna gotten muckle support

Rahkonen (2013) threaps that the likewise unattestit an unclessed-within-Uralic Muromian langage wis a close relative o Merya, mebbe e'en a dialect o Meryan.

Reconstruction eedit

Thare haes been attempts tae re-big Merya based on toponyms, onomastics an wirds in Russian dialects. For example O. B. Tkatšenko, Arja Ahlqvist an A. K. Matvejev haes tryed rebiggin the Merya langage.[11] Forby, a Merya-Russian dictionar haes been made based on the rebiggins[12] As a example: in Russian toponyms aboot whaur Merya wis spoken, a endin -яхр (-jaxr) is aften seen in names that relates tae lochs. As weel, this leuks like, but disna haely match, the wirds for 'loch' in wastren Uralic langages, the likes o Finnish järvi, Northern Sami jávri, Erzya ерьке (jerʹke), Meadow Mari ер (jer) (frae a common proto-form *jäwrä). It can be inferred frae thaim that -яхр likelie bides on the Meryan wird for 'loch', an it micht hae haen a shape like jäkrä, jähr(e)[13] or jäγrä.

By Rahkonen's wey o't, the'r a wird in Merya airts, veks, that's similar tae a wird that appears in Finnish toponyms, vieksi, and is likelie cognate wi the Komi wird вис (vis) 'middle river'. It can be seen frae Merya toponyms that wirds like volo 'doun' (Finnish: ala), vondo 'gie' (Finnish: antaa) existit in the Merya langage. Houaniver some ither fowk haes constructed the wird 'gie' as ando in Merya[12].

Frae this it can be concludit that Finnish a- corresponds tae vo- or o- in the Merya langage. Anither thing that can be seen is the Finnish soond "a" correspondin tae a Merya "o", frae this wirds like kol(o) 'fish' can be constructed. In the Muroma-Merya teritory a wird il(e) can be seen, that can be compared tae Finnic *ülä ‘upper’.[11] Ither wirds rebiggit direct frae toponyms is šun 'cley', vyj 'heid', vur 'cou', kuvar 'brig'.[14] Forby, some wirds haes been biggit frae proper names, siclike as the wirds "kolyzo" 'fisher' an "tujba" 'hope'.The rebiggit native name for Merya is "merjan jelma (мерян елма)[12]

A wheen reconstructions[14]
Meryan Meanin Merya Meanin Merya Meanin Merya Meanin
at'a faither mere wird jokšo swan vala o a licht color
vur bluid tola come lešma cou jošto cauld
jelma langage tudo ken čiga pig kokš dry
kida haund wha šarka sheep n'orga yung
lu bane us new maksak mole turan steep
nim name laška soup penä dug černe seek
jolg leg porne bouk pira wowf šere sweet
voj butter ver place šordo elk ika ane
sarv horn jur steppe taj louse kok twa
kinde breid ice nicht indeša nine
kuu muin kulä place tudoba feelin sezim seiven
maa earth kil'm frozen šum hairt me we
ner nose pu tree šokša warmth kuš whaur
kus nail poh soil šošo spring kuz hou
kolema daith juk river teleš winter tese here
pert hoose tymo aik kužu lang ej naw
matka wey šola elm saj guid jole tae be
jon' is kaga cuckoo čeber bonnie palo village
kula hear kompo guiss šače native tyn you
muraš sing kučka eagle oša white syn he/she/it

Reconstructit phrases eedit

Kostroma kundeššo ilam.

I bide in Kostroma

Kö mo neleš?

Wha's eatin whit?

Min kolyzo

I am a fisher

Penä pa kutä dys' minelna ileš

I've a dug wi a whalp

Pere

Ay ay

Šokšom šudo kavanam

I stack girse in the summer

Mo jon' masen?

Whit's oor( ane)s?

Tese sajšo

It is nice here

Grammar eedit

This grammar section is reconstructed Merya:[14][15]

Case Case endin
Genetive -n
Partitive ta/da
Inessive sna/ssa/ššo
Illative s
ellative sta
adessive lna/lla
allative l
ablative lta

The plural endin in Merya wis likelie -k, similar tae Hungarian.[15]

References eedit

  1. "Уральские языки". bse.sci-lib.com.
  2. a b Janse, Mark; Sijmen Tol; Vincent Hendriks (2000). Language Death and Language Maintenance. John Benjaminsf Publishing Company. p. A108. ISBN 978-90-272-4752-0.
  3. Smolitskaya, G.P. (2002). Toponimicheskyi slovar' Tsentral'noy Rossii Топонимический словарь Центральной России (in Roushien). pp. 211–2017.
  4. Pauli, Rahkonen (2013). "Itämerensuomalaisten kielten kaakkoinen kontaktialue nimistöntutkimuksen valossa". Journal.fi.
  5. Tarkiainen, Kari (2010). Ruotsin itämaa. Helsinki: Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. p. 19. ISBN 978-951-583-212-2.
  6. "Early East Slavic Tribes in Russia". Study.com (in Inglis). Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  7. "Merya". MultiTree. 22 Juin 2009. Retrieved 13 Julie 2012.
  8. Wieczynski, Joseph (1976). The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History. Academic International Press. ISBN 978-0-87569-064-3.
  9. Helimski, Eugene (2006). "The «Northwestern» group of Finno-Ugric languages and its heritage in the place names and substratum vocabulary of the Russian North". In Nuorluoto, Juhani (ed.). The Slavicization of the Russian North (Slavica Helsingiensia 27) (PDF). Helsinki: Department of Slavonic and Baltic Languages and Literatures. pp. 109–127. ISBN 978-952-10-2852-6.
  10. Bereczki, Gábor (1996). "Le méria, une language balto-finnoise disparue". In Fernandez, M.M. Jocelyne; Raag, Raimo (eds.). Contacts de languages et de cultures dans l'aire baltique / Contacts of Languages and Cultures in the Baltic Area. Uppsala Multiethnic Papers. pp. 69–76.
  11. a b "Suomen etymologisesti läpinäkymätöntä vesistönimistöä [Etymological opacity in Finnish hydronyms] näkymä". Journal.fi. Retrieved 3 Mairch 2021.
  12. a b c Malyshev, A. M. (2013). "Merjan jelma: меряно-русский и русско-мерянский словарь ; Мерянский ономастикон".
  13. О.Б., Ткаченко (2007). исследованиа по мерянскому языку. kostroma.
  14. a b c Andrey, Malyšev (2013). Merjan jelma Мерянский язык. Moscow.
  15. a b "Info" (PDF). costroma.k156.ru. Retrieved 3 Mairch 2021.

Ither wabsteids eedit