Meshchera language

{{Short description|Extinct Uralic language}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Meshchera

| extinct =

| ref =

| familycolor = Uralic

| fam2 = Mordvinic?/Permic?

| map = File:Finno-ugrian-map-en.svg

| mapscale = 1.2

| mapcaption = Map of Volga Finns in the 9th century

| era = 13th–16th century

| linglist = 0tx

| states = Russia

| region = Oka

| ethnicity = Meshchera

| iso3 = none

}}

Meshchera is an extinct Uralic language. It was spoken around the left bank of the Middle Oka. Meshchera was either a Mordvinic or a Permic language.{{cite web|date=2009-06-22|title=Meshcherian|url=http://multitree.org/codes/0tx|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120712155021/http://multitree.org/codes/0tx|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 12, 2012|access-date=2012-07-13|publisher=MultiTree}}{{cite journal|last1=Aikio|first1=Ante|date=2012|title=An essay on Saami ethnolinguistic prehistory|url=http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust266/sust266_aikio.pdf|journal=Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne|location=Helsinki, Finland|publisher=Finno-Ugrian Society|volume=266|pages=63–117|access-date=5 July 2017}} Pauli Rahkonen has suggested on the basis of toponymic evidence that it was a Permic or closely related language.{{citation |last=Rahkonen |first=Pauli |title=The Linguistic Background of the Ancient Meshchera Tribe and Principal Areas of Settlement |journal=Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen |volume=60 |year=2009 |url=https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/publications/the-linguistic-background-of-the-ancient-meshchera-tribe-and-prin |issn=0355-1253}} Rahkonen's speculation has been criticized by Vladimir Napolskikh.{{cite web|title=Вопросы Владимиру Напольских-2. Uralistica|url=http://forum.molgen.org/index.php/topic,443.msg76477.html#msg76477|access-date=2012-07-13|publisher=Forum.molgen.org}} Some Meshchera speaking people possibly assimilated into Mishar Tatars (Meshcheryaki). However this theory is disputed.M. Z. Zekiyev [http://www.turkiyat.selcuk.edu.tr/pdfdergi/s19/toker.pdf Mişerler, Başkurtlar ve dilleri / Mishers, Bashkirs and their languages] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408212715/http://www.turkiyat.selcuk.edu.tr/pdfdergi/s19/toker.pdf|date=2014-04-08}}. In Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi 73–86 {{in lang|tr}}

The first Russian written source which mentions them is the Tolkovaya Paleya, from the 13th century. They are also mentioned in several later Russian chronicles from the period before the 16th century, and even later, in one of the letters by Andrey Kurbsky written in the second half of the 16th century, where he claimed the language spoken in the Meshchera region to be Mordvinic.{{Cite web |date=2014-06-20 |title=Коми народ / Финно-угры / Народы / Мещера |url=http://www.kominarod.ru/finno-ugry/nations/Meshchera/ |access-date=2024-03-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620031627/http://www.kominarod.ru/finno-ugry/nations/Meshchera/ |archive-date=2014-06-20 }}