5. Retell the text. The Maris and their language

The Mari language (Cheremis) belongs to Volgaic unit which is a part of Finnic group. Finnic group belongs to Western Finno-Ugric group which is a branch of Finno-Ugric group. Finno-Ugric group together with Samoyed group make the Uralic family of languages.

There are two literary forms of the Mari language:

1. Meadow Mari;

2. Hill Mari.

There are also two dialects of the Meadow Mari language: Eastern Mari and North-Western Mari.

The standard Mari language is based on Morki-Sernur dialect. Mari literature and the standard Mari language were founded by Sergey Chavain. He wrote many stories, plays, novels and essays. He was working also in the field of sociopolitical journalism. The first poem "Oto" ("The sacred grove") by S.Chavain was published in 1905. This poem was translated into many languages including English. Another outstanding work of Chavain is the novel “Elnet”. He was born in a small village in Morki area which was named after his death as Chavainur village. There is a museum to S. Chavain in Chavainur. Many people from our Republic, from Russia and foreign countries visit it every year.

Basically Mari is spoken in towns and villages. However people speak Mari in Yoshkar-Ola, the capital of Mari El Republic, too. Meadow Maris and Hill Maris in general can understand each other. Some of them can speak both languages.

The total number of Mari people is about 605 000 people.

The total number of people who speak Mari is about 464 000.

Unfortunately many people whose native language is Mari cannot speak it. Besides many people, especially young people, tend to mix Russian and Mari words in their speech.

Mari people live in all regions of Russian Federation and in all former USSR countries. Mari people live in Mari El Republic (about 312 000 people), in Bashkortostan Republic (about 106 000 people), in Kirov Region (about 39 000), in Sverdlovsk Region (about 28 000) and in Tatarstan Republic (about 19 000). Maris also live in Udmurt Republic, Nizhni Novgorod Region, Hanty-Mansiysk Autonomus Region, Volgograd Region, Krasnoyarsk Region, Perm Region, Saratov Region, Samara Region, Tcheliabinsk Region, in Chuvash Republic, etc.

Meadow Mari is spoken on the left bank of the Volga River. Hill Mari is spoken in Hill Mari area (Mari El Republic) and partly in Kilemary area (Mari El), in Sharanga area (Nizhni Novgorod Region), etc. Eastern Mari dialect is spoken in Tatar Republic, Bashkortostan Republic, in the Urals and in Sverdlovsk Region and in some other areas too. North-Western Mari dialect is spoken in Kirov Region and in the North of our republic too.