Merya or Meryanic () is an extinct Finno-Ugric language, which was spoken by the Meryans. However some Merya speakers might have even lived in the 18th century. There is also a theory that the word for "Moscow" originates from the Merya language. The Meryan language stretched to the western parts of Vologda Oblast and Moscow.
Classification
There is no general agreement on the relationship of Merya to its neighboring Uralic languages.
- A traditional account places Merya as a member of the Volga-Finnic group, comprising also the Mordvinic and Mari languages. However, Volga Finnic is today considered obsolete.
- T. Semenov and Max Vasmer believed Merya to be a close relative of Mari. Vasmer saw that many Merya toponyms have Mari parallels.
- One hypothesis classifies the Merya as a western branch of the Mari people rather than as a separate tribe. Their ethnonyms are basically identical, Merya being a Russian transcription of the Mari self-designation, Мäрӹ (Märӛ). According to , the ethnonym Merya in toponyms becomes Mari moving to the east.
- Eugene Helimski supposed that the Merya language was part of a "northwest" group of Finno-Ugric, including also Balto-Finnic and Sami. Helimski argued that even though there are Mari parallels, they do not justify a close relationship with Mari and could be due to adjacency of the language areas.
- Gábor Bereczki supposed that the Merya language was a part of the Balto-Finnic group.
- Mordvinian author Aleksandr Sharonov claimed that Merya is an Erzyan dialect; however this is not well supported.
Rahkonen (2013) As an example: in Russian toponyms from areas where Merya was spoken, an ending () is regularly seen in names relating to lakes. This also resembles, but does not exactly match, the words for 'lake' in western Uralic languages, such as Finnish , Northern Sami , Erzya (), Meadow Mari () (from a common proto-form ). From these it can be inferred that likely continues the Meryan word for 'lake', which may have had a form such as
According to Rahkonen, in Merya areas there is a word , which is probably cognate with the Komi word () 'middle river', and similar also to an element which appears in Finnish toponyms. From Merya toponyms it can also be seen that words such as 'down' (Finnish: ), 'give' (Finnish: ) existed in the Merya language. Some words have also been constructed from proper names, such as the words 'fisher' and 'hope'.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Cases
|Case
|Case ending
|-
|nominative
| -
|-
|Genetive
| -n/-an
|-
|Partitive
| -ta/da
|-
|Inessive
| -sna/ssa/ššo
|-
|Illative
| -s
|-
|ellative
|sta
|-
|adessive
| -lna/lla
|-
|allative
| -l'/le
|-
|ablative
| -lta
|-
|translative
| -kš
|-
|vokative
| -aj
|-
|abessive
| -to/do
|-
|dative
| -lan/len
|-
|accusative
| -m/-am/-ym
|-
|comitative
| -ge
|-
|prolative
| -te
|-
|subessive
| -nna
|-
|delative
| -lta/-lda
|-
|plural
| -k/-ak
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Possessive suffixes
!Person
!Singular
!Plural
|-
|1sg
| -em
| -en
|-
|2sg
| -et
| -ent
|-
|3sg
| -eš
| -enže
|-
|1pl
| -amo
| -ano
|-
|2pl
| -ato
| -anto
|-
|3pl
| -ašto
| -ažno
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Present tense conjugation
!Person
!Ending
|-
|1sg
| -am
|-
|2sg
| -at
|-
|3sg
| -a/-as
|-
|1pl
|em/ama
|-
|2pl
|et/ata
|-
|3pl
|es
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Past tense
!Person
!Ending
|-
|1sg
|ym
|-
|2sg
|yt
|-
|3sg
|yš/ys
|-
|1pl
|yma/im/ym
|-
|2pl
|yta/yt/it
|-
|3pl
|iš/is
|}-->
See also
- Volga Finns
- Mari language
- Meryan ethnofuturism