Erzya language

The Erzya language (эрзянь кель, eŕźań keĺ, pronounced [ˈerʲzʲanʲ ˈkelʲ]), also Erzian or historically Arisa, is spoken by approximately 300,000 people in the northern, eastern and north-western parts of the Republic of Mordovia and adjacent regions of Nizhny Novgorod, Chuvashia, Penza, Samara, Saratov, Orenburg, Ulyanovsk, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan in Russia. A diaspora can also be found in Armenia and Estonia, as well as in Kazakhstan and other states of Central Asia. Erzya is currently written using Cyrillic with no modifications to the variant used by the Russian language. In Mordovia, Erzya is co-official with Moksha and Russian.

Erzya
eŕźań keĺ
эрзянь кель
Native to	Russia
Region	Mordovia, Nizhny Novgorod, Chuvashia, Ulyanovsk, Samara, Penza, Saratov, Orenburg, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan
Ethnicity	610,000 (553,000 in Russia, 2010 census)
Native speakers	274,876 claimed to speak "Mordovin" while 46,241 claimed to speak "Erzya-Mordvin". ^[1] (2020 census)
Language family	Uralic Mordvinic Erzya
Writing system	Cyrillic
Official status
Official language in	Mordovia (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	myv
ISO 639-3	myv
Glottolog	erzy1239
ELP	Erzya
Erzya is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Erzya flag

The language belongs to the Mordvinic branch of the Uralic languages. Erzya is a language that is closely related to Moksha but has distinct phonetics, morphology and vocabulary.

Phonology

Consonants

The following table lists the consonant phonemes of Erzya together with their Cyrillic equivalents.^[2]

		Labial	Alveolar		(Palato-) alveolar	Velar
			plain	pal.
Nasal		/m/ м	/n/ н	/nʲ/ нь		/ŋ/ (н)
Plosive	voiceless	/p/ п	/t/ т	/tʲ/ ть		/k/ к
	voiced	/b/ б	/d/ д	/dʲ/ дь		/ɡ/ г
Affricate			/t͡s/ ц	/t͡sʲ/ ць	/t͡ʃ/ ч
Fricative	voiceless	/f/ ф	/s/ с	/sʲ/ сь	/ʃ/ ш	/x/ х
	voiced	/v/ в	/z/ з	/zʲ/ зь	/ʒ/ ж
Trill			/r/ р	/rʲ/ рь
Approximant			/l/ л	/lʲ/ ль	/j/ й

Note on romanized transcription: in Uralic studies, the members of the palatalized series are usually spelled as ⟨ń⟩, ⟨ť⟩, ⟨ď⟩, ⟨ć⟩, ⟨ś⟩, ⟨ź⟩, ⟨ŕ⟩, ⟨ľ⟩, while the postalveolar sounds are spelled ⟨č⟩, ⟨š⟩, ⟨ž⟩ (see Uralic Phonetic Alphabet).

Minimal pairs between /n/ and /ŋ/ include:

• /janɡa/ "along the path", in which the alveolar /n/ of the stem is retained before the prolative case ending /ɡa/, vs. /jaŋɡa/, the connegative form of the verb /jaŋɡams/ "to break"
• /jonks/ "good", subject or object complement in /ks/ translative, vs. /joŋks/ "direction; area". See Rueter 2010: 58.

Vowels

Erzya has a simple five-vowel system.^[3]

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid	e	o
Low	a

 

Mordovins in Russia

The front vowels /i/ and /e/ have centralized variants [ï] and [ë] immediately following a plain alveolar consonant, e.g. siń [sïnʲ] "they", seń [sënʲ] "blue".

Vowel harmony

As in many other Uralic languages, Erzya has vowel harmony. Most roots contain either front vowels (/i/, /e/) or back vowels (/u/, /o/). In addition, all suffixes with mid vowels have two forms: the form to be used is determined by the final syllable of the stem. The low vowel (/a/), found in the comparative case -шка (ška) "the size of" and the prolative -ка/-га/-ва (ka/ga/va) "spatial multipoint used with verbs of motion as well as position" is a back vowel and not subject to vowel harmony.

The rules of vowel harmony are as follows:

1. If the final syllable of the word stem contains a front vowel, the front form of the suffix is used: веле (veĺe) "village", велесэ (veĺese) "in a village"
2. If the final syllable of the word stem contains a back vowel, and it is followed by plain (non-palatalized) consonants, the back form of the suffix is used: кудо (kudo) "house", кудосо (kudoso) "in a house"

However, if the back vowel is followed by a palatalized consonant or palatal glide, vowel harmony is violated and the "front" form of the suffix is used: кальсэ (kaĺse) "with willow", ойсэ (ojse) "with butter". Likewise, if a front-vowel stem is followed by a low back vowel suffix, subsequent syllables will contain back harmony: велеванзо (veĺevanzo) "throughout its villages"

Thus the seeming violations of vowel harmony attested in stems, e.g. узере (uźere) "axe", суре (suŕe) "thread (string)", are actually due to the palatalized consonants /zʲ/ and /rʲ/.

One exception to front-vowel harmony is observed in palatalized non-final /lʲ/, e.g. асфальтсо (asfaĺtso) "with asphalt".

Morphology

Like all other Uralic languages, Erzya is an agglutinative language which expresses grammatical relations by means of suffixes.

Nouns

Nouns are inflected for case, number, definiteness and possessor. Erzya distinguishes twelve cases (here illustrated with the noun мода moda "ground, earth"). Number is systematically distinguished only with definite nouns; for indefinite nouns and nouns with a possessive suffix, only nominative case has a distinct plural.^[3][2]

Case	Indefinite		Definite		1st person sg. possessive		2nd person sg. possessive	3rd person sg. possessive
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular/plural	singular	plural
nominative	мода moda	мода-т moda-t	мода-сь moda-ś	мода-тне moda-ťńe	мода-м moda-m	мода-н moda-n	мода-т moda-t	мода-зo moda-zo	мода-нзo moda-nzo
genitive	мода-нь moda-ń		мода-нть moda-ńť	мода-тне-нь moda-ťńe-ń
dative/allative	мода-нень moda-ńeń		мода-нтень moda-ńťeń	мода-тне-нень moda-ťńe-ńeń
inessive	мода-со moda-so		мода-сонть moda-sońť	мода-тне-сэ moda-ťńe-se	мода-со-н moda-so-n		мода-со-т moda-so-t	мода-со-нзo moda-so-nzo
elative	мода-сто moda-sto		мода-стонть moda-stońť	мода-тне-стэ moda-ťńe-ste	мода-сто-н moda-sto-n		мода-сто-т moda-sto-t	мода-сто-нзo moda-sto-nzo
illative	мода-с moda-s		мода-нтень moda-ńťeń	мода-тне-с moda-ťńe-s	мода-з-oн moda-z-on		мода-з-oт moda-z-ot	мода-з-oнзo moda-z-onzo
prolative	мода-ва moda-va		мода-ванть moda-vańť	мода-тне-ва moda-ťńe-va	мода-ва-н moda-va-n		мода-ва-т moda-va-t	мода-ва-нзo moda-va-nzo
ablative	мода-до moda-do		мода-донть moda-dońť	мода-тне-дe moda-ťńe-ďe	мода-до-н moda-do-n		мода-до-т moda-do-t	мода-до-нзo moda-do-nzo
lative	мода-в moda-v		-	-	-		-	-
translative	мода-кс moda-ks		мода-ксонть moda-ksońť	мода-тне-кс moda-ťńe-ks	мода-кс-oн moda-ks-on		мода-кс-oт moda-ks-ot	мода-кс-oнзo moda-ks-onzo
abessive	мода-втомо moda-vtomo		мода-втомонть moda-vtomońť	мода-тне-втеме moda-ťńe-vťeme	мода-втомо-н moda-vtomo-n		мода-втомо-т moda-vtomo-t	мода-втомо-нзo moda-vtomo-nzo
comparative	мода-шка moda-ška		мода-шканть moda-škańť	мода-тне-шка moda-ťńe-ška	мода-шка-н moda-ška-n		мода-шка-т moda-ška-t	мода-шка-нзo moda-ška-nzo

Plural possessors follow the pattern of second person singular possessors.

Case	1st pers. pl. poss.	2nd pers. pl. poss.	3rd pers. pl. poss.
	singular/plural	singular/plural	singular/plural
nominative	мода-нoк moda-nok	мода-нк moda-nk	мода-ст moda-st
inessive (...)	мода-со-нoк moda-so-nok (...)	мода-со-нк moda-so-nk (...)	мода-со-ст moda-so-st (...)

Verbs

Erzya verbs are inflected for tense and mood, and are further conjugated for person of subject and object.^[2][3] Traditionally, three stem types are distinguished: a-stems, o-stems and e-stems. A-stems always retain the stem vowel a in the non-third person present tense forms, and in the third person first past tense forms (e.g. pala-ś "kissed"). With many o-stems and e-stems, the stem vowel is dropped in these forms (e.g. o-stem van-ś "watched", e-stem ńiľ-ś "swallowed"), but there also o- and e-stem verbs which retain the vowel (udo-ś "slept", piďe-ś "cooked"). Rueter (2010) therefore divides verb stems into vowel-retaining stems and vowel-dropping stems.^[4]

In indicative mood, three tenses are distinguished: present/future, first past, second (=habitual) past.

indicative mood

	present/future tense			first past tense		second past tense
	a-stem	o-stem	e-stem	a-stem	e-stem	a-stem
1sg	мора-н mora-n	ван-ан van-an	пил-ян piľ-an	сод-ы-нь sod-i-ń	мер-и-нь meŕ-i-ń	моры-линь mori-ľiń
2sg	мора-т mora-t	ван-ат van-at	пил-ят piľ-at	сод-ы-ть sod-i-ť	мер-и-ть meŕ-i-ť	моры-лить mori-ľiť
3sg	мор-ы mor-i	ван-ы van-i	пил-и piľ-i	содa-сь soda-ś	мер-сь meŕ-ś	моры-ль mori-ľ
1pl	мора-тано mora-tano	ван-тано van-tano	пиль-тяно piľ-ťano	сод-ы-нек sod-i-ńek	мер-и-нек meŕ-i-ńek	моры-линек mori-ľińek
2pl	мора-тадо mora-tado	ван-тадо van-tado	пиль-тядо piľ-ťado	сод-ы-де sod-i-ďe	мер-и-де meŕ-i-ďe	моры-лиде mori-ľiďe
3pl	мор-ыть mor-iť	ван-ыть van-iť	пил-ить piľ-iť	содa-сть soda-śť	мер-сть meŕ-śť	моры-льть mori-ľť
infinitive	мора-мс mora-ms	вано-мс vano-ms	пиле-мс piľe-ms	сода-мс soda-ms	мере-мс meŕe-ms	мора-мс mora-ms
	'sing'	'watch'	'swallow'	'know'	'say'	'sing'

The third person singular form in present tense is also used as present participle. The second past tense is formed by adding the past tense copula -ľ to the present participle.

The other mood categories are:

• conditional (-ińďeŕa + present suffixes)
• conjunctive (-v(o)ľ + past suffixes)
• conditional-conjunctive (-ińďeŕa-v(o)ľ + past suffixes)
• desiderative (-ikseľ + past suffixes)
• optative (zo + present suffixes)
• imperative (-k/-do)

other mood categories

	conditional	conjunctive	conditional-conjunctive	desiderative
1sg	ярс-ындеря-н jars-ińďeŕa-n	ярсa-влинь jarsa-vľiń	ярс-ындеря-влинь jars-ińďeŕa-vľiń	мор-ыксэлинь mor-ikseľiń
2sg	ярс-ындеря-т jars-ińďeŕa-t	ярсa-влить jarsa-vľiť	ярс-ындеря-влить jars-ińďeŕa-vľiť	мор-ыксэлить mor-ikseľiť
3sg	ярс-ындеря-й jars-ińďeŕa-j	ярсa-воль jarsa-voľ	ярс-ындеря-воль jars-ińďeŕa-voľ	мор-ыксэль mor-ikseľ
1pl	ярс-ындеря-тано jars-ińďeŕa-tano	ярсa-влинек jarsa-vľińek	ярс-ындеря-влинек jars-ińďeŕa-vľińek	мор-ыксэлинек mor-ikseľińek
2pl	ярс-ындеря-тадо jars-ińďeŕa-tado	ярсa-влиде jarsa-vľiďe	ярс-ындеря-влиде jars-ińďeŕa-vľiďe	мор-ыксэлиде mor-ikseľiďe
3pl	ярс-ындеря-йть jars-ińďeŕa-jť	ярсa-вольть jarsa-voľť	ярс-ындеря-вольть jars-ińďeŕa-voľť	мор-ыксэльть mor-ikseľť
infinitive	ярса-мс jarsa-ms	ярса-мс jarsa-ms	ярса-мс jarsa-ms	мора-мс mora-ms
	'eat'	'eat'	'eat'	'sing'

Writing

Main article: Mordvinic alphabets

Cyrillic alphabet

The modern Erzya alphabet is the same as for Russian:^[2]

А /a/	Б /b/	В /v/	Г /ɡ/	Д /d/	Е /je/	Ё /jo/	Ж /ʒ/	З /z/	И /i/	Й /j/
К /k/	Л /l/	М /m/	Н /n/	О /o/	П /p/	Р /r/	С /s/	Т /t/	У /u/	Ф /f/
Х /x/	Ц /t͡s/	Ч /t͡ʃ/	Ш /ʃ/	Щ /ʃt͡ʃ/	Ъ /-/	Ы /ɨ/	Ь /◌ʲ/	Э /e/	Ю /ju/	Я /ja/

The letters ф, х, щ and ъ are only used in loanwords from Russian. The pre-1929 version of the Erzya alphabet included the additional letter Cyrillic ligature En Ge (Ҥ ҥ) in some publications, (cf. Evsevyev 1928).

In combination with the alveolar consonants т, д, ц, с, з, н, л, and р, vowel letters are employed to distinguish between plain and palatalized articulations in a similar way as in Russian: а, э, ы, о, у follow plain alveolars, while я, е, и, ё, ю follow palatalized alveolars, e.g. та /ta/, тэ /te/, ты /ti/, то /to/, ту /tu/ vs. тя /tʲa/, те /tʲe/, ти /tʲi/, тё /tʲo/, тю /tʲu/. If no vowel follows, palatalization is indicated by ь, e.g. ть /tʲ/. Following non-alveolar consonants, only а, е, и, о, у occur, e.g. па /pa/, пе /pe/, пи /pi/, по /po/, пу /pu/.

Latin alphabet

A Latin alphabet was officially approved by the government of Nizhne-Volzhskiy Kray in 1932, but it was never used:^[5]

a в c ç d ә e f g y i j k l m n o p r s ş t u v x z ƶ ь

A modern version of Latin alphabet exists:^[6]

a b c č ć d d́ e f g h i j k l ĺ m n ń o p r ŕ s š ś t t́ u v y z ž ź

Cyrillic	Latin
a	a
б	b
в	v
г	g
д	before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — d́
	not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — d
e	at the beginning of a word — je
	after a vowel — je
	after a consonant — e
ë	at the beginning of a word — jo
	after a vowel — jo
	after a consonant — o
ж	ž
з	before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ź
	not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — z
и	at the beginning of a word — i
	after a consonant — i
	after a vowel — ji
й	j
к	k
л	before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ĺ
	not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — l
м	m
н	before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ń
	not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — n
o	o
п	p
p	before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ŕ
	not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — r
c	before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ś
	not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — s
т	before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — t́
	not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — t
у	u
ф	f (only in loanwords)
x	h (only in loanwords)
ц	before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ć
	not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — c
ч	č
ш	š
щ	št́ (only in loanwords)
ъ
ы	i
ь
э	e
ю	at the beginning of a word — ju
	after a vowel — ju
	after a consonant — u
я	at the beginning of a word — ja
	after a vowel — ja
	after a consonant — a

See also

• Erzya people
• Erzya literature
• Erzyan Mastor

Bibliography

• A.I. Bryzhinskiy, O.V. Pashutina, Ye.I. Chernov. Писатели Мордовии Биобиблиографический справочник. Saransk: Mordovskoye Knizhnoye Izdatelystvo, 2001. ISBN 5-7595-1386-9.
• Vasilij D'omin. Сюконян тенк... Эрзянь писательде ёвтнемат. Saransk, 2005. ISBN 5-7595-1665-5.
• Ksenija Djordjevic & Jean-Leo Leonard. Parlons Mordve. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2006, ISBN 2-296-00147-5.
• Makar E. Evsev'ev. Основы мордовской грамматика, Эрзянь грамматика. С приложением образцов мокшанских склонений и спряжений. Москва: Центральное издательство народов СССР, 1928.
• Jack Rueter. Adnominal Person in the Morphological System of Erzya. Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 261. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 2010, ISBN 978-952-5667-23-3 [print], ISBN 978-952-5667-24-0 [online].
• D.V. Tsygankin. Память запечатленная в слове: Словарь географических названий республики Мордовия. Saransk, 2005. ISBN 5-7493-0780-8.

References

1. "Итоги Всероссийской переписи населения 2020 года. Таблица 6. Население по родному языку" [Results of the All-Russian population census 2020. Table 6. population according to native language.]. rosstat.gov.ru. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
2. Saarinen, Sirkka. "Erzya e-learning course" (PDF). Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Retrieved 2019-03-05.
3. Zaicz, Gábor (1998). "Mordva". In Abondolo, Daniel (ed.). The Uralic Languages. London: Routledge. pp. 184–218.
4. Rueter, Jack (2010). Adnominal Person in the Morphological System of Erzya. Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 261. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura.
5. Г. Аитов (1932). Новый алфавит. Великая революция на востоке (in Russian). Саратов: Нижневолжское краевое изд-во. p. 61—64.
6. Aasmäe, Niina. An introductory course of the Erzya language. Tartu Ülikool.

External links

•   Media related to Erzya language at Wikimedia Commons

 

Erzya edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Finno-Ugric Electronic Library by the Finno-Ugric Information Center in Syktyvkar, Komi Republic (interface in Russian and English, texts in Mari, Komi, Udmurt, Erzya and Moksha languages):
• Erzjanj Mastor – The society for preserving the Erzya language (in Erzya and Russian)
• News in the Erzya and Moksha Mordvinian languages
• [2] Эрзянский язык
• Erzya – Finnish/English/German/Russian dictionary (robust finite-state, open-source)
• Erzya studies reference bibliography under construction.
• Russian-Erzya Dictionary