Meshchera is an extinct
Uralic language
The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...
. It was spoken around the left bank of the Middle Oka. Meshchera was either a
Mordvinic or a
Permic language. Pauli Rahkonen has suggested on the basis of
toponym
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
ic evidence that it was a
Permic or closely related language.
Rahkonen's speculation has been criticized by
Vladimir Napolskikh Vladimir Vladimirovich Napolskikh (russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Напо́льских, born 1 April 1963, Izhevsk, USSR) is a Russian ethnographer, ethnologist, ethnohistorian, Finno-Ugrist and linguist. Doctor of Histo ...
. Some Meshchera speaking people possibly assimilated into
Mishar Tatars
The Mishar Tatars (endonyms: мишәрләр, мишәр татарлары, mişärlär, mişär tatarları) form a subgroup of the Volga Tatars, indigenous to Mordovia, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and Chuvashia in the Russian Federation. They ...
.
However this theory is disputed.
The first Russian written source which mentions them is the ''
Tolkovaya Paleya'', from the 13th century. They are also mentioned in several later Russian chronicles from the period before the 16th century, and even later, in one of the letters by
Andrey Kurbsky
Knyaz (Prince) Andrey Mikhailovich Kurbsky (russian: Андрей Михайлович Курбский, pl, Andriej Michajłowicz Kurbski; 1528–1583) was a Russian political figure, military leader, and political philosopher, known as an intim ...
written in the second half of the 16th century, where he claimed the language spoken in the Meshchera region to be Mordvinic.
Reconstruction
Some words have been reconstructed from Meshchera based on toponymic data, for example: Meshchera hydronymic stems un-, ič-, vil- and ul, which can be compared to
Udmurt uno 'big', iči 'little', vi̮l 'upper' and ulo 'lower'.
See also
*
Meryans
The Meryans, also ''Merya'' (Russian: меря) were an ancient Finnic people that lived in the Upper Volga region. The Primary Chronicle places them around the Nero and Pleshcheyevo lakes. They were assimilated to Russians around the 13th cent ...
*
Meryan language
*
Volga Finns
The Volga Finns (sometimes referred to as Eastern Finns) are a historical group of indigenous peoples of Russia living in the vicinity of the Volga, who speak Uralic languages. Their modern representatives are the Mari people, the Erzya and the ...
References
{{Uralic languages
Extinct languages of Europe
Uralic languages
Medieval languages