You can mark you interesting snippets of text that will be available through a unique link in your browser.


Merya language

Merya language

Infobox Language
name=Merya
nativename=
familycolor=Uralic
states=Russia
region=Merya
nation=extinct
speakers=extinct
fam1=Uralic
fam2=Finno-Ugric
fam3=Finno-permic
fam4=Finno-Volgaic
fam5=
iso2=
iso3=

The Merya language was the Finno-Ugric language [cite book |title=The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History |last=Wieczynski |first=Joseph |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1976 |publisher=Academic International Press, |location= |isbn=9780875690643 |pages= |url=http://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] spoken by the Merya tribe, which lived in what is today the Yaroslavl region northwest to Moscow (near Rostov Veliky and Pereslavl-Zalessky). Very little is known about the language except for a few lexical and toponymic items identified as possibly being of Merya origin. It probably became extinct during the Middle Ages around 1000 AD [cite book |title=Language Death and Language Maintenance |last=Janse |first=Mark |authorlink= |coauthors=Sijmen Tol, Vincent Hendriks |year=2000 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |location= |isbn=9789027247520 |pages=PA108 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=JdzVePSApMgC&pg=PA108 ] , as the Meryas were assimilated by the Slavs.

Merya language was probably related to the other Finno-Ugric languages of the adjacent region, although its exact position within the Finno-Ugric language group remains debatable. Originally it was believed that Merya was closely related to Mari, but this view has recently been challenged and an affiliation with the Northwestern Finnic languages, including Balto-Finnic and Saamic, has been explained as more likely [cite book |title=The Slavicization of the Russian North |last=Nuorluoto |first=Juhani |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2006 |publisher=Department of Slavonic and Baltic Languages and Literatures |location= |isbn=9789521028526 |pages= |url=http://www.slav.helsinki.fi/nwrussia/eng/Conference/pdf/Helimski.pdf ]

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

  
Share  

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Merya — They were an old and important culture which is shown in the numerous archaeological finds in those areas.They spoke a Finnic language, related to the languages spoken by other tribes in the surrounding larger region, such as the Mari, the… …   Wikipedia

  • Merya — noun a) A Finno Ugric tribe which lived in the region around the modern Moscow and was later assimilated by Slavs. b) The language spoken by them …   Wiktionary

  • South Estonian language — South Estonian Geographic distribution: Baltic States Linguistic classification: Uralic Finnic South Estonian Subdivisions …   Wikipedia

  • Akkala Sami language — Akkala Sami Spoken in Southwest Kola Peninsula, Russia Extinct 2003 Language family Uralic Sami …   Wikipedia

  • Northern Sami language — Northern Sami davvisámegiella / sámegiella Spoken in Norway, Sweden, Finland Native speakers 20,000  (1995) Language family …   Wikipedia

  • Livvi-Karelian language — Livvi Spoken in  Russia …   Wikipedia

  • Volga Finns — Approximate ethno linguistic map of European Russia in the 9th century: The five Volga Finnic groups of the Merya, Mari, Muromians, Meshchera and Mordvins are shown as surrounded by the Slavs to the west, the (Finnic) Veps to the northwest, the… …   Wikipedia

  • Russians — Infobox Ethnic group group=Russians (Russkie) Russians mosaic|300 poptime= 137 million (est.)|popplace=flag|Russia: 115,889,000 [(2002 census) [http://www.perepis2002.ru/content.html?id=11 docid=10715289081463] ] region1 = flag|Ukraine pop1 =… …   Wikipedia

  • Uralic languages — Family of more than 30 languages spoken by some 25 million people in central and northern Eurasia. A primary division is between the Finno Ugric languages, which account for most of the languages and speakers, and the Samoyedic languages. The… …   Universalium

  • Finnic peoples — (Fennic) are a historical linguistic group of peoples: Baltic Finns who are native speakers of Baltic Finnic languages and Volga Finns, speakers of Volga Finnic languages. [Finnic peoples speaking one or moreof the variety of Balto Finnic and… …   Wikipedia