Hill Mari language


Hill Mari or Western Mari is a Uralic language closely related to Northwestern Mari and Meadow Mari, in which Hill Mari forms a Western Mari group with the former.
Hill Mari is spoken in the Gornomariysky, Yurinsky and Kilemarsky districts of Mari El, as well as in Voskresensky District, [Nizhny Novgorod Oblast|Voskresensky District] of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia. In the northern part of its distribution area, it borders the Northwestern Mari language, with which it together occupies the western regions of Mari language distribution. The main differences between Hill Mari and Meadow Mari are phonological, and to a lesser extent, morphological.
It is written using the Hill Mari Cyrillic script and is co-official with Russian as well as Meadow Mari in the Mari El Republic. Media in Hill Mari includes the newspapers Zhera and Yamdy li!, the literary journal U sem, and broadcasts on Gornomariysky Radio.

Number of speakers

According to the [Russian Census (2002)|2002 Russian Census], 36,822 people reported knowledge of Hill Mari. The 2010 Russian Census recorded 23,062 speakers.
Federal district/RegionNumber of speakers
Volga Federal District, including:26,012
Mari El18,056
Bashkortostan3,381
Tatarstan1,226
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast1,341
Ural Federal District, including:5,970
Sverdlovsk Oblast4,949
Central Federal District1,354
Siberian Federal District1,273
Southern Federal District 1,176
Northwestern Federal District558
Far Eastern Federal District479
Total36,822

Dialects

Hill Mari comprises two main dialect groups:

Mountain dialect

Spoken on the right bank of the Volga River, this dialect forms the basis of the literary language. It includes the following subdialects:
  • Yelasovsky — basis of the literary standard
  • Kuznetsovsky
  • Yemangashsky
  • Vilovatovsky

Forest dialect

Spoken on the left bank of the Volga, it includes:

Phonology

Hill Mari is characterized by vowel harmony, which is particularly well developed in the mountain dialect. Both vowels and consonants are subject to this harmony. If a syllable contains the back vowels a, o, u, or y, then subsequent syllables may contain only these vowels. Conversely, if a syllable contains the front vowels ä, ö, ü, or ӹ, then subsequent syllables may contain only these front vowels. In syllables with front vowels, consonants are pronounced as semi-palatalized.

Writing system

The literary Hill Mari language uses a writing system based on the Russian Cyrillic "civil" alphabet. The orthographic principle is primarily phonetic.

History of research

The first studies of Mari languages appeared in the early 18th century. The first grammar specifically of Hill Mari, titled Cheremiskaya grammatika, was published in Kazan in 1837. Subsequently, the study of Mari languages and dialects was conducted by Russian, Finnish, and Hungarian scholars. Today, there are two fully developed literary Mari languages: Hill Mari and Meadow Mari.