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 ( ...
. It was spoken around the left bank of the Middle Oka. Meshchera was either a
Mordvinic
The Mordvinic languages, also known as the Mordvin, Mordovian or Mordvinian languages (russian: мордовские языки, ''mordovskiye yazyki''),
are a subgroup of the Uralic languages, comprising the closely related Erzya language and Mok ...
or a
Permic
The Permic or Permian languages are a branch of the Uralic language family. They are spoken in several regions to the west of the Ural Mountains within the Russian Federation. The total number of speakers is around 950,000, of which around 550, ...
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 o ...
ic evidence that it was a
Permic
The Permic or Permian languages are a branch of the Uralic language family. They are spoken in several regions to the west of the Ural Mountains within the Russian Federation. The total number of speakers is around 950,000, of which around 550, ...
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 His ...
. Some Meshchera speaking people possibly assimilated into
Mishar Tatars.
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 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
*
Meryan language Merya or Meryanic is an extinct Finno-Ugric language, which was spoken by the Meryans. Merya began to be assimilated by East Slavs when their territory became incorporated into Kievan Rus' in the 10th century. However some Merya speakers might have ...
*
Volga Finns
References
{{Uralic languages
Extinct languages of Europe
Uralic languages
Medieval languages