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The Mokshas (also Mokshans , Moksha people ; Moksha : Мокшет/Mokšet ) comprise a Mordvinian ethnic group belonging to the Volgaic branch of the Finno-Ugric peoples. They live in Russia , mostly near the Volga and Moksha rivers, a tributary of the Oka River.

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57-683: Their native language is Mokshan , one of the two surviving members of the Mordvinic branch of the Uralic language family. According to a 1994 Russian census , 49% of the autochthonal Finnic population in Mordovia identified themselves as Mokshas, totaling more than 180,000 people. Most Mokshas belong to the Russian Orthodox Church ; other religions practised by Mokshas include Lutheranism and paganism . William of Rubruck ,

114-509: A Uralic language, there is also a series of voiceless liquid consonants : /l̥ , l̥ʲ, r̥ , r̥ʲ/ ⟨ʀ, ʀ́, ʟ, ʟ́⟩ . These have arisen from Proto-Mordvinic consonant clusters of a sonorant followed by a voiceless stop or affricate: *p, *t, *tʲ, *ts⁽ʲ⁾, *k . Before certain inflectional and derivational endings, devoicing continues to exist as a phonological process in Moksha. This affects all other voiced consonants as well, including

171-790: A people of the Middle Volga known as the Burtas , who were possibly Alans . During the second Arab-Khazar War in 737, Arab armies under the command of Marwan ibn Muhammad reached the right bank of the Volga and came into conflict with the Burtas on their way to the left or "Khazar" bank of Volga. Circa 889–890, the Khazars were at war with the Burtas, the Oghuz and the Pechenegs . In 913, after

228-681: A predominant number of people with black hair and eyes, dark, yellowish skin color. K.Yu. Mark distinguishes the Sub-Ural and North Pontic type among the Mokshans, and among the Erzyans — the Sura type, close to the Atlanto-Baltic anthropological type  [ ru ] . Anthropologist Tatyana Ivanovna Alekseeva  [ ru ] argued that in the Mokshans, compared to the Erzyans,

285-516: A result of the mixing of various types (White Sea, Pontic, East Baltic) of the Caucasian race. As a result of O.P. Balanovsky  [ ru ] singled out four main types of maps of genetic distances – "Eastern European", "North-Eastern", "North-Balkan", "South-Balkan", which included Slavic , Baltic , some Finno-Ugric and other peoples of Europe , however, maps of distances from Moksha do not belong to any of these types, which, according to

342-525: A straightforward way. However, they can be (more or less) predicted from Moksha phonotactics. The 1993 spelling reform defines that /ə/ in the first (either stressed or unstressed) syllable must be written with the "hard" sign ⟨ъ⟩ (e.g. мъ́рдсемс mə́rdśəms "to return", formerly мрдсемс). The version of the Moksha Cyrillic alphabet used in 1924-1927 had several extra letters, either digraphs or single letters with diacritics. Although

399-840: A war between the Arsiyah and the Rus' at Atil began, five thousand Rus' survivors escaped up the Volga where most of them were killed by the Burtas. In 932, the Khazar King Aaron formed a war alliance with the Oghuz. Circa 940, during the reign of King Joseph , the Khazars entered into an alliance with the Burtas. Afterwards the Burtas Seliksa principality became a vassal of the Khazar khanate. In 965, Sviatoslav I of Kiev “attacked

456-477: A word are either non-high or high, then the stress falls on the first syllable. Stressed vowels are longer than unstressed ones in the same position like in Russian. Unstressed vowels undergo some degree of vowel reduction . Moksha has been written using Cyrillic with spelling rules identical to those of Russian since the 18th century. As a consequence of that, the vowels /e, ɛ, ə/ are not differentiated in

513-468: Is a Mordvinic language of the Uralic family , spoken by Mokshas , with around 130,000 native speakers in 2010. Moksha is the majority language in the western part of Mordovia . Its closest relative is the Erzya language , with which it is not mutually intelligible . Moksha is also possibly closely related to the extinct Meshcherian and Muromian languages. There is very little historical evidence of

570-474: Is divided into three dialects: The dialects may be divided with another principle depending on their vowel system: The standard literary Moksha language is based on the central group with ä (particularly the dialect of Krasnoslobodsk ). Moksha is one of the three official languages in Mordovia (the others being Erzya and Russian). The right to one's own language is guaranteed by the Constitution of

627-552: The Assumption Cathedral where they had sought refuge from the fire collapsed in February 1238. Russian historians ( Vadim Kargalov  [ ru ] , Gelian Prokhorov  [ ru ] ) believe that this information was deliberately falsified. The purpose was to hide the fact that some members of the princely family were captured. The most likely was the capture of Agatha, her daughter Princess Theodora, or

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684-718: The Scythian-Persian war of 516-512 BC, which involved the entire population of the Middle Volga. During this war the Sarmatians forced out the Scythians and subdued some Moksha clans. During the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, Antes , Slavs , Mokshas and Erzyas became the most numerous and powerful population in East Europe. By the end of the 4th century, most Mokshas had joined the Hunnic tribal alliance, taken part in

741-531: The United States , and Australia . Mokshas speak the Moksha language , which is a member of the Mordvinic branch of the Uralic languages . In traditional Mokshan mythology the world was created by Ińe Narmon (Great Bird), referred to in folklore as Akša Loksti (White Swan). The first thing Ińe Narmon created was water. Yakśarga (Duck) brought sand from the bottom of the sea and Ińe Narmon took

798-453: The nasal consonants and semivowels . No voiceless nasals are however found in Moksha: the devoicing of nasals produces voiceless oral stops. Altogether the following devoicing processes apply: For example, before the nominative plural /-t⁽ʲ⁾/ : Devoicing is, however, morphological rather than phonological, due to the loss of earlier voiceless stops from some consonant clusters, and due to

855-526: The 17th century. Local names for the Mokshas include: The breakup of the Volga Finns into separate groups is believed to have begun around 1200 BC. The Moksha people cannot be traced earlier because they did not possess a distinctive burial tradition before that time. According to archeological data, bodies in early Mokshan burials were oriented with their heads to the south. Herodotus also describes

912-653: The 19th century the Russian Orthodox Missionary Society in Kazan published Moksha primers and elementary textbooks of the Russian language for the Mokshas. Among them were two fascicles with samples of Moksha folk poetry. The great native scholar Makar Evsevyev collected Moksha folk songs published in one volume in 1897. Early in the Soviet period, social and political literature predominated among published works. Printing of Moksha language books

969-562: The Erzya-Moksha-Mescher Family Tree DNA genetic project: R1a — 29%, J2b — 19%, J2a — 14%, G2a — 14%, N1c — 9%, E1b — 5%, R1b — 5%, J1 — 5%. When it comes to autosomal DNA , Mokshas show homogeneity with Erzyas. Like other Uralic-speaking populations, they carry a Nganasan -like Siberian component that accounts for about 11% of their admixture. Moksha language Moksha ( мокшень кяль , mokšəń käĺ , pronounced ['mɔkʃənʲ kʲælʲ] )

1026-722: The Erzyan kingdom (Purgas Rus). The latter was allied with Volga Bulgaria. Vladimirian princes captured and destroyed Obran Osh in 1221 and founded Nizhny Novgorod on the site. The Erzyan King Purgaz and the Mokshan King Puresh were at war and while Purgaz was allied with Volga Bulgaria, Puresh was an ally of Prince Yury. In 1230 Purgaz laid siege to Nizhny Novgorod but was defeated. After that Puresh's son Prince Atämaz with his Polovtsi allies raided into Purgaz's lands and completely destroyed his kingdom. As recorded by Rashid-al-Din in his Jami al-Tawarikh , 4 September 1236

1083-718: The Erzyans belong to the White Sea-Baltic  [ ru ] version of the Caucasian race, which is represented, in addition to the Erzyans, by the majority of the Baltic Finnish-speaking peoples and part of the Komi-Zyryans. The Mokshas belong to the Ural race, within which the Mokshas are classified as the Sub-Ural subtype. The anthropological difference between the Erzyans and Mokshas, who are basically Caucasian race and subethnic groups of one of

1140-741: The Franciscan friar whom King Louis IX of France sent as an ambassador to the Mongols in the 1250s, called them "Moxel". The same term appears in the Persian/Arabic 14th-century chronicle of Rashid-al-Din . According to popular tradition the Russians first used the term "Mordva" to refer only to the Erzya people but later used it for both the Erzyas and the Mokshas. The term "Moksha" ( Russian : мокша ) begins to appear in Russian sources in

1197-664: The Germans and Bohemians regarding the possibility of joining their side in order to escape from their forced vassalage to Batu. It is known that Subutai ordered the punishment of the conspirators; thousands of Mokshas were put to death, but approximately a third escaped and returned to their homeland. Another third remained in the vanguard of the Mongol army and marched into Hungary through the Verecke Pass in March 1242, according to

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1254-629: The Hungarian bishop Stephan II and Matthew of Paris. Mokshas live mostly in the central and western parts of the Republic of Mordovia , and neighbouring areas of Tambov Oblast and in the western and central parts of Penza Oblast . Populations of Mokshas also live in Orenburg Oblast , Bashkortostan , Tatarstan , Altai Krai , as well as in diaspora communities in Estonia , Kazakhstan ,

1311-465: The Khazars' allies, captured Sarkel and Bulgaria, and reached Semender” according to Ibn Haukal. Two years later, after the Great Flood, he seized and destroyed Atil. At the beginning of the 10th century Almush (Almış) the king of Volga Bulgaria took control of the "Khazar tribute". He converted to Islam , formed an alliance with the caliph of Baghdad Al-Muktafi , and founded a trading post at

1368-627: The Mordovia Republic. The republican law of Mordovia N 19-3 issued in 1998 declares Moksha one of its state languages and regulates its usage in various spheres: in state bodies such as Mordovian Parliament, official documents and seals, education, mass-media, information about goods, geographical names, road signs. However, the actual usage of Moksha and Erzya is rather limited. Before 1917 about 100 books and pamphlets mostly of religious character were published. More than 200 manuscripts including at least 50 wordlists were not printed. In

1425-523: The Republic's official languages, but this attempt failed in the aftermath of the 2007 education reform in Russia. There are eight vowels with limited allophony and reduction of unstressed vowels. Moksha has lost the original Uralic system of vowel harmony but maintains consonant-vowel harmony (palatalized consonants go with front vowels, non-palatalized with non-front). There are some restrictions for

1482-485: The bottom of the great sea. Idemevs hid some sand in his mouth. When Värden Škai started creating the earth, this hidden sand started to grow in the mouth of Idemevs . He had to spit it out and thus chasms and mountains appeared on the previously level and beautiful earth. The first humans created by Värden Škai could live for 700–800 years and were giants 99 arshins (yards) tall. The underworld in Mokshan mythology

1539-493: The capture of Sandomierz in February and Kraków in March of the same year. On 9 April 1241 the Mongol army defeated the allied Polish and German armies at the Battle of Legnica . It is believed King Puresh was slain in that battle. Shortly after that battle the Mokshan army declared to Batu that they refused to fight against Germans. According to reports by William Rubruck and Roger Bacon, the Mokshas had previously negotiated with

1596-406: The creation of new consonant clusters of voiced liquid + voiceless stop. Compare the following oppositions: Non-high vowels are inherently longer than high vowels /i, u, ə/ and tend to draw the stress. If a high vowel appears in the first syllable which follow the syllable with non-high vowels (especially /a/ and /æ/ ), then the stress moves to that second or third syllable. If all the vowels of

1653-540: The defeat of the Ostrogothic Empire in 377, and subsequently moved eastward and settled in Pannonia. Evidence of the Hunnic connection includes Mokshan battle harnesses, especially the bits and psalia, which are identical to early Hunnic battle harnesses. Archeological data show that the boundaries of Moksha territory did not change between the fourth and 8th centuries. In 450, the Mokshas were in alliance with

1710-681: The disastrous Battle of the Kalka River in May 1223. When the Mongols returned in 1237, Yuri treated their envoys with disdain. Likewise, he did not help Ryazan when Batu Khan laid siege to that city in December 1237. His own capital, however, was the next in line. Yuri's sons were soundly defeated near Kolomna , and Yuri himself could barely escape to Yaroslavl. His wife Agatha ( Mikhail of Kiev 's sister) and all his family died in Vladimir when

1767-628: The entire European mitochondrial array, including northern Russian populations and other Slavs. The genetic landscape of the Mokshans according to the Y-chromosome haplogroups testifies to the great originality of their gene pool, since it covers a small area of the middle reaches of the Volga , limited to its right bank. The performed analysis of the Y-chromosome haplogroups indicates a significant genetic difference between Moksha not only from

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1824-501: The features of Southern Europeans are more noticeably manifested, and she attributes the Erzyans more to the circle of Northern Europeans . V.E. Deryabin noted that the Moksha people have an Eastern European base, modified by a Pontic anthropological component in combination with a slight Uraloid admixture. According to the publication of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2000) edited by Aleksandr Zubov  [ ru ] ,

1881-656: The following three cases as borderline derivational affixes. As in other Uralic languages, locative cases in Moksha can be classified according to three criteria: the spatial position (interior, surface, or exterior), the motion status (stationary or moving), and within the latter, the direction of the movement (approaching or departing). The table below shows these relationships schematically: [-sɑ] [-s] Yuri II of Vladimir Yuri II ( Russian : Ю́рий–II , also transcribed as Iuri ), also known as George II of Vladimir or as Georgy II Vsevolodovich (26 November 1188 – 4 March 1238),

1938-648: The forest, and Ožarga went to the meadows. Another of the old deities mentioned in Mokshan folklore was Mešavane (Mother Bee). Since the Christianization of the Mokshans the Mokshan Supreme God has usually been called Värden Škai (Supreme Creator). According to later legends the creation of the world went through several stages: first the Idemevs (Devil) was asked by the God to bring sand from

1995-865: The gene pool of the Slavic and other neighboring peoples, but also from the Erzya gene pool, despite their close geographic location; data on the frequencies of 15 Y-chromosome haplogroups showed that the Moksha and Erzya populations are not included in a single cluster. Data of population geneticists of the Y-chromosome on the haplogroups of the Mokshans of the Staroshaigovsky district of Mordovia : R1a — 26,5%, J2 — nd (20,5%), N3 (TAT) — 16,9%, R1b — 13,3%, I1 — 12%, I2b — 4,8%, N2 (P43) — 2,4%, I2 — 2,4%, K*(M9) — 1,2%. Mitochondrial DNA by haplogroup: H — 41,5%, U5 — 18,9%, T — 7,6%, U2 — 5,7%, J — 5,7%, V — 5,7%, U4 — 3,8%, I — 3,8%, T1 — 1,9%, R — 1,9%, D — 1,9%, other — 1,9%. Y-chromosome data on Moksha haplogroups of

2052-539: The implementation of the Language Law. Only about a third of Mordvin students had access to Mordvin language learning, the rest of whom are educated through Russian. Moksha has been used as the medium of instruction in some rural schools, but the number of students attending those schools is in rapid decline. In 2004, Mordovian authorities attempted to introduce compulsory study of the Mordvin/Moksha as one of

2109-414: The latter also had dark blond hair. In 1912, a course of lectures by Stephan Kuznetsov  [ ru ] was published, which notes the anthropological characteristics of the Mokshans and Erzyans, which states that the Mokshans have a greater variety of anthropological types. Compared to the Erzyans, who have a greater predominance of fair-haired, gray-eyed and light-skinned individuals, the Mokshas have

2166-590: The most anthropologically homogeneous peoples, lies, in particular, in the fact that the Atlantic and North Pontic types are to some extent superimposed on the White Sea-Baltic basis of the Mordovians. The first type is represented predominantly among the Erzyans, the second — among the Mokshans, although both types are present in both categories of the population. Anthropologically, Moksha was formed as

2223-540: The mouth of the Oka river . The Kievan prince Vladimir seized Bolghar in 985. King Almush and Prince Vladimir signed a peace and trade treaty in 1006 which was the beginning of an "eternal peace" that lasted for 80 years. War for domination of the Oka River and the Erzyan fortress Obran Osh started again in 1120. Prince Yury of the city of Vladimir seized Oshel in 1220 and demanded a reduction of Bulgarian influence over

2280-443: The occurrence of vowels within a word: Unstressed /ɑ/ and /æ/ are slightly reduced and shortened [ɑ̆] and [æ̆] respectively. There are 33 consonants in Moksha. /ç/ is realized as a sibilant [ɕ] before the plural suffix /-t⁽ʲ⁾/ in south-east dialects. Palatalization , characteristic of Uralic languages , is contrastive only for dental consonants , which can be either "soft" or " hard". In Moksha Cyrillic alphabet

2337-594: The palatalization is designated like in Russian: either by a "soft sign" ⟨ь⟩ after a "soft" consonant or by writing "soft" vowels ⟨е, ё, и, ю, я⟩ after a "soft" consonant. In scientific transliteration the acute accent or apostrophe are used. All other consonants have palatalized allophones before the front vowels /æ, i, e/ as well. The alveolo-palatal affricate /tɕ/ lacks non-palatalized counterpart, while postalveolar fricatives /ʂ~ʃ, ʐ~ʒ/ lack palatalized counterparts. Unusually for

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2394-597: The peoples of Moksha and Erzya) from the following gene pools of Europe – the population of the Russian North , Norwegians , Germans and other German-speaking peoples , as well as Irish , Slavs (other Russians , Belarusians , Ukrainians , Czechs , Slovaks , Poles , Slovenes and Bosnians ), Balts , Hungarians and Swedes . All western and eastern Finnish-speaking peoples (except Estonians ) – Finns , Karelians , Mari , Komi , Moksha and Erzya fell into separate clusters, being genetically distant from

2451-542: The philological faculties of Mordovian State University and Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute offer a teacher course of Moksha. Mordovian State University also offers a course in Moksha for other humanitarian and some technical specialities. According to annual statistics from the Russian Ministry of Education for 2014-2015, there were 48 Moksha-medium schools (all in rural areas) where 644 students were taught, and 202 schools (152 in rural areas) where Moksha

2508-436: The sand and with it formed the earth with Ińe Šufta (The Great Tree) on it. Ińe Narmon made its nest on Ińe Šufta , which is usually referred to as Kelu (birch) in folklore. Akša Kal (White Sturgeon) carried the earth with the roots of Ińe Šufta on its back. Ińe Narmon had three nestlings: Tsofks (Nightingale), Kuku (Cuckoo), and Ožarga (Skylark). Tsofks chose bushes and willows for his home, Kuku settled in

2565-503: The scientist, indicates the genetic identity of the Moksha people. The gene pool of the Finno-Ugric peoples itself has a high interpopulation diversity and a low intrapopulation diversity. For the analysis of mitochondrial DNA , data on the frequencies of 16 haplogroups were used – A, C, D, H, HV, I, J, K, T, U2, U3, U4, U5a, U5b, V, W. The analysis showed a significant difference in gene pools of Finno-Ugric populations (including

2622-675: The throne to Yuri, who received the largest portion of his possessions. Before his death, grand prince Vsevolod divided his territories between his sons; as soon as he died in 1212, the Vladimir-Suzdal war of succession (1212–1216) broke out between them. Konstantin allied himself with Mstislav the Bold and defeated Yuri and his other brothers on the Lipitsa River . Having gained Vladimir, Konstantin sent Yuri to rule Rostov and Yaroslavl . Two years later Konstantin died, and Yuri

2679-583: The use of Moksha from the distant past. One notable exception are inscriptions on so-called mordovka silver coins issued under Golden Horde rulers around the 14th century. The evidence of usage of the language (written with the Cyrillic script) comes from the 16th century. МОЛИ moli Моли АНСИ ansi аньцек ОКАНП okan окань ЄЛКИ pelki пяли (Inscription, Old Moksha) (Transcription) (Interpretation, Moksha) МОЛИ АНСИ ОКАНП ЄЛКИ moli ansi okan pelki Моли аньцек окань пяли Goes only for half gold The Moksha language

2736-681: The use of the Latin script for Moksha was officially approved by the CIK VCKNA (General Executive Committee of the All Union New Alphabet Central Committee) on June 25, 1932, it was never implemented. Like other Uralic languages , Moksha is an agglutinating language with elaborate systems of case-marking and conjugation, postpositions , no grammatical gender, and no articles. Moksha has 13 productive cases , many of which are primarily locative cases . Locative cases in Moksha express ideas that Indo-European languages such as English normally code by prepositions (in, at, towards, on, etc.). However, also similarly to Indo-European prepositions, many of

2793-448: The uses of locative cases convey ideas other than simple motion or location. These include such expressions of time (e.g. on the table/Monday , in Europe/a few hours , by the river/the end of the summer , etc. ), purpose ( to China/keep things simple ), or beneficiary relations. Some of the functions of Moksha cases are listed below: There is controversy about the status of the three remaining cases in Moksha. Some researchers see

2850-434: The young Princess Marina, the wife of Yuri's son Vsevolod Yur'evich  [ ru ] . (Princess Marina was not canonized in the Cathedral of the Vladimir Saints together with the rest of the Vladimir Martyrs  [ ru ] who died in the Assumption Cathedral). Yuri himself was killed on 4 March 1238, in the Battle of the Sit River , when vast Mongol hordes defeated the army of Vladimir-Suzdal. The relics of

2907-536: Was all done in Moscow until the establishment of the Mordvinian national district in 1928. Official conferences in 1928 and 1935 decreed the northwest dialect to be the basis for the literary language. The first few Moksha schools were established in the 19th century by Russian Christian missionaries. Since 1973, Moksha has been allowed to be used as the language of instruction for the first three grades of elementary school in rural areas, and as an elective subject . Classes in universities in Mordovia are in Russian, but

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2964-412: Was allowed to return to Vladimir. During his reign in Vladimir, Yuri waged several wars against Volga Bulgaria and founded the fortress of Nizhny Novgorod on the Volga River to secure the area from Bulgarian attacks. He installed his younger brother Yaroslav in Novgorod . When the Mongols first approached Russia in 1223, he sent a small unit against them, but it arrived too late to take part in

3021-411: Was required personally to lead his army as a vassal in Mongol-Tartar military campaigns. At the beginning of 1241 the Mongol army seized Kiev , then invaded Poland . Roger Bacon in his Opus Majus writes that the Mokshas were in the vanguard of the Mongol army and took part in the capture of Lublin and Zawichost in Poland. Benedict Polone reports that the Mokshan army suffered serious losses during

3078-533: Was ruled by Mastoratia . The souls of heroes, clan elders and warriors slain in battle travelled after death to the emerald green isle of Usiya , where they sat at a long table together with the great King Ťušťen drinking pure mead. The first to write about the anthropological characteristics of Moksha and Erzya was the German encyclopedist, naturalist and traveler in the Russian service Peter Simon Pallas (1773), according to whose observations there were fewer light-blond and red-haired Mokshas than Erzyans, however,

3135-536: Was studied as a subject by 15,783 students (5,412 in rural areas). Since 2010, the study of Moksha in Mordovian schools is not compulsory, but can be chosen only by parents. Policies regarding the revival of the Moksha and Erzya languages in Mordovia started in the late 1990s, when the Language, and Education Laws were accepted. From the early 2000s on, the policy goal has been to create a unified Mordvin standard language despite differences between Erzya and Moksha. However, there have been no executive programmes for

3192-410: Was the date on which the sons of Jochi - Batu , Orda , and Berke , Ugedei's son Kadan , Chagatai's grandson Büri , and Genghis Khan's son Kulkan declared war on the Mokshas, Burtas and Erzyas. This war ended on 23 August 1237 with a crucial victory for the Mongols at the Black Forest close to the border of the Principality of Ryazan . King Puresh of the Mokshans submitted to Batu Khan and

3249-627: Was the fourth Grand Prince of Vladimir (1212–1216, 1218–1238) who presided over the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal at the time of the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' . He was the seventh child and the third and best-loved son of Vsevolod III (Vsevolod the Big Nest) and of Maria Shvarnovna . He first distinguished himself in the battles against Ryazan in 1208. His father wanted Yuri to inherit Rostov and his elder brother Konstantin to succeed him in Vladimir. The latter, however, declared that he would rule both towns or nothing at all. Thereupon Vsevolod disinherited Konstantin and passed

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