Meryansky language ( other Russian mercury ) is a dead Finno-Ugric language spoken by the Merya tribe in central Russia , localized according to chronicles and archaeological sources in the area of Nero and Plescheevo lakes (where they are respectively Rostov and Pereslavl-Zalessky ). Very little is known about this language, in fact, only toponyms data (however, ambiguously interpreted) have come down to us. It disappeared in the Middle Ages after the Meria tribe was assimilated by the Slavs (the last time Meria was mentioned in the annals in 907 , the decay of the tribal structure of the Meri dates back to the time of Yaroslav the Wise ).
| Meryansky language | |
|---|---|
| Self name | Meren Elma |
| Country | Russia |
| Regions | Yaroslavl region , Ivanovo region , Vladimir region , Vologda region , Kostroma region , Nizhny Novgorod region , Tver region , Moscow region |
| Total number of speakers | 0 |
| Status | dead language |
| Extinct | XI century |
| Classification | |
Ural family
| |
| GOST 7.75–97 | measures |
Content
Research and classification
There are two main versions regarding the place of the Meryansky language in the Finno-Ugric family.
According to one, it was close to the Mari language (cf. the proximity of the ethnonyms of Mari and Meria ; it was followed by Max Fasmer ; an analysis of Merian toponymy was also carried out based on Mari parallels [2] ). The well-known ethnographer Finno-Ugroologist S.K. Kuznetsov wrote that when moving east, the self-name of the Meria (Meri) goes to Mari , and that when explaining the chorographic names of the Meryan land, he resorted to the Mari language, since no other known language for this suitable [3] .
According to another version, the Merian language was closer to the Baltic-Finnish languages . A supporter of this hypothesis is E. A. Khelimsky , who offered his analysis of Meryan toponymy and concluded that the Meryan language was closer to the Finno-Ugric languages of the “northwest” group ( Baltic-Finnish , Sami ) [4] . In his opinion, the presence of Mari parallels is not a criterion for the Meryansky language to belong to the Mari group, since it is well explained by the former contiguity of the territories. For example, in the Vepsian language there are a small number of words common to Vepsian and Mari, but absent in the Baltic-Finnish and Mordovian.
There is also a particular opinion of the well-known Finno-Ugric scholar A. M. Sharonov that the Meryan language was a dialect of the Erzya language [5] . However, this opinion did not receive wide scientific support.
A characteristic feature of the Meryan language, some researchers note the formation of the plural by adding -k, -ak to the base , which is close to the Mari- vlak .
Phonetics of Meryansky language
The Meryanskaya phonetic system is studied only in general terms, based on the dialectic and argotistic facts of Russian dialects of the modern Yaroslavl and Kostroma regions. Presumably Meryansky language was inherent: the deafness of consonants at the beginning of words and their spirantization (increased voicing) inside the words. This is characteristic of both the Baltic-Finnish languages, and the Volga-Finnish languages, and even Sami; at the beginning of words there could be only one consonant sound (if more, then these are borrowings); lack of accumulation of consonants at the end of the word, especially with the final explosive; lack of a combination of voiced dental (-dn-, -fsh-, -vsh-); in the field of vocalism there is no sound “s” (close to Russian), which is consistently used as Ukrainian “s” or close to the Erzyan sound “y”; the presence and widespread use of the Baltic-Finnish sounds -ö-, -ä-, -ü-; lack of synharmonism; initial stress (emphasis on the first syllable).
Notes
- ↑ Uralic languages - article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- ↑ Matveev A. K. On the problem of resettlement of the annals / A. K. Matveev // Bulletin of the Ural State University. - 1997. - No. 7. - S. 5-17.
- ↑ Kuznetsov S.K. Analysis of the chorographic names of Meryanskaya land. Moscow Archaeological Institute. 1910.
- ↑ Khelimsky E.A. Legacy of the North-Western Group of Finno-Ugric Languages in Substrate Toponymy and Vocabulary: Reconstructions, Historical Phonetics, Etymology Archived May 30, 2016 at Wayback Machine // Onomastics Issues 3. Yekaterinburg, 2006. P. 38- 51.
- ↑ Alexander Sharonov. The people of Erzya and Russia: in the focus of the Russian non-Slav.
Literature
- Tkachenko O. B. Meryanskiy language / Institute of Linguistics them. A. A. Potebni, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. - Kiev: Naukova Dumka, 1985 .-- 208 p. (region)
- Tkachenko O. B. Studies on the Meryansky language. - Kostroma: Infopress, 2007. - 357 p.