Meadow Mari (, ), also known as Meadow–Eastern Mari, or Eastern Mari, is a standardised dialect of the Mari language used by about half a million people mostly in European Russia. Meadow Mari, Hill Mari, and Russian are official languages in the republic of Mari El in the Russian Federation.University of Graz
Meadow Mari and Eastern Mari are distinct language varieties, which both use the Meadow Mari literary standard. The main differences between Meadow Mari and Hill Mari are phonological, and to a lesser extent, morphological.
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 Ҥ ҥ О о Ӧ ӧ П п Р р С с Т т У у Ӱ ӱ Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Ш ш Щ щ Ъ ъ Ы ы Ь ь Э э Ю ю Я я
Phonology
Consonants +Consonant Phonemes of Meadow MariBilabialLabiodentalAlveolarPostalveolarPalatalVelarStopFricative()()SibilantAffricate()NasalLateralTrillApproximate /f, x, ts/ primarily occur in Russian loanwords.
Vowels +Vowel Phonemes of Meadow MariFrontCentralBackRoundedUnroundedUnroundedRoundedUnroundedRoundedCloseMidOpen Meadow Mari has no diphthongs.
Grammar Meadow Mari is primarily a suffixing, agglutinating language. It displays vowel harmony between rounded and unrounded vowels. Nouns decline for case, number, and possession.
Nouns Nouns can decline for case, number, and possession. The order of the suffixes is not fixed, and can change depending on context.
Number Nouns in Meadow Mari have singular and plural forms, with the singular being unmarked. However, the plural form is not used when it is clear from context. There are four potential plural suffixes: -vlak, -šaməč, -la, and -mət. They are partially interchangeable, but not completely. -vlak is the most common suffix. In contrast to the other suffixes, -mət denotes the associative plural.
Possession There are three ways to show possession in Meadow Mari: through a dedicated suffix attached to the noun, and a personal pronoun preceding the possessed noun, which may or may not have a possessive suffix. +joča "child"Suffix Onlyjoča-m"(my) child-"Pronoun and Suffixməjən joča-m"1 child-Pronoun without suffixməjən joča"1 child" There are 6 possessive suffixes, which agree with person and number. +lüm "name"1SGlüm-em2SGlüm-et3SGlüm-žö1PLlüm-na2PLlüm-da3PLlüm-əšt Possessive suffixes are typically only combined with the plural suffixes -vlak and -šaməč. The suffixes can be appended to the noun in any order, however it is most common for the possessive suffix to come first. Example: "your friends called you."
References
Works cited
External links
Meadow & Eastern Mari – Finnish dictionary (robust finite-state, open-source)