Merya language
{{Short description|Extinct Finno-Ugric language}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Merya
| extinct = at latest 18th century
| ref =
| familycolor = Uralic
| map = File:Finno-ugrian-map-en.svg
| ethnicity = Meryans
| linglist = 0tw
| altname = Meryanic
| states = Russia
| region = Upper Volga
| mapcaption = {{legend|#91cab1|Merya}}
| iso3 = none
| revived = 2000s (reconstructed)
| acceptance = unattested
}}
Merya or Meryanic ({{Langx|orv|мєр(ь)скъıї}}) is an extinct Finno-Ugric language, which was spoken by the Meryans.{{cite web|url=http://bse.sci-lib.com/article114382.html|title=Уральские языки|website=bse.sci-lib.com}} Merya began to be assimilated by East Slavs when their territory became incorporated into Kievan Rus' in the 10th century.{{cite book|last=Janse|first=Mark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JdzVePSApMgC&pg=PA108|title=Language Death and Language Maintenance|author2=Sijmen Tol|author3=Vincent Hendriks|publisher=John Benjaminsf Publishing Company|year=2000|isbn=978-90-272-4752-0|page=A108}}{{cite book|last1=Smolitskaya|first1=G.P.|title=Toponimicheskyi slovar' Tsentral'noy Rossii|date=2002|pages=211–2017|language=ru|script-title=ru:Топонимический словарь Центральной России}} However some Merya speakers might have even lived in the 18th century.{{Cite journal|last=Pauli|first=Rahkonen|date=2013|title=Itämerensuomalaisten kielten kaakkoinen kontaktialue nimistöntutkimuksen valossa|journal=Virittäjä|issue=2|url=https://journal.fi/virittaja/article/view/8316}} There is also a theory that the word for "Moscow" originates from the Merya language.{{Cite book|last=Tarkiainen|first=Kari|title=Ruotsin itämaa|publisher=Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland|year=2010|isbn=978-951-583-212-2|location=Helsinki|page=19}} The Meryan language stretched to the western parts of Vologda Oblast and Moscow.{{cite thesis|first=Pauli|last=Rahkonen|year=2013|title=The South-Eastern Contact Area of Finnic Languages in the Light of Onomastics|degree=PhD|publisher=University of Helsinki|hdl=10138/38908|url=http://hdl.handle.net/10138/38908}}
Classification
There is no general agreement on the relationship of Merya with its neighboring Uralic languages.
- A traditional account places Merya as a member of the Volga-Finnic group, comprising also the Mordvinic and Mari languages.{{cite book|last=Wieczynski|first=Joseph|url=https://books.google.com/books?q=%22Merian+and+Muromian%2C+belong+to+the+so-called+Volga+branch+of+the+Finno-Ugric+languages%22&btnG=Search+Books|title=The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History|publisher=Academic International Press|year=1976|isbn=978-0-87569-064-3}} However, Volga Finnic is today considered obsolete.
- T. Semenov and Max Vasmer believed Merya to be a close relative of Mari.{{Cite web |title=Меря - Меряния - Залесская Русь - Мерянский язык |url=http://www.merjamaa.ru/index/merjanskij_jazyk/0-10 |website=Merjamaa}} Vasmer saw that many Merya toponyms have Mari parallels.{{Cite journal |last1=Матвеев |first1=А. К. |year=1997 |title=К проблеме расселения летописной мери |url=https://elar.urfu.ru/handle/10995/23523 |journal=Известия Уральского Государственного Университета. 1997. № 7}}
- 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).Petrov A., KUGARNYA, Marij kalykyn ertymgornyzho, #12 (850), 2006, March, the 24th. According to {{Ill|Stepan Kuznetsov (ethnographer)|lt=Stepan Kuznetsov|ru|Кузнецов, Стефан Кирович}}, the ethnonym Merya in toponyms becomes Mari moving to the east.{{Cite web |title=Анализ хорографических (топонимических) названий Мерянской земли - 19 Января 2011 - Меря - Меряния - Залесская Русь |url=https://www.merjamaa.ru/news/analiz_khorograficheskikh_toponimicheskikh_nazvanij_merjanskoj_zemli/2011-01-19-156 |access-date=2024-12-19 |website=www.merjamaa.ru}}
- 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.{{cite book |last=Helimski |first=Eugene |author-link=Eugene Helimski |url=http://www.helsinki.fi/venaja/nwrussia/eng/Conference/pdf/Helimski.pdf |title=The Slavicization of the Russian North (Slavica Helsingiensia 27) |publisher=Department of Slavonic and Baltic Languages and Literatures |year=2006 |isbn=978-952-10-2852-6 |editor-last=Nuorluoto |editor-first=Juhani |location=Helsinki |pages=109–127 |chapter=The «Northwestern» group of Finno-Ugric languages and its heritage in the place names and substratum vocabulary of the Russian North |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20170830213526/http://www.helsinki.fi/venaja/nwrussia/eng/Conference/pdf/Helimski.pdf |archive-date=August 30, 2017 |url-status=dead}}
- Gábor Bereczki supposed that the Merya language was a part of the Balto-Finnic group.{{cite book|last=Bereczki|first=Gábor|title=Contacts de languages et de cultures dans l'aire baltique / Contacts of Languages and Cultures in the Baltic Area|year=1996|editor1-last=Fernandez|editor1-first=M.M. Jocelyne|series=Uppsala Multiethnic Papers|pages=69–76|chapter=Le méria, une language balto-finnoise disparue|editor2-last=Raag|editor2-first=Raimo}}
- Mordvinian author Aleksandr Sharonov claimed that Merya is an Erzyan dialect; however this is not well supported.{{Cite web|url=http://erzan.ru/news/narod-erzja-i-rus-v-fokuse-russkogo-neslavjanina-aleksandr-sharonov|title=Народ Эрзя и Русь: в фокусе русского неславянина. Александр Шаронов | Эрзянь ки. Культурно-образовательный портал|access-date=2021-03-25|archive-date=2010-05-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100508145003/http://erzan.ru/news/narod-erzja-i-rus-v-fokuse-russkogo-neslavjanina-aleksandr-sharonov|url-status=dead}}
Rahkonen (2013) 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, as in Hungarian, while most Uralic languages use -t for the plural.
Reconstruction
{{Infobox language
| name = Reconstructed Merya
| familycolor = conlang
| created = 1985
| creator = various
| posteriori = Merya (toponyms), Mari, Veps
| iso3 = none
| glotto = none
| states = Russia
| ethnicity = {{ill|Meryan ethnofuturism|lt=Meryan ethnofuturists|ru|Мерянский этнофутуризм}}
| nativename = {{lang|mis|мерян елма}} {{tlit|mis|merjan jelma}}
}}
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.{{Cite book |last=Andrey |first=Malyšev |url=https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/public/922083/Maket_-_Meryanskiy_yazyk_1.pdf |title=Merjanskij jazyk |year=2019 |publisher=Izdatelʹstvo "Inbelkulʹt" |isbn=978-5-00076-049-9 |language=ru |script-title=ru:Мерянский язык |trans-title=Meryan language}}{{cite journal|first=Pauli|last=Rahkonen|title=Suomen etymologisesti läpinäkymätöntä vesistönimistöä [Etymologically opaque hydronyms of Finland]|journal=Virittäjä |date=2013|issue=1|url=https://journal.fi/virittaja/article/view/7843}}”Allikas: Ткаченко О. Б., Мерянский язык, Kiova 1985.” As an example: in Russian toponyms around where Merya was spoken, an ending {{lang|mis|-яхр}} ({{tlit|mis|-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 {{lang|fi|järvi}}, Northern Sami {{lang|se|jávri}}, Erzya {{Lang|myv|эрьке}} ({{tlit|myv|eŕke}}'), Meadow Mari {{lang|mhr|ер}} ({{tlit|mhr|jer}}) (from a common proto-form {{lang|urj|*jäwrä}}). From these it can be inferred that {{lang|mis|-яхр}} likely continues the Meryan word for 'lake', which may have had a shape such as {{Transliteration|mis|*jäkrä, *jähr(e)}}{{Cite book|last=О.Б.|first=Ткаченко|title=исследованиа по мерянскому языку|year=2007|location=kostroma}}
According to Rahkonen, in Merya areas there is a word {{lang|mis|*veks}}, which is probably cognate with the Komi word {{lang|kpv|вис}} ({{tlit|kpv|vis}}) 'middle river', and similar also to an element {{lang|fi|vieksi}} which appears in Finnish toponyms. From Merya toponyms it can also be seen that words such as {{lang|mis|volo}} 'down' (Finnish: {{lang|fi|ala}}), {{lang|mis|vondo}} 'give' (Finnish: {{lang|fi|antaa}}) existed in the Merya language. From this it can be concluded that Finnish {{lang|fi|a-}} corresponds to {{lang|mis|*vo-}} or {{lang|mis|*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 {{Transliteration|mis|kol(o)}} can be seen, which can be compared to Finnish {{lang|fi|kala}} 'fish'. In the Muroma-Merya territory a word {{Transliteration|mis|il(e)}} can be observed, which can be compared to Finnic *ülä ‘upper’.
Phonology
Meryan phonology has been studied only in general terms, relying on Russian dialects in the Kostroma and Yaroslavl regions. Helimski suggests that Merya likely developed massive reduction of word-final syllables. The Merya language only allowed one consonant at the beginning of words, and likely placed 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.
See also
References
External links
- [http://costroma.k156.ru/tk/066-125.pdf Grammar of Merya]
- [http://www.merjamaa.ru/ Merjamaa]
{{Uralic languages}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merya Language}}