ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Vladimir Vladimirovich Napolskikh
Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia; The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia

Olesya Dmitrievna Surikova
Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia; Vinogradov Russian Language Institute of the RAS, Moscow, Russia

REVISITING THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE ETHNONYM MORDVA

For citation
Napolskikh, V. V., & Surikova, O. D . (2024). Revisiting the Etymology of the Ethnonym Mordva. Voprosy onomastiki, 21(3), 9–40. https://doi.org/10.15826/vopr_onom.2024.21.3.029

Received on 30 September 2024
Accepted on 29 October 2024

Abstract: The Russian term for the Erzya and Moksha Peoples, Mordva, attested since the 12th century, is an exoethnonym with no roots in the Mordvinic languages. The common theory that it was formed with the Russian collective suffix -va is inaccurate, as this suffix, in combination with nominal stems, likely did not exist in Old Russian. A grammatical analysis of the Russian term Mordva suggests that it developed within a noun-declension paradigm ending in -ū, originating from the ethnotoponym mordy. Early attestations, such as the toponym Μορδία in Constantine Porphyrogenitus’s writings (10th century) and the ethnonym Mordens (< Goth. *mordja /*mordi) in Jordanes (6th century, based on earlier 4th-century accounts), support the existence of a proto-form mordi, generally traced to the Iranian *marta-/mart(i)i̯a, meaning ‘man, mortal’. However, the exact pathways of this borrowing from Iranian remain uncertain. The ethnonymic model of “‘man, people’ → autoethnonym” is not typical for societies in early political formation stages, and in Iranian onomastics, marta alone was never used as an ethnonym. The likely source of these terms is the Iranian ethnonym (possibly originally a socionym) må̄rdi- (Avestan marəδa, Μάρδοι/Ἄμαρδοι in ancient sources), meaning “killer” — a designation for nomadic, warlike Iranian tribes of the southern and eastern Caspian regions, potentially extending further north, from the second half of the 1st millennium BC. The term reached the Volga region in the early centuries AD, carried by migrating military groups who left Andreevsko-Piseralian-type artefacts on the Volga’s right bank below the mouth of the Oka. From these Iranians, the ethnonym (or socionym) må̄rdi- was adopted by the Goths (as Mordens), passed to the Byzantines (as Μορδία), and, by the early 2nd millennium AD, entered Old Russian (as Mordians, later Mordva).

Keywords: ethnonymy; Russian language; Gothic language; Finno-Ugric languages; Iranian languages; etymology; word formation; ethnic history; written sources; Mordvins

Acknowledgements
The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant number 23-18-00439 Onomasticon and Linguocultural History of European Russia, https://rscf.ru/en/project/23-18-00439/). We are grateful to Elena L. Berezovich (Ekaterinburg), Yuri A. Dzitstsoity (Tskhinval) and Alexey V. Mikheev (Yoshkar-Ola) for the consultations.

References

Abaev, V. I. (1958–1989). Istoriko-etimologicheskii slovar’ osetinskogo iazyka [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Ossetian Language] (Vols. 1–5). Leningrad; Moscow: Nauka.

Abaev, V. I. (1979). Skifo-sarmatskie narechiia [Scythian-Sarmatian Dialects]. In V. S. Rastorgueva (Ed.), Osnovy iranskogo iazykoznaniia. Drevneiranskie iazyki [Foundations of Iranian Linguistics: Ancient Iranian Languages] (pp. 272–364). Moscow: Nauka.

Ageeva, R. A. (2000). Kakogo my rodu-plemeni? Narody Rossii: imena i sud’by: slovar’-spravochnik. [What Kindred Are We? Peoples of Russia: Names and Fates: Dictionary-Guide]. Moscow: Academia.

Anikin, A. E. (2005). Opyt slovaria leksicheskikh baltizmov v russkom iazyke [A Dictionary of Lexical Balticisms in the Russian Language]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.

Benveniste, É. (1995). Slovar’ indoevropeiskikh sotsial’nykh terminov. I. Khoziaistvo, sem’ia, obshchestvo. II. Vlast’, pravo, religiia [Dictionary of Indo-European Social Terms. I. Household, Family, Society. II. Power, Law, Religion]. Moscow: Progress; Univers.

Bernstein, S. B. (1974). Ocherk sravnitel’noi grammatiki slavianskikh iazykov. Cheredovaniia. Imennye osnovy [Outline of Comparative Grammar of Slavic Languages: Alternations. Nominal Bases]. Moscow: Nauka.

Bugrov, D. G., & Myasnikov, N. S. (2018). Nekotorye problemy vydeleniia “etnokul’turnykh komponentov” pamiatnikov andreevsko-piseral’skogo tipa: pogrebal’nyi obriad [Some Problems of Identifying “Ethnocultural Components” in Monuments of the Andreevsko-Piseral Type: Burial Rites]. Povolzhskaia arkheologiia, 3(25), 314–335.

Chernykh, P. Ya. (1999). Istoriko-etimologicheskii slovar’ sovremennogo russkogo iazyka [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of Modern Russian Language] (Vols. 1–2). Moscow: Russkii iazyk.

Chizhevsky, A. A. (Ed.). (2021). Arkheologiia Volgo-Ural’ia [Archaeology of the Volga-Ural Region] (Vol. 3). Kazan: In-t arkheologii AN RT

Christensen, A. S. (2002). Cassiodorus, Iordanes and the History of the Goths. Studies in a Migration Myth. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.

Degtyarev, V. I. (2014). Kategoriia chisla v slavianskikh iazykakh (istoriko-semanticheskoe issledovanie) [The Category of Number in Slavic Languages (A Historical-Semantic Study)] (2nd ed.). Rostov on Don: Izd-vo YuFU.

Demyanov, V. G. (2001). Inoiazychnaia leksika v istorii russkogo iazyka XI–XVII vekov. Problemy morfologicheskoi adaptatsii [Foreign Vocabulary in the History of the Russian Language (11th–17th Centuries): Problems of Morphological Adaptation]. Moscow: Nauka.

Dobrodomov, I. G. (1990). Burtasskii iazyk — ischeznuvshii alanskii dialekt v Srednem Povolzh’e [The Burtas Language — A Lost Alanian Dialect in the Middle Volga Region]. In V. V. Ivanov, T. M. Sudnik, & E. A. Helimski (Eds.), Uralo-Indogermanica. Balto-slavianskie iazyki i problema uralo-indoevropeiskikh sviazei: materialy III balto-slavianskoi konferentsii [Uralo-Indo-Germanica. Balto-Slavic Languages and the Problem of Uralic-Indo-European Connections. Proceedings of the Third Balto-Slavic Conference] (Pt. 2, pp. 64–70). Moscow: Institut slavianovedeniia i balkanistiki.

Dyakonov, I. M. (1956). Istoriia Midii ot drevneishikh vremen do kontsa IV v. do n. e. [History of Media from the Ancient Times till the Late 4th Century BC]. Moscow; Leningrad: Izd-vo AN SSSR.

Edelman, D. I. (2009). Sravnitel’naia grammatika vostochnoiranskikh iazykov. Leksika [Comparative Grammar of Eastern Iranian Languages: Vocabulary]. Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura.

Eselevich, I. E. (1976). Iz istorii sobiratel’nykh etnonimov v russkom iazyke [From the History of Collective Ethnonyms in the Russian Language]. In S. P. Lopushanskaya (Ed.), Imennoe slovoobrazovanie russkogo iazyka [Nominal Word Formation in the Russian Language] (pp. 81–94). Kazan: Kazan University Press.

Gauthiot, R. (1918). De l’accent d’intensité iranien. Mémoires de la Société de linguistique de Paris, 20, 1–76.

Geiger, W. (1882). Ostiranische Kultur in Altertum. Erlangen: Andreas Deiherd.

Gordeev, F. I. (1968). O proiskhozhdenii tiurkskikh etnonimov [On the Origin of Turkic Ethnonyms]. Voprosy mariiskogo iazykoznaniia, 2, 10–29.

Goryaev, N. V. (1896). Sravnitel’nyi etimologicheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka [Comparative Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language]. Tiflis: Tip. kants. Glavnonach. gr. ch. na Kavkaze.

Grantovsky, E. A. (2007). Ranniaia istoriia iranskikh plemen Perednei Azii [Early History of Iranian Tribes in the Near East] (2nd ed.). Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura.

Grienberger, Th. von. (1895). Ermanariks Völker. Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur. Neue Folge, 39, 154–184.

Grishakov, V. V., & Zubov, S. E. (2009). Andreevskii kurgan v sisteme arkheologicheskikh kul’tur rannego zheleznogo veka Vostochnoi Evropy [The Andreevsky Kurgan in the System of Archaeological Cultures of the Early Iron Age of Eastern Europe]. Kazan: In-t istorii AN RT.

Haidú, P. (1985). Ural’skie iazyki i narody [Uralic Languages and Peoples]. Moscow: Progress.

Honti, L. (1982). Geschichte des obugrischen Vokalismus der ersten Silbe. Budapest: Akadémiai kiadó.

Khaburgaev, G. A. (1979). Etnonimiia “Povesti vremennykh let” [Ethnonymy of The Tale of Bygone Years]. Moscow: Moscow University Press.

Khalikov, A. Kh. (1987). Pamiatniki piseral’sko-andreevskogo tipa v Volzhskom pravoberezh’e i ikh etnokul’turnaia interpretatsiia [Monuments of the Piseral-Andreev Type in the Right-Bank Volga Region and Their Ethnocultural Interpretation]. Arkheologiia i etnografiia mariiskogo kraia, 12, 8–24.

Korchagin, P. A. (2014). Perm’ Malaia: istoriia vozniknoveniia simuliakra [Perm Minor: History of the Emergence of a Simulacrum]. Trudy Kamskoi arkheologo-etnograficheskoi ekspeditsii, 9, 18–27.

Koryakova, L. N. (1988). Rannii zheleznyi vek Zaural’ia i Zapadnoi Sibiri (sargatskaia kul’tura) [The Early Iron Age of Trans-Uralia and Western Siberia (Sargat Culture)]. Sverdlovsk: Ural University Press.

Kovalev, G. F. (1991). Etnonimiia slavianskikh iazykov. Nominatsiia i slovoobrazovanie [Ethnonymy of Slavic Languages: Naming and Word Formation]. Voronezh: Voronezh University Press.

Litvinenko, V. E. (1969). O nekotorykh slovoobrazovatel’nykh osobennostiakh imen sushchestvitel’nykh v russkikh govorakh (na materiale russkikh govorov Priissykkul’ia Kirgizskoi SSR) [On Certain Word-Formation Features of Nouns in Russian Dialects (Based on the Material of Russian Dialects in the Issyk-Kul Region of the Kyrgyz SSR)]. Uchenye zapiski MOPI im. N. K. Krupskoi, 228, 170–176.

Litvinsky, B. A., & P’yankov, I. V. (2004). Sredniaia Aziia v Akhemenidskoe vremia [Central Asia During the Achaemenid Period]. In A. V. Sedov (Ed.), Istoriia Drevnego Vostoka. Ot rannikh gosudarstvennykh obrazovanii do drevnikh imperii [History of the Ancient East: From Early State Formations to Ancient Empires] (pp. 698–814). Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura.

Lytkin, V. I. (1975). Permsko-iranskie iazykovye kontakty [Permian-Iranian Linguistic Contacts]. Voprosy iazykoznaniia, 3, 84–97.

Matveyeva, N. P. (1993). Sargatskaia kul’tura na Srednem Tobole [Sargatka Culture in the Middle Tobol River Basin]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.

Matveyeva, N. P. (2018). Sargatskaia i gorokhovskaia kul’tury: istoricheskie sud’by. Rannii zheleznyi vek zapadnosibirskoi lesostepi po arkheologicheskim dannym [Sargatka and Gorokhov Cultures: Historical Destinies. Early Iron Age of the Western Siberian Forest-Steppe According to Archaeological Data]. In A. Türk (Ed.), 3. Nemzetközi korai magyar történeti és régészeti konferencia (pp. 15–34). Budapest: Martin Opitz kiadó.

Melich, J. (1963). Einige Personen- und Völkernamen. Acta Linguistica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 6(1–3), 425–440.

Mokshin, N. F. (1977). Etnicheskaia istoriia mordvy (XIX–XX veka) [Ethnic History of the Mordvins (19th–20th Centuries)]. Saransk: Mordovskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo.

Munkácsi, B. (1901). Árja és kaukázusi elemek a finn-magyar nyelvekben. 1. kötet. Magyar szójegyzék. Budapest: Magyar Tudomá nyos Akadémia.

Napolskikh, V. V. (2018a). Etnolingvisticheskaia situatsiia v lesnoi zone Vostochnoi Evropy v pervye veka nashei ery i dannye “Getiki” Iordana [Ethnolinguistic Situation in the Forest Zone of Eastern Europe in the First Centuries CE and Data from Jordanes’ Getica]. Voprosy onomastiki, 15(1), 7–29. https://doi.org/10.15826/vopr_onom.2018.15.1.001

Napolskikh, V. V. (2018b). Ocherki po etnicheskoi istorii [Essays on Ethnic History] (2nd ed.). Kazan: AN RT.

Napolskikh, V. V. (2023). Iordan i ego “Getika” v trude Rodrigo Khimenesa de Rady “De rebus Hispaniae” [Jordanes and his Getica in Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada’s De Rebus Hispaniae]. Vestnik drevnei istorii, 83(4), 851–867.

Napolskikh, V. V. (2024). K iranskoi etimologii etnonimov mari, meria, muroma [On the Iranian Etymology of the Ethnonyms Mari, Meria, Muroma]. Voprosy onomastiki, 21(1), 9–26. https://doi.org/10.15826/vopr_onom.2024.21.1.001

Orel, V. (2007). Russian Etymological Dictionary (Vols. 1–2). Canada: Octavia & Co. Press.

Otrębski, J. (1963). Dainavà — nazvanie odnogo iz iatviazhskikh plemen [Dainavà — The Name of One of the Yatvingian Tribes]. Voprosy slavianskogo iazykoznaniia, 7, 3–6.

Preobrazhensky, A. (1910–1914). Etimologicheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (Vol. 1: A–O). Moscow: Tip. G. Lisskera i D. Sovko.

Rastorgueva, V. S., & Edelman, D. I. (2000–). Etimologicheskii slovar’ iranskikh iazykov [Etymological Dictionary of Iranian Languages] (Vols. 1–). Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura.

Rédei, K. (1986). Zu den indogermanisch-uralischen Sprachkontakten. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Sedov, V. V. (1982). Vostochnye slaviane v VI–XIII vv. [Eastern Slavs in the 6th–13th Centuries]. Moscow: Nauka.

Shaposhnikov, A. K. (2010). Etimologicheskii slovar’ sovremennogo russkogo iazyka [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Russian Language] (Vols. 1–2). Moscow: Flinta; Nauka.

Tomaschek, W. (1889). Kritik der ältesten Nachrichten über den skythischen Norden. II. Die Nachrichten Herodot’s über den skythischen Karawanenweg nach Innerasien. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Vasmer, M. (1964–1973). Etimologicheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (Vols. 1–4). Moscow: Progress.

Zaliznyak, A. A. (2008). “Slovo o polku Igoreve”: vzgliad lingvista [The Tale of Igor’s Campaign: A Linguist’s Perspective] (3rd ed.). Moscow: Rukopisnye pamiatniki Drevnei Rusi.

Zaliznyak, A. A. (2011). Trudy po aktsentologii [Works on Accentology] (Vol. 2). Moscow: Iazyki slavianskikh kul’tur.

Zhuravlev, A. F., & Shansky, N. M. (Eds.). (2007). Etimologicheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (Vol. 10). Moscow: Moscow University Press.

Zsirai, M. (1994). Finnugor rokonságunk. Budapest: Tresor Kiadó.

Zubov, S. E. (2011). Voinskie migratsii v Srednem Povolzh’e (I–III vv. n. e.) [Military Migrations in the Middle Volga Region (1st–3rd Centuries CE)]. Migratsionnye protsessy v formirovanii etnokul’turnoi sredy po materialam arkheologicheskikh dannykh [Migration Processes in the Formation of the Ethnocultural Environment Based on Archaeological Data]. Saarbrücken: Lambert.

Zubov, S. E., & Mikheev, A. V. (2006). Etnokul’turnye protsessy v Zapadnom Povolzh’e na rubezhe rannego zheleznogo veka i rannego srednevekov’ia (problemy khronologii i etnicheskoi atributsii pamiatnikov piseral’sko-andreevskogo tipa) [Ethnocultural Processes in the Western Volga Region at the Transition from the Early Iron Age to the Early Middle Age (Problems of Chronology and Ethnic Attribution of Monuments of the Piseral-Andreev

Type)]. In G. T. Obydennova, & N. S. Savelyev (Eds.), Iuzhnyi Ural i sopredel’nye territorii v skifo-sarmatskoe vremia: sbornik statei k 70-letiiu A. Kh. Pshenichniuka [Southern Ural and Adjacent Territories in the Scythian-Sarmatian Period: Collected Articles for the 70th Anniversary of A. Pshenichniuk] (pp. 205–226). Ufa: Gilem.