ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Oleg Vitalyevich Smirnov
Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia

VOLGA-FINNIC DIALECTS IN THE HISTORICAL MERYA LANDS ACCORDING TO TOPONYMIC DATA. LINGUISTIC CALQUES. II

For citation
Smirnov, O. V. (2025). Volga-Finnic Dialects in the Historical Merya Lands According to Toponymic Data. Linguistic Calques. II. Voprosy onomastiki, 22(3), 101–148. https://doi.org/10.15826/vopr_onom.2025.22.3.031

Received on 12 September 2024
Accepted on 23 May 2025

Abstract: This is the second part of the paper published in the opening issue of the journal in 2025, it examines the phonetic and word-formation features of the most reliable linguistic data from the extinct Finno-Ugric varieties once spoken in the Historical Meryan Lands (HML), together with their closest parallels in the Volga-Finnic languages. A historical-phonetic and word-formation analysis of the material supports the earlier conclusion that the linguistic landscape of the HML prior to Russian settlement did not consist of a single language, but of several Finno‑Ugric dialects or languages. The lexical, phonetic and word-formation features observed correspond broadly to those found across the Volga-Finnic branch (Finnic, Mordvin, Mari, and to a lesser extent Saami). Distinct isoglosses can be identified and contrasted, and they represent not merely dialectal but, in many cases, linguistic divisions within the Volga-Finnic continuum. At the same time, these isoglosses intersect in different ways, indicating a linguistic situation far more complex than the recently proposed tripartite division into “Rostov”, “Kostroma” and “Murom” Meryan dialects. The material analysed demonstrates that the hypothesised “language of the Merya and Muroma” cannot be genetically aligned with any of the known Volga‑Finnic languages. The most plausible scenario is that the substrate Volga-Finnic languages of the HML represent independent offshoots of a broader Proto-Volga-Finnic community. Some of these varieties were in close contact with Finnic and Mordvin languages, while others developed affinities with Proto-Mari or Proto-Saami. The article further suggests that the ethnonym *märə may have been used in its original form by the indigenous Volga-Finnic population during the period of the Gorodets culture (second half of the first millennium AD ), in a manner comparable (albeit only typologically) to the emergence of the ethnonym *rus’ among the Eastern Slavs. The phonetic features reconstructed for the Volga-Finnic varieties of the HML are consistent with the derivation of the ethnonyms Merya, Mari and Muroma from this original märə form.

Keywords: substrate toponymy of Central Russia; Finno-Ugric languages; Volga Finns; Merya; reconstruction of the Meryan language; toponymic calques; toponymic etymology

Acknowledgements
This article was prepared as part of research commissioned by the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. I express my sincere gratitude to Tamara V. Matveyeva for granting access to, and the opportunity to work with, Alexander K. Matveyev’s card index.

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