CEREMISSO DI ALTURA [HILL MARI] / HILL MARI (CHEREMIS)

The Mari language (Mari: марий йылме, marii jylme, Russian: марийский язык), spoken by more than 600,000 people, belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family. It is spoken primarily in the Mari Republic (Mari: Марий Эл, Marii El, i.e., 'Mari land') of the Russian Federation as well as in the area along the Vyatka river basin and eastwards to the Urals. Mari speakers, known as the Mari are found also in the Tatarstan, Udmurtia, and Perm regions.

Mari today has a unified standard form with two variants (Hill vs. Meadow or Western and Eastern, with the Eastern variant prevailing in everyday usage), using a modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet, and is the titular and official language of its republic, alongside Russian. The use of two "variants," as opposed to two "languages," has been hotly debated: on the one hand,... (Continues)