The language belongs to theMordvinic branch of theUralic languages. Erzya is a language that is closely related toMoksha but has distinct phonetics, morphology and vocabulary.
Palatalization is widespread in Erzya, but is contrastive only for the alveolar consonants. The labial and velar consonants have palatalizedallophones before the front vowels/i/,/e/. The pairs/t/ –/tʲ/,/d/ –/dʲ/ and/n/ –/nʲ/ also often alternate depending on a following or preceding back vs. front vowel. E.g. the 1st person singularpossessive suffix hasallomorphs such as/-enʲ/ and/-on/. The palatalized consonants can natively occur also in a back vowel environment, e.g. the genitive suffix/-nʲ/, providingminimal pairs such asкудон/kudon/ 'my house' –кудонь/kudonʲ/ '(a) house's'. Non-palatalized/t/,/d/,/n/ in a front vowel environment are limited to recent Russian loans such asкит/kit/ 'whale'.[5]
Note on romanized transcription: in Uralic studies, the members of the palatalized series are usually spelled as⟨ń⟩,⟨ť⟩,⟨ď⟩,⟨ć⟩,⟨ś⟩,⟨ź⟩,⟨ŕ⟩,⟨ľ⟩, while the postalveolar sounds are spelled⟨č⟩,⟨š⟩,⟨ž⟩ (seeUralic Phonetic Alphabet).
/f/ and/x/ are loan phonemes from Russian.[4] There is a phonemic contrast between/n/ and/ŋ/, despite that they share the standard spelling ⟨н⟩.Minimal pairs include:
/janɡa/ "along the path", in which the alveolar/n/ of the stem is retained before the prolative case ending/ɡa/, vs./jaŋɡa/, the connegative form of the verb/jaŋɡams/ "to break"
/jonks/ "good", subject or object complement in/ks/ translative, vs./joŋks/ "direction; area". See Rueter 2010: 58.
The front vowels/i/ and/e/ have centralized variants[ï] and[ë] immediately following a plain alveolar consonant, e.g.siń[sïnʲ] "they",seń[sënʲ] "blue".
As in many otherUralic languages, Erzya hasvowel harmony. Most roots contain eitherfront vowels (/i/,/e/) orback vowels (/u/,/o/). 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 (/a/), found in the comparative case-шка (ška) "the size of" and the prolative-ка/-га/-ва (ka/ga/va) "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:веле (veĺe) "village",велесэ (veĺese) "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:кудо (kudo) "house",кудосо (kudoso) "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:кальсэ (kaĺse) "with willow",ойсэ (ojse) "with butter". Likewise, if a front-vowel stem is followed by a low back vowel suffix, subsequent syllables will contain back harmony:велеванзо (veĺevanzo) "throughout its villages"
Thus the seeming violations of vowel harmony attested in stems, e.g.узере (uźere) "axe",суре (suŕe) "thread (string)", are actually due to the palatalized consonants/zʲ/ and/rʲ/.
One exception to front-vowel harmony is observed in palatalized non-final/lʲ/, e.g.асфальтсо (asfaĺtso) "with asphalt".
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 letterCyrillic 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/.
Nouns are inflected forcase,number,definiteness andpossessor. Erzya distinguishes twelve cases (here illustrated with the nounмодаmoda "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.[6][4]
Erzya verbs are inflected for tense and mood, and are further conjugated for person of subject and object.[4][6] Traditionally, three stem types are distinguished:a-stems,o-stems ande-stems.A-stems always retain the stem vowela in the non-third-person present-tense forms, and in the third-person first past-tense forms (e.g.pala-ś "kissed"). With manyo-stems ande-stems, the stem vowel is dropped in these forms (e.g.o-stemvan-ś "watched",e-stemńiĺ-ś "swallowed"), but there alsoo- ande-stem verbs which retain the vowel (udo-ś "slept",pid́e-ś "cooked"). Rueter (2010) therefore divides verb stems into vowel-retaining stems and vowel-dropping stems.[5]
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
'sing'
'watch'
'swallow'
'know'
'say'
'see'
1st person
singular
мора-н mora-n
ван-ан van-an
пил-ян piĺ-an
сод-ы-нь sod-i-ń
мер-и-нь meŕ-i-ń
неи-линь ńej-i-ĺiń
plural
мора-тано mora-tano
ван-тано van-tano
пиль-тяно piĺ-t́ano
сод-ы-нек sod-i-ńek
мер-и-нек meŕ-i-ńek
неи-линек ńej-i-ĺińek
2nd person
singular
мора-т mora-t
ван-ат van-at
пил-ят piĺ-at
сод-ы-ть sod-i-t́
мер-и-ть meŕ-i-t́
неи-лить ńej-i-ĺit́
plural
мора-тадо mora-tado
ван-тадо van-tado
пиль-тядо piĺ-t́ado
сод-ы-де sod-i-d́e
мер-и-де meŕ-i-d́e
неи-лиде ńej-i-ĺid́e
3rd person
singular
мор-ы mor-i
ван-ы van-i
пил-и piĺ-i
содa-сь soda-ś
мер-сь meŕ-ś
неи-ль ńej-i-ĺ
plural
мор-ыть mor-it́
ван-ыть van-it́
пил-ить piĺ-it́
содa-сть soda-śt́
мер-сть meŕ-śt́
неи-льть ńej-i-ĺt́
infinitive
first
мора-мс mora-ms
вано-мс vano-ms
пиле-мс piĺe-ms
сода-мс soda-ms
мере-мс meŕe-ms
нее-мс ńeje-ms
second
мора-мо mora-mo
вано-мо vano-mo
пиле-ме piĺe-me
сода-мо soda-mo
мере-ме meŕe-me
нее-ме ńeje-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-ĺ to the present participle.
The other mood categories are:
conditional (-ińd́eŕa + present suffixes)
conjunctive (-v(V)ĺ + past suffixes)
conditional-conjunctive (-ińd́eŕa-v(V)ĺ + past suffixes)
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Makar E. Evsev'ev.Основы мордовской грамматика, Эрзянь грамматика. С приложением образцов мокшанских склонений и спряжений. Москва: Центральное издательство народов СССР, 1928.
Jack Rueter.Adnominal Person in the Morphological System of Erzya. Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 261. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 2010,ISBN978-952-5667-23-3 [print],ISBN978-952-5667-24-0 [online].
D.V. Tsygankin.Память запечатленная в слове: Словарь географических названий республики Мордовия. Saransk, 2005.ISBN5-7493-0780-8.
^abRueter, Jack (2010).Adnominal Person in the Morphological System of Erzya. Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 261. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura.
^abcZaicz, Gábor (1998). "Mordva". In Abondolo, Daniel (ed.).The Uralic Languages. London: Routledge. pp. 184–218.
^Г. Аитов (1932).Новый алфавит. Великая революция на востоке (in Russian). Саратов: Нижневолжское краевое изд-во. pp. 61–64.
Finno-Ugric Electronic Library by the Finno-Ugric Information Center inSyktyvkar,Komi Republic (interface in Russian and English, texts inMari,Komi,Udmurt, Erzya andMoksha languages):[1]
Erzjanj Mastor – The society for preserving the Erzya language (in Erzya and Russian)
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