# Erzya language

The Erzya language (эрзянь кель, eŕźań keĺ, pronounced), 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 | Alveolar | (Palato-) alveolar | Velar |
| | | Labial | plain | pal. | (Palato-) alveolar | Velar |
| Nasal | Nasal | /m/ м | /n/ н | /nʲ/ нь | | /ŋ/ н |
| Plosive | voiceless | /p/ п | /t/ т | /tʲ/ ть | | /k/ к |
| Plosive | voiced | /b/ б | /d/ д | /dʲ/ дь | | /ɡ/ г |
| Affricate | Affricate | | /t͡s/ ц | /t͡sʲ/ ць | /t͡ʃ/ ч | |
| Fricative | voiceless | (/f/ ф) | /s/ с | /sʲ/ сь | /ʃ/ ш | (/x/ х) |
| Fricative | voiced | /v/ в | /z/ з | /zʲ/ зь | /ʒ/ ж | |
| Trill | Trill | | /r/ р | /rʲ/ рь | | |
| Approximant | Approximant | | /l/ л | /lʲ/ ль | /j/ 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 /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 singular possessive suffix has allomorphs such as /-enʲ/ and /-on/. The palatalized consonants can natively occur also in a back vowel environment, e.g. the genitive suffix /-nʲ/, providing minimal pairs such as кудон /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 as кит /kit/ 'whale'.
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⟩ (see Uralic Phonetic Alphabet).
/f/ and /x/ are loan phonemes from Russian. 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.

### Vowels

Erzya has a simple five-vowel system.
| | Front | Back |
| High | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Low | a | a |
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".

### Vowel harmony

As in many other Uralic languages, Erzya has vowel harmony. Most roots contain either front vowels (/i/, /e/) or back 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".

## Writing
### Cyrillic alphabet

The modern Erzya alphabet is the same as for Russian:
    А /a/Б /b/В /v/Г /ɡ/Д /d/Е /je/Ё /jo/Ж /ʒ/З /z/И /i/Й /j/ К /k/Л /l/М /m/Н /n/О /o/П /p/Р /r/С /s/Т /t/У /u/Ф /f/ Х /x/Ц /t͡s/Ч /t͡ʃ/Ш /ʃ/Щ /ʃt͡ʃ/Ъ /-/Ы /ɨ/Ь /◌ʲ/Э /e/Ю /ju/Я /ja/
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
| Cyrillic | Latin |
| a | a |
| б | b |
| в | v |
| г | g |
| д | before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — d́/ď |
| д | not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — d |
| e | at the beginning of a word — je |
| e | after a vowel — je |
| e | after a consonant — e |
| ë | at the beginning of a word — jo |
| ë | after a vowel — jo |
| ë | after a consonant — o |
| ж | ž |
| з | before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ź |
| з | not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — z |
| и | at the beginning of a word — i |
| и | after a consonant — i |
| и | after a vowel — ji |
| й | j |
| к | k |
| л | before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ĺ/ľ |
| л | not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — l |
| м | m |
| н | before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ń |
| н | not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — n |
| o | o |
| п | p |
| p | before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ŕ |
| p | not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — r |
| c | before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ś |
| c | not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — s |
| т | before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — t́/ť |
| т | not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — t |
| у | u |
| ф | f (only in loanwords) |
| x | h (only in loanwords) |
| ц | before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — ć |
| ц | not before e,ë,и,ь,ю,я — c |
| ч | č |
| ш | š |
| щ | šč/šť (only in loanwords) |
| ъ | – |
| ы | i |
| ь | – |
| э | e |
| ю | at the beginning of a word — ju |
| ю | after a vowel — ju |
| ю | after a consonant — u |
| я | at the beginning of a word — ja |
| я | after a vowel — ja |
| я | after 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 мода moda "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 | Indefinite | Definite | Definite | 1SG possessive | 1SG possessive | 2SG possessive | 3SG possessive | 3SG possessive |
| Case | 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-нь moda-ń | мода-нть moda-ńt́ | мода-тне-нь moda-tńe-ń | мода-м moda-m | мода-н moda-n | мода-т moda-t | мода-зo moda-zo | мода-нзo moda-nzo |
| dative/allative | мода-нень moda-ńeń | мода-нень moda-ńeń | мода-нтень moda-ńt́eń | мода-тне-нень moda-tńe-ńeń | мода-м moda-m | мода-н moda-n | мода-т moda-t | мода-зo moda-zo | мода-нзo moda-nzo |
| inessive | мода-со moda-so | мода-со moda-so | мода-сонть moda-sońt́ | мода-тне-сэ moda-tńe-se | мода-со-н moda-so-n | мода-со-н moda-so-n | мода-со-т moda-so-t | мода-со-нзo moda-so-nzo | мода-со-нзo moda-so-nzo |
| elative | мода-сто moda-sto | мода-сто moda-sto | мода-стонть moda-stońt́ | мода-тне-стэ moda-tńe-ste | мода-сто-н moda-sto-n | мода-сто-н moda-sto-n | мода-сто-т moda-sto-t | мода-сто-нзo moda-sto-nzo | мода-сто-нзo moda-sto-nzo |
| illative | мода-с moda-s | мода-с moda-s | мода-нтень moda-ńt́eń | мода-тне-с moda-tńe-s | мода-з-oн moda-z-on | мода-з-oн moda-z-on | мода-з-oт moda-z-ot | мода-з-oнзo moda-z-onzo | мода-з-oнзo moda-z-onzo |
| prolative | мода-ва moda-va | мода-ва moda-va | мода-ванть moda-vańt́ | мода-тне-ва moda-tńe-va | мода-ва-н moda-va-n | мода-ва-н moda-va-n | мода-ва-т moda-va-t | мода-ва-нзo moda-va-nzo | мода-ва-нзo moda-va-nzo |
| ablative | мода-до moda-do | мода-до moda-do | мода-донть moda-dońt́ | мода-тне-дe moda-tńe-d́e | мода-до-н moda-do-n | мода-до-н moda-do-n | мода-до-т moda-do-t | мода-до-нзo moda-do-nzo | мода-до-нзo moda-do-nzo |
| lative | мода-в moda-v | мода-в moda-v | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| translative | мода-кс moda-ks | мода-кс moda-ks | мода-ксонть moda-ksońt́ | мода-тне-кс moda-tńe-ks | мода-кс-oн moda-ks-on | мода-кс-oн moda-ks-on | мода-кс-oт moda-ks-ot | мода-кс-oнзo moda-ks-onzo | мода-кс-oнзo moda-ks-onzo |
| abessive | мода-втомо moda-vtomo | мода-втомо moda-vtomo | мода-втомонть moda-vtomońt́ | мода-тне-втеме moda-tńe-vt́eme | мода-втомо-н moda-vtomo-n | мода-втомо-н moda-vtomo-n | мода-втомо-т moda-vtomo-t | мода-втомо-нзo moda-vtomo-nzo | мода-втомо-нзo moda-vtomo-nzo |
| comparative | мода-шка moda-ška | мода-шка moda-ška | мода-шканть moda-škańt́ | мода-тне-шка moda-tńe-ška | мода-шка-н moda-ška-n | мода-шка-н moda-ška-n | мода-шка-т moda-ška-t | мода-шка-нзo moda-ška-nzo | мода-шка-нзo moda-ška-nzo |
Plural possessors follow the pattern of second person singular possessors.
| Case | 1PL.POSS | 2PL.POSS | 3PL.POSS |
| 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. pala-ś "kissed"). With many o-stems and e-stems, the stem vowel is dropped in these forms (e.g. o-stem van-ś "watched", e-stem ńiĺ-ś "swallowed"), but there also o- and e-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.
In indicative mood, three tenses are distinguished: present/future, first past, second (=habitual) past.
indicative mood :
| | | present/future tense | present/future tense | present/future tense | first past 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 |
| 1st person | 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 |
| 2nd person | 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 |
| 3rd person | 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 |
| infinitive | 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)
* desiderative (-ikseĺ + past suffixes)
* optative (zo + present suffixes)
* imperative (-k/-do)
other mood categories :
| | | conditional | conjunctive | conditional-conjunctive | desiderative |
| | | 'eat' | 'win' | 'be' | 'sow' |
| 1st person | singular | ярс-ындеря-н jars-ińd́eŕa-n | изня-влинь iźńa-vĺiń | ул-индеря-влинь uĺ-ińd́eŕa-vĺiń | вид-иксэлинь vid́-ikseĺiń |
| 1st person | plural | ярс-ындеря-тано jars-ińd́eŕa-tano | изня-влинек iźńa-vĺińek | ул-индеря-влинек uĺ-ińd́eŕa-vĺińek | вид-иксэлинек vid́-ikseĺińek |
| 2nd person | singular | ярс-ындеря-т jars-ińd́eŕa-t | изня-влить iźńa-vĺit́ | ул-индеря-влить uĺ-ińd́eŕa-vĺit́ | вид-иксэлить vid́-ikseĺit́ |
| 2nd person | plural | ярс-ындеря-тадо jars-ińd́eŕa-tado | изня-влиде iźńa-vĺid́e | ул-индеря-влиде uĺ-ińd́eŕa-vĺid́e | вид-иксэлиде vid́-ikseĺid́e |
| 3rd person | singular | ярс-ындеря-й jars-ińd́eŕa-j | изня-воль iźńa-voĺ | ул-индеря-воль uĺ-ińd́eŕa-voĺ | вид-иксэль vid́-ikseĺ |
| 3rd person | plural | ярс-ындеря-йть jars-ińd́eŕa-jt́ | изня-вольть iźńa-voĺt́ | ул-индеря-вольть uĺ-ińd́eŕa-voĺt́ | вид-иксэльть vid́-ikseĺt́ |
| infinitive | first | ярса-мс jarsa-ms | изня-мс iźńa-ms | уле-мс uĺe-ms | виде-мс vid́e-ms |
| infinitive | second | ярса-мо jarsa-mo | изня-мо iźńa-mo | уле-ме uĺe-me | виде-ме vid́e-me |

## Vocabulary

| Erzya | English |
| Шумбрат (Šumbrat) | Hello (to one person) |
| Шумбратадо (Šumbratado) | Hello (to multiple people) |
| Кода тонь леметь? (Koda toń ĺemet́?) | What is your name? |
| Монь лемем ___. (Moń ĺemem ___.) | My name is ____. |
| Сюкпря (Śukpŕa) | Thank you |
| Вастомазонок (Vastomazonok) | Goodbye |
| ава (ava) | woman |
| ломань (lomań) | man, person |
| эйкакш (ejkakš) | child |
| ялга (jalga), оя (oja) | friend |
| тетя (t́et́a) | father |
| ава (ava) | mother |
| цёра (ćora) | boy |
| тейтерь (t́ejt́eŕ) | girl |
| кудо (kudo) | house |
| ош (oš) | city |
| мастор (mastor) | land |
| килей (kiĺej) | birch tree |
| лей (ĺej) | river |
| вирь (viŕ) | forest |
| эрьке (eŕke) | lake |
| кинига (kińiga), конёвкс (końovks) | book |
| столь (stoĺ), тувор (tuvor) | table |
| пине (pińe) | dog |
| псака (psaka), катка (katka) | cat |
| ракша (rakša) | animal |
| овто (ovto) | bear |
| кал (kal) | fish |

## Sample text

| Erzya (Cyrillic) | Erzya (Transliteration) | English |
| Весе ломантне чачить олякс ды правасост весе вейкетекс. Сынст улить превест-чарьксчист ды визькстэ чарькодемаст, вейке-вейкень коряс прясь тенст ветяма братонь ёжо марто. | Veśe lomańt́ńe čačit́ oĺaks di pravasost veśe vejket́eks. Sinst uĺit́ pŕevest-čaŕksčist di viźkste čaŕkod́emast, vejke-vejkeń koŕas pŕaś t́eńst vet́ama bratoń jožo marto. | 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. |