Back Амари бызшәа Abkhazian Mari Afrikaans اللغة المارية Arabic Idioma mari AST Mari dili Azerbaijani ماری دیلی AZB Мари теле Bashkir Mariu kalba BAT-SMG Марыйская мова BE-X-OLD Марийски език Bulgarian
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (January 2015) |
| Mari | |
|---|---|
| марий йылме marij jylme | |
| Region | Russian Federation: autonomous republics Mari El, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Udmurtia; oblasti Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Sverdlovsk, Orenburg; Perm Krai |
| Ethnicity | 548,000 Mari (2010 census)[1] |
Native speakers | 320,000 (2020)[2] |
Standard forms | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Russia
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | chm |
| ISO 639-3 | chm – inclusive codeIndividual codes: mhr – Eastern and Meadow Mari (Eastern Mari)mrj – Hill Mari (Western Mari) |
| Glottolog | mari1278 |
 | |
| People | Mari |
|---|---|
| Language | Marij |
| Country | Mari El |
The Mari language (Mari: марий йылме, marij jylme; Russian: марийский язык, mariyskiy yazyk), 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 (Mari: Марий Эл, Marij El, i.e., 'Mari land') of the Russian Federation as well as in the area along the Vyatka river basin and eastwards to the Urals. Mari speakers, known as the Mari, are found also in the Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Udmurtia, 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, Sverdlovsk Oblast and Udmurtia), whereas the former, Hill Mari, shares a stronger affiliation with the Northwestern dialect (spoken in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and parts of the Kirov Oblast). Both language forms use modified versions of Cyrillic script. 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.[citation needed]
- ^ Mari, Meadow at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ "Итоги Всероссийской переписи населения 2020 года. Таблица 6. Население по родному языку" [Results of the All-Russian population census 2020. Table 6. population according to native language.]. rosstat.gov.ru. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
- ^ Rantanen, Timo; Tolvanen, Harri; Roose, Meeli; Ylikoski, Jussi; Vesakoski, Outi (2022-06-08). "Best practices for spatial language data harmonization, sharing and map creation—A case study of Uralic". PLOS ONE. 17 (6): e0269648. Bibcode:2022PLoSO..1769648R. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0269648. PMC 9176854. PMID 35675367.
- ^ Rantanen, Timo, Vesakoski, Outi, Ylikoski, Jussi, & Tolvanen, Harri. (2021). Geographical database of the Uralic languages (v1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4784188
