Moksha language

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The Moksha language (Moksha), мокшень кяль (mokshanj kälj) is the language of Moksha spoken in the western part of the Republic of Mordovia and adjacent Penza, Ryazan, Tambov, Saratov, Samara, Orenburg oblasts, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan republics, Siberia, Far East of Russia and also in Armenia, Australia and USA. There are presently 6 distinct dialects of Moksha: Central, Western (or Zubu dialect), South-Western, Northern, South-Eastern and Southern. The number of speakers is around 500,000.

Writing system

Mokshan logographic scrypt 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 XX century.

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.

The language belongs to the Mordvinic branch of Finno-Volgaic languages a sub-branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. It is related to the Erzya language, but is quite distinct in its phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. In Mordovia, Moksha is co-official with the Erzya language and Russian language.

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

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.

See also

• Mokshan numeric system

External links

• Mokshen Pravda newspaper
• Moksha - English - Moksha online dictionary
• News in Moksha
• Mokshan folklore
• Mokshan mythology
• Linguistic links
• Periodic table in Moksha language

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Last updated on Friday February 08, 2008 at 09:46:15 PST (GMT -0800)
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