Moksha language

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Mordvin language. (Discuss)

Moksha мокшень
Spoken in:	Russia and as a minority language also in Armenia, Australia and the United States
Region:	European Russia
Total speakers:	~500,000
Language family:	Uralic  Finno-Ugric   Finno-Volgaic    Moksha
Official status
Official language in:	Mordovia (Russia)
Regulated by:	Mordovian Research Institute of Language, Literature, History and Economics
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	mdf
ISO 639-3:	mdf
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Moksha language (Moksha: мокшень кяль) is a Volga-Finnic language with about 500,000 native speakers. Moksha is the majority language in the western part of Mordovia and spoken by Moksha people worldwide. It is related to the Erzya and Mari languages, but although the three are not mutually intelligible. Moksha has close relation to now extinct Meshcherian and Muromian languages. There are presently 6 distinct dialects of Moksha: Central, Western (or Zubu dialect), South-Western, Northern, South-Eastern and Southern.

[edit] Official status

Moksha is one of the three official languages in Mordovia. However, there is no special language law for its use. As given by appropriate laws, courts and authorities act and make out documents and executions in the Moksha language, Erzya language and Russian language. The right to one's own language is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Mordovia Republic^[1].

[edit] Writing system

Mokshan logographic script is now obsolete writing system based on glyphs representing objects, concepts, activity, places or events. It was in use before Christianization and remained popular till the beginning of the 20th century.

Obsolete Mokshan writing system glyphs

Mokshan is currently using the Russian alphabet with spelling rules identical with that of Russian and as a consequence of that vowels e, ä, ə are not indicated in a consistent way. Latin alphabet for Moksha was officially approved by CIK VCKNA (General Executive Committee of All Union New Alphabet Central Committee) June, 25, 1932, but was never used.

Mokshan Cyrillic alphabet 1924-1927

SIL code: MDF

ISO 639-2: mdf

• Latin alphabet (1930s): A/a, B/в, C/c, Ç/ç, D/d, Ə/ә, E/e, F/f, G/g, Y/y, I/i, J/j, K/k, L/l, M/m, N/n, O/o, P/p, R/r, S/s, Ş/ş, T/t, U/u, V/v, X/x, Z/z, ƶ, ь, rx, lh

• Modern Russian alphabet: А/а, Б/б, В/в, Г/г, Д/д, Е/е, Ё/ё, Ж/ж, З/з, И/и, Й/й, К/к, Л/л, М/м, Н/н, О/о, П/п, Р/р, С/с, Т/т, У/у, Ф/ф, Х/х, Ц/ц, Ч/ч, Ш/ш, Щ/щ, Ъ/ъ, Ы/ы, Ь/ь, Э/э, Ю/ю, Я/я

• Alternative Latin alphabet: Aa, Ää, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, Zz

Pronunciation of the Cyrillic alphabet

[edit] Literature

Before 1917 about 100 books and pamphlets mostly of religious character were published. More than 200 manuscripts including at least 50 wordlists were not printed. In 19th century the Russian Orthodox Missionary Society in Kazan published Mokshan primers and elementary textbooks of Russian language for Mokshas. Among them were two fascicles with samples of Mokshan folk poetry. The great native scholar Makar Evsevyev collected Moksha folk songs published in one volume in 1897. Under early Soviet rule dominated publishing of social and political literature. All books were being printed in Moscow till establishing Mordvinian national district in 1928. Language conferences in 1928 an 1935 made north-west Moksha dialect the base for literary language.

[edit] References

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)

• Cherapkin I.G. ‘Moksha-mordovsko – russkiy slovar’ Saransk, 1933
• Juhász Jenő. Moksa-Mordvin szójegyzék. Budapest, 1961
• Paasonen H. Mordwinisches worterbuch, Helsinki SU Seura, 1990-1998
• Yermushkin G.I. Arealnyye issledovaniya po vostochnym finno-ugorskim yazykam. (Areal research in East Fenno-Ugric languages). Moscow, 1984
• Aitov G. 'Novyy alfavit - velikaya revolutsiya na Vostoke. K mezhrayonnym i krayevoy konferentsii po voprosam novogo alfavita. Saratov, Nizhnevolzhskoye krayevoe izdatelstvo, 1932. 73 p. (Low Volga New Alphabet Committee under Kray Executive Committee Presidium).

[edit] See also

• Mokshan numeric system

[edit] External links

Moksha language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• [1] Mokshen Pravda newspaper
• [2] Moksha - English - Moksha online dictionary
• [3] News in Moksha
• [4] Mokshan folklore
• [5] Mokshan mythology
• [6] Linguistic links
• [7] Periodic table in Moksha language