The Mari language (, ; rus, марийский язык, p=mɐˈrʲijskʲɪj jɪˈzɨk), formerly known as the Cheremiss language, spoken by approximately 400,000 people, belongs to the
Uralic language family. It is spoken primarily in the
Mari Republic of the
Russian Federation
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, as well as in the area along the
Vyatka river basin and eastwards to the
Urals
The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan. . Mari speakers, known as the
Mari, are found also in the
Tatarstan
Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan, sometimes also called Tataria, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is a part of the Volga Federal District; and its capital city, capital and largest city i ...
,
Bashkortostan
Bashkortostan, officially the Republic of Bashkortostan, sometimes also called Bashkiria, is a republic of Russia between the Volga river and the Ural Mountains in Eastern Europe. The republic borders Perm Krai to the north, Sverdlovsk Oblast ...
,
Udmurtia
Udmurtia, officially the Udmurt Republic, is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is administratively part of the Volga Federal District. Its capital city, capital is the types of inhabited localities in Russi ...
, and
Perm regions.
Mari is the titular and official language of its republic, alongside
Russian.
The Mari language today has three standard forms:
Hill Mari,
Northwestern Mari, and
Meadow Mari. The latter is predominant and spans the continuum Meadow Mari to Eastern Mari from the Republic into the Ural dialects of
Bashkortostan
Bashkortostan, officially the Republic of Bashkortostan, sometimes also called Bashkiria, is a republic of Russia between the Volga river and the Ural Mountains in Eastern Europe. The republic borders Perm Krai to the north, Sverdlovsk Oblast ...
,
Sverdlovsk Oblast
Sverdlovsk Oblast ( rus, Свердловская область, Sverdlovskaya oblastʹ, p=svʲɪrdˈlofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia located in the Ural Federal District. Its administrative center is the c ...
and
Udmurtia
Udmurtia, officially the Udmurt Republic, is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is administratively part of the Volga Federal District. Its capital city, capital is the types of inhabited localities in Russi ...
), whereas the former, Hill Mari, shares a stronger affiliation with the Northwestern dialect (spoken in the
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Nizhny Novgorod. It has a population of 3,119,115 as of the 2021 Ru ...
and parts of the
Kirov Oblast
Kirov Oblast ( rus, Кировская область, p=ˈkʲirəfskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) located in Eastern Europe. Its administrative center is the city of Kirov. As of the 2010 census, the population ...
). Both language forms use modified versions of
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...
. For the non-native, Hill Mari, or Western Mari, can be recognized by its use of the special letters "ӓ" and "ӹ" in addition to the shared letters "ӱ" and "ӧ", while Eastern and Meadow Mari utilize a special letter "ҥ".
The use of two "variants", as opposed to two "languages", has been debated: Maris recognize the unity of the ethnic group, and the two forms are very close, but distinct enough to cause some problems with communication.
Ethnonym and glottonym
The Mari language and people were known as "Cheremis" (, ''cheremisy'', ''cheremisskiy yazyk''). In medieval texts the variant forms Sarmys and Tsarmys are also found, as well as ; and , ''Śarmăs'' before the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
. The term ''Mari'' comes from the Maris' autonym ().
Sociolinguistic situation
Most Maris live in rural areas with slightly more than a quarter living in cities. In the republic's capital,
Yoshkar-Ola
Yoshkar-Ola (Mari language, Mari and ) is the capital city of Mari El, Russia. Yoshkar-Ola means “red city” in Meadow Mari language, Mari and was formerly known as Tsarevokokshaysk () before 1919, as Krasnokokshaysk () between 1919 and 1927 ...
, the percentage of Maris is just over 23 percent. At the end of the 1980s (per the 1989 census) Maris numbered 670,868, of whom 80% (542,160) claimed Mari as their first language and 18.8% did not speak Mari. In the Mari Republic, 11.6% claimed Mari was not their first language. In a survey by the Mari Research Institute more than three quarters of Maris surveyed considered Mari language to be the most crucial marker of ethnic identity, followed by traditional culture (61%) and common historical past (22%), religion (16%), character and mentality (15%) and appearance (11%) (see Glukhov and Glukhov for details). A gradual downward trend towards assimilation to Russian has been noted for the Communist period: the 1926 census indicated more than 99% of Maris considered Mari their first language, declining to less than 81% in 1989. Some qualitative evidence of a reversal in recent years has been noted.
There was no state support for Mari language in
Imperial Russia
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imperial, Nebraska
* Imperial, Pennsylvania
* ...
, and with the exception of some enthusiasts and numerous ecclesiastical texts by the
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...
, there was almost no education in Mari language. After the
October Revolution
The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
, there was a period of support of all lesser national cultures in the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, but eventually
Russification
Russification (), Russianisation or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians adopt Russian culture and Russian language either voluntarily or as a result of a deliberate state policy.
Russification was at times ...
returned. While the development of Mari literary language continued, still, only elementary-school education was available in Mari in the Soviet period, with this policy ending in village schools in the 1970–1980s. The period of
glasnost
''Glasnost'' ( ; , ) is a concept relating to openness and transparency. It has several general and specific meanings, including a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information and the inadmissi ...
and
perestroika
''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...
in the 1990s opened opportunities for a revival of efforts expand the use of Mari in education and the public sphere. In the 1990s, the Mari language, alongside Russian, was proclaimed in the republican constitution to be an official language of Mari El. By the beginning of the 21st century, Mari language and literature was taught in 226 schools. At the History and Philology Department of the Mari State University and the
Krupskaya Teachers' Training Institute (Yoshkar-Ola), more than half of the subjects are taught in Mari. However, by 2024, only 9% of ethnic Mari children where being taught Mari in just 81 schools.
Dialects

The principal division between Mari varieties is the West and the East. According to the Soviet linguist Kovedyaeva (1976:9-15, 1993:163-164) the Mari macrolanguage is divided into four main dialects:
*
Hill Mari, spoken mainly on the right upper bank of the Volga River around
Kozmodemyansk (hence the name), but also on the left bank and in the mouth of
Vetluga.
*
Northwestern Mari
*
Meadow Mari, spoken on the left Volgan bank on the central and eastern plain ("meadow") of Mari El around the republican capital,
Yoshkar-Ola
Yoshkar-Ola (Mari language, Mari and ) is the capital city of Mari El, Russia. Yoshkar-Ola means “red city” in Meadow Mari language, Mari and was formerly known as Tsarevokokshaysk () before 1919, as Krasnokokshaysk () between 1919 and 1927 ...
.
*
Eastern Mari is scattered to the east of Mari El from
Vyatka through
Kama
''Kama'' (Sanskrit: काम, ) is the concept of pleasure, enjoyment and desire in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. It can also refer to "desire, wish, longing" in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh literature.Monier Williamsका� ...
to
Ufa.
Each main dialect is divided into their own smaller local subdialects. Only Hill and Meadow Mari have their own literary written standard varieties, based on the dialects of Kozmodemyansk and Yoshkar-Ola respectively.
Eastern and Meadow Mari are often united as a Meadow-Eastern
supra-dialect. Northwestern Mari is transitional between the Hill and Meadow dialects, and its phonology and morphology are closer to Hill Mari.
Phonology
Vowels
# Only in Hill Mari
The schwa and its fronted counterpart are usually transcribed in
Finno-Ugric transcription as ''ə̑'' (reduced mid unrounded vowel) and ''ə'' (reduced front unrounded vowel) respectively. The former has sometimes been transcribed in IPA as , but phonetically the vowel is most strongly distinguished by its short duration and reduced quality. Descriptions vary on the degree of backness and labialization.
The mid vowels , , have more reduced allophones , , at the end of a word.
Word prosody
Stress is not phonemic in Mari, but a dynamic stress system is exhibited phonetically, the stressed syllable being higher in pitch and amplitude and greater in length than an unstressed syllable. Generally, there is one prominent syllable per word and prominence may be found in any syllable of the word. Post- and prefixes behave as
clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic ( , backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a ...
s, i.e., they do not have their own stress. For example, пӧ́рт (''pört'', "house") гыч (''gəč'', "out of") (); or му́ро (''muro'', "song") дене (''dene'', "with") ().
Consonants
Consonants are shown in Cyrillic, Latin, and the
IPA:
# Only in Russian loanwords, in Hill Mari also onomatopoeia and Chuvashian loanwords.
# Palatalisation is marked in different ways. A following a palatalised consonant is written as , and following a palatalised consonant is written as . If the vowel following a palatalised consonant is an е or an и, palatalisation is not marked at all. In other cases, the
soft sign ь is used to mark palatalisation.
# The modified Cyrillic letter for the velar nasal () combines the Cyrillic letter with and , where the rightmost post of Н is conflated with the vertical post of : . Although Hill Mari has this sound too, this character is only used in Meadow Mari.
# In Russian loanwords and after nasals, are voiced stops. Word-finally and before a consonant, there is free variation between voiced fricatives () and voiceless stops .
Phonological processes
Like several other Uralic languages, Mari has
vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is a phonological rule in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – must share certain distinctive features (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, meaning tha ...
. In addition to front/back harmony, Mari also features round/unround harmony. If the stressed vowel in the word is
rounded, then the suffix will contain a rounded vowel: for example, кӱтӱ́ (
yˈty'herd') becomes кӱтӱ́штӧ (
yˈtyʃtø 'in the herd'); if the stressed vowel is unrounded, then the suffix will contain an unrounded vowel: ки́д (
id 'hand') becomes ки́дыште (
�kidəʃte 'in the hand'). If the stressed vowel is back, then the suffix will end in a back vowel: агу́р (
ˈgur 'whirlpool') becomes агу́рышто (
ˈgurəʃto 'in the whirlpool').
Orthography

Mari is mostly written with the
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...
.
Declension
Like other
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers ab ...
, Mari is an
agglutinating language. It lacks grammatical gender, and does not use articles.
Case
Meadow Mari has 9
productive cases, of which 3 are
locative case
In grammar, the locative case ( ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. In languages using it, the locative case may perform a function which in English would be expressed with such prepositions as "in", "on", "at", and ...
s. The usage of the latter ones is restricted to inanimate objects.
Many cases, aside from their basic function, are used in other situations, such as in expressions of time.
*
Nominative
In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants of E ...
, used for subjects, predicatives and for other grammatical functions.
*
Genitive
In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...
, is used for possessive constructions.
*
Dative
In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a drink". In this exampl ...
, the indirect object's case.
*
Accusative
In grammar, the accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: "me", "him", "her", " ...
, the direct object's case.
*
Comitative
In grammar, the comitative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case that denotes accompaniment. In English, the preposition "with", in the sense of "in company with" or "together with", plays a substantially similar role. Other uses of "with", l ...
, used when a subject or an object can be split up into parts, or in adverbials expressing the involvement of an object in an action.
*
Comparative
The degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs are the various forms taken by adjectives and adverbs when used to compare two entities (comparative degree), three or more entities (superlative degree), or when not comparing entities (positi ...
, used to express the likeness to something.
*
Inessive, used to state where something is.
*
Illative, used to state where something is going.
*
Lative, used to express into what something is going.
If a locative statement was to be made about an animate object, postpositions would be used.
Additionally, terms denoting family members have
vocative
In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numeral ...
forms. These are, however, not created with a specific paradigm, and only exist in a few pre-defined cases.
Hill Mari has these cases, plus the
abessive case (of the form -де), which is used to form
adverbial
In English grammar, an adverbial ( abbreviated ) is a word (an adverb) or a group of words (an adverbial clause or adverbial phrase) that modifies or more closely defines the sentence or the verb. (The word ''adverbial'' itself is also used as a ...
s stating without the involvement or influence of which an action happens.
Number
Mari, though an agglutinative language, does not have a separate
morpheme
A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this ...
to signify
plural
In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...
ity. There are three particles, which are attached to the end of words with a hyphen, used to signify plural.
* -влак (''-vlak'') – Standard plural form.
* -шамыч (''-šamõč'') – Alternative standard plural, used in many dialects. There is no difference in meaning between these two.
* -мыт (''mət'') – Sociative plural. Used to signify a group of people: the members of a family, a person and their family and friends.
Possessive suffixes
Every grammatical person in Mari has its own
possessive suffix.
Additional suffixes
Additional particles, falling into none of the categories above, can be added to the very end of a word, giving it some additional meaning. For example, the suffix -ат ''(-at''), means 'also' or 'too'.
Arrangement of suffixes
The arrangement of suffixes varies from case to case. Although the case suffixes are after the possessive suffixes in the genitive and the accusative, the opposite is the case for the locative cases. In the dative, both arrangements are possible.
There are many other arrangements in the plural—the position of the plural particle is flexible. The arrangement here is one commonly used possibility.
Comparison
Comparison
Comparison or comparing is the act of evaluating two or more things by determining the relevant, comparable characteristics of each thing, and then determining which characteristics of each are similar to the other, which are different, and t ...
happens with adjectives and adverbs. The
comparative
The degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs are the various forms taken by adjectives and adverbs when used to compare two entities (comparative degree), three or more entities (superlative degree), or when not comparing entities (positi ...
is formed with the suffix -рак (-rak). The
superlative
The degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs are the various forms taken by adjectives and adverbs when used to compare two entities (comparative degree), three or more entities (superlative degree), or when not comparing entities (positi ...
is formed by adding the word эн (en) in front.
Conjugation
Morphologically,
conjugation
Conjugation or conjugate may refer to:
Linguistics
*Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form
*Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language
Mathematics
*Complex conjugation, the change o ...
follows three
tenses and three
moods in Meadow Mari.
Conjugation types
In Meadow Mari, verbs can conjugate according to two conjugation types. These differ from each other in all forms but the infinitive and the third-person plural of the imperative. Unfortunately, the infinitive is the form denoted in dictionaries and word lists. It is, thus, necessary to either mark verb infinitives by their conjugation type in word lists, or to include a form in which the conjugation class is visible—usually, the first-person singular present, which ends in -ам (or -ям) for verbs in the first category, and in -ем (or -эм) for second-type verbs.
Tense
The three tenses of Mari verbs are:
#
Present
The present is the period of time that is occurring now. The present is contrasted with the past, the period of time that has already occurred; and the future, the period of time that has yet to occur.
It is sometimes represented as a hyperplan ...
: The present tense is used for present and future actions, for states of being and for habitual actions, among others.
# First
preterite
The preterite or preterit ( ; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple p ...
: The first preterite is used to express observed, recent actions.
# Second preterite: The second preterite is used for actions that are in the more-distant past.
Additional tenses can be formed through
periphrasis
In linguistics and literature, periphrasis () is the use of a larger number of words, with an implicit comparison to the possibility of using fewer. The comparison may be within a language or between languages. For example, "more happy" is periph ...
.
* First periphrastic
imperfect
The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was doing (something)" o ...
* Second periphrastic imperfect
* First periphrastic
perfect
* Second periphrastic perfect
Mood
The moods are:
#
Indicative
A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentence
Dec ...
: The indicative is used to express facts and positive beliefs. All intentions that a particular language does not categorize as another mood are classified as indicative. It can be formed in all persons, in all times.
#
Imperative: The imperative expresses direct commands, requests, and prohibitions. It only exists in the present tense, and exists in all persons but the first person singular.
#
Desiderative: The desiderative is used to express desires. It can be formed for all persons, in the present tense and in the two periphrastic imperfect.
Negation
Negation in Mari uses a 'negative verb', much like
Finnish does. The negative verb is more versatile than the negative verb in Finnish (see
Finnish grammar
The Finnish language is spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns elsewhere. Unlike the Indo-European languages spoken in neighbouring countries, such as Swedish and Norwegian, which are North Germanic languages, or ...
), existing in more grammatical tenses and moods. It has its own form in the present indicative, imperative and desiderative, and in the first preterite indicative. Other negations are periphrastic.
The negation verb in its corresponding form is put in front of the negated verb in its second-person singular (the stem-only form), much as it is in Finnish and
Estonian.
The verb улаш (ulaš) – to be – has its own negated forms.
Example
In order to illustrate the conjugation in the respective moods and times, one verb of the first declination (лекташ – to go) and one verb of the second declination (мондаш – to forget) will be used.
# Bold letters are subject to
vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is a phonological rule in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – must share certain distinctive features (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, meaning tha ...
—they can be е/о/ӧ, depending on the preceding full vowel.
# First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative – see imperative second-person singular.
# Bold letters are subject to vowel harmony—they can be е/о/ӧ, depending on the preceding full vowel.
# First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative – see imperative second-person singular.
# If the consonant prior to the ending can be palatalized—if it is ''л'' (l) or ''н'' (n)—it is palatalized in this position. Palatalization is not marked if the vowel following a consonant is an е.
колаш → кольым, кольыч, кольо, колна, колда, кольыч (to hear)
# Bold letters are subject to vowel harmony—they can be е/о/ӧ, depending on the preceding full vowel.
# First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative – see imperative second-person singular.
# Bold letters are subject to vowel harmony—they can be ''е/о/ӧ'', depending on the preceding full vowel.
# First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative.
# In the first conjugation, the imperative second-person singular is formed by removing the ''-аш'' ending from the infinitive. Four consonant combinations are not allowed at the end of an imperative, and are thus simplified—one consonant is lost.
''кт'' → ''к'', ''нч'' → ''ч'', ''чк'' → ''ч'', ''шк'' → ''ш''
# Bold letters are subject to vowel harmony—they can be ''е/о/ӧ'', depending on the preceding full vowel.
# First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative – see imperative second-person singular.
# First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative – see imperative second-person singular.
# Bold letters are subject to vowel harmony—they can be ''е/о/ӧ'', depending on the preceding full vowel.
# First-conjugation verb forms using the imperative second-person singular as their stem are subject to the same stem changes as the imperative – see imperative second-person singular.
Infinitive forms
Verbs have two
infinitive
Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
forms: the standard infinitive and the necessive infinitive, used when a person must do something. The person needing to do something is put in the dative in such a situation.
Participles
There are four
participle
In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from a verb and used as an adject ...
s in Meadow Mari:
* Active participle
* Passive participle
* Negative participle
* Future participle
Gerunds
There are five
gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ger) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin ''gerundium,'' meaning "which is ...
s in Meadow Mari:
* Affirmative instructive gerund
* Negative instructive gerund
* Gerund for prior actions I
* Gerund for prior actions II
* Gerund for simultaneous actions
Syntax
Word order
Word order in Mari is
subject–object–verb.
[Saarinen, Sirkka, 'Mari', in Marianne Bakró-Nagy, Johanna Laakso, and Elena Skribnik (eds), ''The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages'' (Oxford, 2022; online edn, Oxford Academic, 23 June 2022), , accessed 31 July 2023.] This means that the object appears directly before the predicate.
Word order in Mari is affected by information structure.
However, the position of the verb is not affected.
The focus position is directly before the verb.
Subjects, objects, adverbial, and secondary predicate can appear in this position.
The examples below quoted in Saarinen (2022)
show the different elements that can appear in the focus position.
1PST:first preterite
2PST:second preterite
Question particles мо /mo/ and ма /mɑ/ are clause-final.
However, Georgieva et al. (2021) point out that Mari also allows backgrounded material to occur after the verb.
Moving the verb to other positions in the sentence is possible for stylistic reasons or for emphasis.
Nominal predication
Two nouns can be put against each other to form nominal predication.
According to Saarinen (2022) both nouns and adjectives appear in the nominative case and do not agree with the subject in number in nominal predication.
Saarinen (2022) notes that when the sentence is in the indicative mood with 3sg, a
copula is not used.
However, a
copula is obligatory and appears clause-final and in other persons, tenses, and moods.
Verbal predication
Saarinen (2022) points out that the object is marked with the accusative in transitive clauses.
However, the object can appear in the nominative case in non-finite constructions.
When the clause is ditransitive, the direct object appears in the accusative case and the indirect takes the dative case.
However, Saarinen (2022) notes that in dialects and with verbs such as йӱкты- /jyktə-/ 'water' and пукшы- /pukʃə-/ 'feed' both objects appear in the accusative case.
Vocabulary
Note that the accent mark, which denotes the place of stress, is not used in actual Mari orthography.
Bibliography
* (Hill and Meadow)
* (Hill and Meadow)
* (Hill and Meadow)
* (Mari
ill and Meadow Hungarian, Latin)
* (Hill)
Glukhov, N. and V. Glukhov, "Mari Men and Women as Bearers of the Mari Language and Identity", Wiener elektronische Beiträge des Instituts für Finno-Ugristik, 2003. Available, along with other papers on Finno-Ugric languages and cultures* Ingemann, F. J. and T. A. Sebeok, An Eastern Cheremis Manual: Phonology, Grammar, Texts and Glossary (= American Council of Learned Societies, Research and Studies in Uralic and Altaic languages, project nos. 6 and 31), Bloomington, 1961 (Meadow);
Klima, L. "The linguistic affinity of the Volgaic Finno-Ugrians and their ethnogenesis", 2004* Kangasmaa-Minn, Eeva. 1998. Mari. In Daniel Abondolo (ed.), The Uralic Languages, 219-248. London: Routledge.
* Lewy E., Tscheremissische Grammatik, Leipzig, 1922 (Meadow);
*
Ramstedt G. J., Bergtscheremissische Sprachstudien, Helsinki, 1902 (Hill);
* Räsänen M., Die tschuwassischen Lehnwörter im Tscheremissischen, Helsinki, 1920;
* Räsänen M., Die tatarischen Lehnwörter im Tscheremissischen, Helsinki, 1923.
* Sebeok, T. A. and A. Raun. (eds.), The First Cheremis Grammar (1775): A Facsimile Edition, Chicago, 1956.
* Szilasi M., Cseremisz szótár, Budapest, 1901 (Mari
ill and Meadow Hungarian, German);
* Wichmann Y., Tscheremissische Texte mit Wörterverzeichnis und grammatikalischem Abriss, Helsingfors, 1923 (Hill and Meadow);
* Wiedemann F., Versuch einer Grammatik der tscheremissischen Sprache, Saint Petersburg, 1847 (Hill);
* Васильев В. М., Записки по грамматике народа мари, Kazan', 1918 (Hill and Meadow);
* Васильев В. М., Марий Мутэр, Moscow, 1929 (Hill and Meadow);
* Галкин, И. С., Историческая грамматика марийского языка, vol. I, II, Yoshkar-Ola, 1964, 1966;
* Галкин, И. С., "Происхождение и развитие марийского языка", Марийцы. Историко-этнографические очерки/Марий калык. Историй сынан этнографий очерк-влак, Yoshkar-Ola, 2005: 43-46.
* Зорина, З. Г., Г. С. Крылова, and Э. С. Якимова. Марийский язык для всех, ч. 1. Йошкар-Ола: Марийское книжное издательство, * Кармазин Г. Г., Материалы к изучению марийского языка, Krasnokokshajsk, 1925 (Meadow);
* Иванов И. Г., История марийского литературного языка, Yoshkar-Ola, 1975;
* Иванов И. Г., Марий диалектологий, Yoshkar-Ola, 1981;
* Кармазин Г. Г., Учебник марийского языка лугово-восточного наречия, Yoshkar-Ola, 1929 (Meadow);
* Коведяева Е. И. "Марийский язык", Основы финно-угорского языкознания. Т.3. Moscow, 1976: 3-96.
* Коведяева Е. И. "Марийский язык", Языки мира: Уральские языки. Moscow, 1993: 148-164.
* Коведяева Е. И. "Горномарийский вариант литературного марийского языка", Языки мира: Уральские языки. Moscow, 1993: 164-173.
* Шорин В. С., Маро-русский словарь горного наречия, Kazan', 1920 (Hill);
* Троицкий В. П., Черемисско-русский словарь, Kazan', 1894 (Hill and Meadow);
References
External links
Electronic Resources on the Mari LanguageOnline dictionaries on Mari language
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mari Language
Uralic languages
Culture of Mari El
Subject–object–verb languages