Western Mari

Mari is a Uralic language spoken by approximately 600,000 people in the Mari El Republic, Russia. It is the only surviving member of the Mari branch of the Uralic language family. Mari is written using a Cyrillic alphabet and has three dialects: Meadow Mari, Hill Mari, and Mountain Mari. Mari is thought to have split off from the Uralic language family around 3000 BCE. The earliest written records of Mari date back to the 12th century CE. These records show that Mari was already a distinct language by that time. Mari is an agglutinative language, meaning that words are formed by adding suffixes to roots. For example, the word for "horse" is kon, and the word for "rider" is kon-ko. The word for "horseman" is formed by adding the suffix -ko to the root kon, giving us kon-ko. Mari has a rich oral tradition. Many of the Mari people's folktales and epic poems have been passed down through the generations. One of the most famous Mari folktales is the story of Naina, a girl who is transformed into a bear. The Mari language is in danger of extinction. The number of Mari speakers is declining, and many young Mari people are choosing to speak Russian instead. Efforts are being made to revive the Mari language, but it is an uphill battle.