Именная морфология в памятнике марийской письменности «Начатки христианского  учения...» (1839/1841): категории числа и принадлежности [Noun Morphology in the Document of Mari Literacy ”Начатки хрис­тiанского ученiя...” (1839/1841): Number, Possession]

Abstract

This article continues the study of a document of Mari literacy published in Kazan in 1841. Previously, a complete glossary was made for this monument (available on the Lingvodoc website: https://lingvodoc.ispras.ru), verbal morphology and the nominal case system were described. Subject of the present paper are nominal number and possession. Noun morphology is compared to Meadow Mari dialects, as well as to other Mari documents. The text contains only one plural marker, -šaməč, which is used also in cases where according to the Mari grammar it is not required to express plurality. The specificity of the system of possessive suffixes is mostly at the phonetic level: in the vocalism of unstressed syllables and partly in the stress system. Most systematic is the labial harmony of the reduced vowel in non-first syllables, as in the Volga and Yoshkar-Ola subdialects. The investigation focuses also on stress patterns, rare cases, and the order of possessive and case suffixes. E.g., the ablative is absent in Standard Mari, and the details of its declension with possessive suffixes have not been described. The results of the study of noun morphology confirm the conclusions about the Meadow Mari Volga subdialect as the dialect basis of the document previously based on verb morphology.

Keywords

• mari language; volga dialect of the mari language; documents of mari literacy; noun morphology; grammatical number; possessive affixes