The Mordvinic languages, also known as the Mordvin, Mordovian or Mordvinian languages (russian: мордовские языки, ''mordovskiye yazyki''), are a subgroup of the

Uralic languages The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...

, comprising the closely related

Erzya language The Erzya language (, , ), 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, Sam ...

and

Moksha language Moksha ( mdf, мокшень кяль, translit=mokšeň käľ, label=none, ) is a Mordvinic language of the Uralic family, with around 130,000 native speakers in 2010. Moksha is the majority language in the western part of Mordovia. Its closes ...

, both spoken in

Mordovia The Republic of Mordovia (russian: Респу́блика Мордо́вия, r=Respublika Mordoviya, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə mɐrˈdovʲɪjə; mdf, Мордовия Республиксь, ''Mordovija Respublikś''; myv, Мордовия Рес ...

. Previously considered a single "Mordvin language", it is now treated as a small language grouping. Due to differences in

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

, lexicon, and

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

, Erzya and Moksha are not mutually intelligible. The two Mordvinic languages also have separate literary forms. The Erzya

literary language A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langua ...

was created in 1922 and the Mokshan in 1923. Phonological differences between the two languages include: * Moksha retains a distinction between the vowels while in Erzya, both have merged as . * In unstressed syllables, Erzya features

vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, mea ...

like many other Uralic languages, using in front-vocalic words and in back-vocalic words. Moksha has a simple

schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...

in their place. * Word-initially, Erzya has a postalveolar affricate corresponding to a fricative in Moksha. * Next to voiceless consonants,

liquids A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, a ...

and the

semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the ...

are devoiced in Moksha to . The medieval

Meshcherian language Meshchera is an extinct Uralic language. It was spoken around the left bank of the Middle Oka. Meshchera was either a Mordvinic or a Permic language. Pauli Rahkonen has suggested on the basis of toponymic evidence that it was a Permic or closely ...

may have been Mordvinic or close to Mordvinic.

Classification

Traditionally, Uralicists grouped the Mordvinic and Mari languages together in the so-called ''Volgaic'' branch of the Uralic family; this view was however abandoned in the late 20th century. Instead, some Uralicists now prefer a rapid expansion model, with Mordvinic as one out of nine primary branches of Uralic; others propose a close relation between Mordvinic with the Finnic and Saamic branches of Uralic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mordvinic Languages Languages of Russia Mordovian culture