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, Samara, Saratov, Orenburg, Ulyanovsk, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan in Russia. A diaspora can also be found in Armenia and Estonia, as well as in Kazakhstan and other states of Central Asia. Erzya is currently written using Cyrillic with no modifications to the variant used by the Russian language. In Mordovia, Erzya is co-official with Moksha and Russian.
The language belongs to the Mordvinic branch of the Uralic languages. Erzya is a language that is closely related to Moksha but has distinct phonetics, morphology and vocabulary.
Phonology
Consonants The following table lists the consonant phonemes of Erzya together with their Cyrillic equivalents.
Labial Alveolar (Palato-)alveolar Velar plain pal. Nasal м н нь н Plosive voiceless п т ть к voiced б д дь г Affricate ц ць ч Fricative voiceless ( ф) с сь ш ( х) voiced в з зь ж Trill р рь Approximant л ль й
Palatalization is widespread in Erzya, but is contrastive only for the alveolar consonants. The labial and velar consonants have palatalized allophones before the front vowels , . The pairs – , – and – also often alternate depending on a following or preceding back vs. front vowel. E.g. the 1st person singular possessive suffix has allomorphs such as and . The palatalized consonants can natively occur also in a back vowel environment, e.g. the genitive suffix , providing minimal pairs such as 'my house' – '(a) house's'. Non-palatalized , , in a front vowel environment are limited to recent Russian loans such as 'whale'.
Note on romanized transcription: in Uralic studies, the members of the palatalized series are usually spelled as , , , , , , , , while the postalveolar sounds are spelled , , (see Uralic Phonetic Alphabet).
and are loan phonemes from Russian. There is a phonemic contrast between and , despite that they share the standard spelling ⟨н⟩. Minimal pairs include: "along the path", in which the alveolar of the stem is retained before the prolative case ending , vs. , the connegative form of the verb "to break" "good", subject or object complement in translative, vs. "direction; area". See Rueter 2010: 58.
Vowels Erzya has a simple five-vowel system.
Front Back High Mid Low
The front vowels and have centralized variants and immediately following a plain alveolar consonant, e.g. "they", "blue".
Vowel harmony As in many other Uralic languages, Erzya has vowel harmony. Most roots contain either front vowels (, ) or back vowels (, ). In addition, all suffixes with mid vowels have two forms: the form to be used is determined by the final syllable of the stem. The low vowel (), found in the comparative case () "the size of" and the prolative () "spatial multipoint used with verbs of motion as well as position" is a back vowel and not subject to vowel harmony.
The rules of vowel harmony are as follows:
If the final syllable of the word stem contains a front vowel, the front form of the suffix is used: () "village", () "in a village" If the final syllable of the word stem contains a back vowel, and it is followed by plain (non-palatalized) consonants, the back form of the suffix is used: () "house", () "in a house"
However, if the back vowel is followed by a palatalized consonant or palatal glide, vowel harmony is violated and the "front" form of the suffix is used: () "with willow", () "with butter". Likewise, if a front-vowel stem is followed by a low back vowel suffix, subsequent syllables will contain back harmony: () "throughout its villages"
Thus the seeming violations of vowel harmony attested in stems, e.g. () "axe", () "thread (string)", are actually due to the palatalized consonants and .
One exception to front-vowel harmony is observed in palatalized non-final , e.g. () "with asphalt".
Writing
Cyrillic alphabet The modern Erzya alphabet is the same as for Russian:
{| style="text-align:center;" |- |А||Б||В||Г||Д||Е||Ё||Ж||З||И||Й |- |К||Л||М||Н||О||П||Р||С||Т||У||Ф |- |Х||Ц||Ч||Ш||Щ ||Ъ||Ы ||Ь||Э||Ю||Я
The letters ф, х, щ and ъ are only used in loanwords from Russian. The pre-1929 version of the Erzya alphabet included the additional letter Cyrillic ligature En Ge (Ҥ ҥ) in some publications, (cf. Evsevyev 1928).
In combination with the alveolar consonants т, д, ц, с, з, н, л, and р, vowel letters are employed to distinguish between plain and palatalized articulations in a similar way as in Russian: а, э, ы, о, у follow plain alveolars, while я, е, и, ё, ю follow palatalized alveolars, e.g. та /ta/, тэ /te/, ты /ti/, то /to/, ту /tu/ vs. тя /tʲa/, те /tʲe/, ти /tʲi/, тё /tʲo/, тю /tʲu/. If no vowel follows, palatalization is indicated by ь, e.g. ть /tʲ/. Following non-alveolar consonants, only а, е, и, о, у occur, e.g. па /pa/, пе /pe/, пи /pi/, по /po/, пу /pu/.
Latin alphabet
A Latin alphabet was officially approved by the government of Nizhne-Volzhskiy Kray in 1932, but it was never used: a в c ç d ә e f g y i j k l m n o p r s ş t u v x z ƶ ь
One of the modern Latin alphabet proposals: a b c č ć d d́/ď e f g h i j k l ĺ/ľ m n ń o p r ŕ s š ś t t́/ť u v z ž ź
CyrillicLatinаaбbвvгgдbefore e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — d́/ďnot before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — dеat the beginning of a word — jeafter a vowel — jeafter a consonant — eёat the beginning of a word — joafter a vowel — joafter a consonant — oжžзbefore e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — źnot before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — zиat the beginning of a word — iafter a consonant — iafter a vowel — jiйjкkлbefore e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ĺ/ľnot before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — lмmнbefore e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ńnot before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — nоoпррbefore e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ŕnot before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — rсbefore e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — śnot before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — sтbefore e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — t́/ťnot before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — tуuфf (only in loanwords)хh (only in loanwords)цbefore e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ćnot before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — cчčшšщšč/šť (only in loanwords)ъ–ыiь–эeюat the beginning of a word — juafter a vowel — juafter a consonant — uяat the beginning of a word — jaafter a vowel — jaafter a consonant — a
Morphology Like all other Uralic languages, Erzya is an agglutinative language which expresses grammatical relations by means of suffixes.
Nouns Nouns are inflected for case, number, definiteness and possessor. Erzya distinguishes twelve cases (here illustrated with the noun "ground, earth"). Number is systematically distinguished only with definite nouns; for indefinite nouns and nouns with a possessive suffix, only the nominative case has a distinct plural.
Case Indefinite Definite possessive possessive possessive singular plural singular plural singular plural singular/plural singular plural nominative мода moda мода-т moda-t мода-сь moda-ś мода-тне moda-tńe мода-м moda-m мода-н moda-n мода-т moda-t мода-зo moda-zo мода-нзo moda-nzo genitive мода-нь moda-ń мода-нть moda-ńt́ мода-тне-нь moda-tńe-ń dative/allative мода-нень moda-ńeń мода-нтень moda-ńt́eń мода-тне-нень moda-tńe-ńeń inessive мода-со moda-so мода-сонть moda-sońt́ мода-тне-сэ moda-tńe-se мода-со-н moda-so-n мода-со-т moda-so-t мода-со-нзo moda-so-nzo elative мода-сто moda-sto мода-стонть moda-stońt́ мода-тне-стэ moda-tńe-ste мода-сто-н moda-sto-n мода-сто-т moda-sto-t мода-сто-нзo moda-sto-nzo illative мода-с moda-s мода-нтень moda-ńt́eń мода-тне-с moda-tńe-s мода-з-oн moda-z-on мода-з-oт moda-z-ot мода-з-oнзo moda-z-onzo prolative мода-ва moda-va мода-ванть moda-vańt́ мода-тне-ва moda-tńe-va мода-ва-н moda-va-n мода-ва-т moda-va-t мода-ва-нзo moda-va-nzo ablative мода-до moda-do мода-донть moda-dońt́ мода-тне-дe moda-tńe-d́e мода-до-н moda-do-n мода-до-т moda-do-t мода-до-нзo moda-do-nzo lative мода-в moda-v colspan="2" colspan="2" translative мода-кс moda-ks мода-ксонть moda-ksońt́ мода-тне-кс moda-tńe-ks мода-кс-oн moda-ks-on мода-кс-oт moda-ks-ot мода-кс-oнзo moda-ks-onzo abessive мода-втомо moda-vtomo мода-втомонть moda-vtomońt́ мода-тне-втеме moda-tńe-vt́eme мода-втомо-н moda-vtomo-n мода-втомо-т moda-vtomo-t мода-втомо-нзo moda-vtomo-nzo comparative мода-шка moda-ška мода-шканть moda-škańt́ мода-тне-шка moda-tńe-ška мода-шка-н moda-ška-n мода-шка-т moda-ška-t мода-шка-нзo moda-ška-nzo
Plural possessors follow the pattern of second person singular possessors.
Case . . . singular/plural singular/plural singular/plural nominative мода-нoк moda-nok мода-нк moda-nk мода-ст moda-st inessive (...) мода-со-нoк moda-so-nok (...) мода-со-нк moda-so-nk (...) мода-со-ст moda-so-st (...)
Verbs Erzya verbs are inflected for tense and mood, and are further conjugated for person of subject and object. Traditionally, three stem types are distinguished: a-stems, o-stems and e-stems. A-stems always retain the stem vowel a in the non-third-person present-tense forms, and in the third-person first past-tense forms (e.g. "kissed"). With many o-stems and e-stems, the stem vowel is dropped in these forms (e.g. o-stem "watched", e-stem "swallowed"), but there also o- and e-stem verbs which retain the vowel ( "slept", "cooked"). Rueter (2010) therefore divides verb stems into vowel-retaining stems and vowel-dropping stems.
In indicative mood, three tenses are distinguished: present/future, first past, second (=habitual) past.
+indicative mood present/future tense first past tense second past tense a-stem o-stem e-stem a-stem e-stem e-stem 1stperson singular мора-нmora-n ван-анvan-an пил-янpiĺ-an сод-ы-ньsod-i-ń мер-и-ньmeŕ-i-ń неи-линьńej-i-ĺiń plural мора-таноmora-tano ван-таноvan-tano пиль-тяноpiĺ-t́ano сод-ы-некsod-i-ńek мер-и-некmeŕ-i-ńek неи-линекńej-i-ĺińek2ndperson singular мора-тmora-t ван-атvan-at пил-ятpiĺ-at сод-ы-тьsod-i-t́ мер-и-тьmeŕ-i-t́ неи-литьńej-i-ĺit́ plural мора-тадоmora-tado ван-тадоvan-tado пиль-тядоpiĺ-t́ado сод-ы-деsod-i-d́e мер-и-деmeŕ-i-d́e неи-лидеńej-i-ĺid́e3rdperson singular мор-ыmor-i ван-ыvan-i пил-иpiĺ-i содa-сьsoda-ś мер-сьmeŕ-ś неи-льńej-i-ĺ plural мор-ытьmor-it́ ван-ытьvan-it́ пил-итьpiĺ-it́ содa-стьsoda-śt́ мер-стьmeŕ-śt́ неи-льтьńej-i-ĺt́infinitive first мора-мсmora-ms вано-мсvano-ms пиле-мсpiĺe-ms сода-мсsoda-ms мере-мсmeŕe-ms нее-мсńeje-ms secondмора-моmora-moвано-моvano-moпиле-меpiĺe-meсода-моsoda-moмере-меmeŕe-meнее-меńeje-me
The third-person singular form in the present tense is also used as present participle. The second past tense is formed by adding the past-tense copula to the present participle.
The other mood categories are: conditional ( + present suffixes) conjunctive ((V) + past suffixes) conditional-conjunctive ((V) + past suffixes) desiderative ( + past suffixes) optative ( + present suffixes) imperative ()
+other mood categories conditional conjunctive conditional-conjunctive desiderative 1stperson singular ярс-ындеря-нjars-ińd́eŕa-n изня-влиньiźńa-vĺiń ул-индеря-влиньuĺ-ińd́eŕa-vĺiń вид-иксэлиньvid́-ikseĺiń plural ярс-ындеря-таноjars-ińd́eŕa-tano изня-влинекiźńa-vĺińek ул-индеря-влинекuĺ-ińd́eŕa-vĺińek вид-иксэлинекvid́-ikseĺińek2ndperson singular ярс-ындеря-тjars-ińd́eŕa-t изня-влитьiźńa-vĺit́ ул-индеря-влитьuĺ-ińd́eŕa-vĺit́ вид-иксэлитьvid́-ikseĺit́ plural ярс-ындеря-тадоjars-ińd́eŕa-tado изня-влидеiźńa-vĺid́e ул-индеря-влидеuĺ-ińd́eŕa-vĺid́e вид-иксэлидеvid́-ikseĺid́e3rdperson singular ярс-ындеря-йjars-ińd́eŕa-j изня-вольiźńa-voĺ ул-индеря-вольuĺ-ińd́eŕa-voĺ вид-иксэльvid́-ikseĺ plural ярс-ындеря-йтьjars-ińd́eŕa-jt́ изня-вольтьiźńa-voĺt́ ул-индеря-вольтьuĺ-ińd́eŕa-voĺt́ вид-иксэльтьvid́-ikseĺt́infinitive first ярса-мсjarsa-ms изня-мсiźńa-ms уле-мсuĺe-ms виде-мсvid́e-ms second ярса-моjarsa-mo изня-моiźńa-mo уле-меuĺe-me виде-меvid́e-me
Vocabulary