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EntityQ36508· pop 32· linked from 113 articles

Also known as Merya language

extinct language

Key facts

Native to
Russia
Region
Upper Volga
Ethnicity
Meryans
Extinct
at latest 18th century
Revival
2000s (reconstructed)
Language family
Uralic Finnic ?/ Mari ? Merya
Iso 639 3
None ( mis )
Linguist list
0tw

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
extinct language
Subclass of
Finno-Volgaic
Country
Russia
Show 3 more facts
number of speakers, writers, or signers
0
dissolved, abolished or demolished date
1000-00-00
indigenous to
Moscow Oblast
Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~5 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Merya or Meryanic (Old East Slavic: мєр(ь)скъıї) is an extinct Finno-Ugric language, which was spoken by the Meryans. Merya began to be assimilated by East Slavs when their territory became incorporated into Kievan Rus' in the 10th century. However some Merya speakers might have even lived in the 18th century. There is also a theory that the word for "Moscow" originates from the Merya language. The Meryan language stretched to the western parts of Vologda Oblast and Moscow.

Classification

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Merya” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.