Moksha language

Moksha
мокшень кяль
Native to	Russia
Region	Mordovia
Native speakers	~500,000
Language family	Uralic Finno-Ugric Finno-permic Finno-Volgaic Mordvinic Moksha
Official status
Official language in	Mordovia
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mdf
ISO 639-3	mdf
ELP	Moksha

The Moksha language (Moksha), мокшень кяль (mokshanj kälj) is 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 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

It is currently written using the Russian Cyrillic alphabet with no modifications to the variant used by the Russian language. Latin alphabet for Moksha was officially approved by government of Nizhne-Volzhskiy kray in 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 Cyrillic (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

• Modern Latin: 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

External links

• [1] Moksha - English - Moksha online dictionary
• [2] News in Moksha
• [3] Mokshan folklore
• [4] Mokshan mythology
• [5] Linguistic links
• [6] Periodic table in Moksha language