Erzya language

Erzya
erzäny kel
эрзянь кель
Native to Russia
Region Mordovia, Nizhny Novgorod, Chuvashia, Ulyanovsk, Samara, Penza, Saratov, Orenburg, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan
Native speakers
 390,000 (together with Moksha) (2010 census)[1]
Cyrillic
Official status
Official language in
 Mordovia (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-2 myv
ISO 639-3 myv
Glottolog erzy1239[2]

The Erzya language (Erzya: эрзянь кель, translit. erzäny kel) is spoken by about 260,000 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, Estonia as well as in Kazakhstan and other newly independent 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.

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

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar
plain pal.
Nasal m n nʲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t tʲ k
voiced b d dʲ ɡ
Affricate voiceless t͡s t͡sʲ t͡ʃ
Fricative voiceless f s sʲ ʃ x
voiced v z zʲ ʒ
Trill r rʲ
Approximant l lʲ j

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

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 (vele) "village", велесэ (velese) "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 (kalʲse) "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 (velʲevanzo) "throughout its villages"

Thus the seeming violations of vowel harmony attested in stems, e.g. узере (uzere) "axe", суре (sure) "thread (string)", are actually due to the palatalized consonants (ź) and (ŕ).

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

Writing

The modern Erzya alphabet is the same as for Russian:

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 pre-1929 version of the Erzya alphabet included the additional letter Cyrillic ligature En Ge (Ҥ ҥ) in some publications, (cf. Evsevyev 1928).

The highlighted letters were used in loanwords from Russian only, with the specification that the soft sign ь appearing after non-alveolar consonants is a sign of loan words.
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/		нг
/ŋ/		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/		ä
/æ/		ə
/ə/

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

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

The other version of Latin alphabet exists:

a ä b c č cy d e f g h i j k l m n ny o ö p r ry s š sy t ty u ü v y z ž zy

See also

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Janurik, Boglárka (2013). "Code-switching in an Erzya-Russian bilingual variety: An "endangered" transitory phase in a contact situation". In Mihas, Elena; Perley, Bernard; Rei-Doval, Gabriel; et al. Responses to Language Endangerment. In honor of Mickey Noonan. New directions in language documentation and language revitalization. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. p. 180. ISBN 978-90-272-0609-1. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Erzya". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
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