Cheremiss language
- noun
- Archaic
- Today, the Cheremiss language is more commonly referred to as the Mari language.
Examples
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Many documents and songs were originally written in the Cheremiss language.
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The Cheremiss language is classified as part of the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family.
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The Cheremiss language is rich in folklore.
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Many young people are learning the Cheremiss language today.
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The Cheremiss language is classified as part of the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family.
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Today, the Cheremiss language is more commonly referred to as the Mari language.
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Many young people are learning the Cheremiss language today.
Synonyms
A language the Mari people speak in central Russia
A language spoken by the Mari people in the Mari El region of Russia
A language of the Mari people spoken in the Volga region of Russia
A language like Finnish that the Mari people speak in central Russia
A language spoken by the Mari people in the Mari El region of Russia
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward compositional noun phrase: combining the proper name 'Cheremiss' (a Finnic people/language) with 'language' yields 'the language spoken by the Cheremiss/Mari people.' The pattern 'X language' is cross-linguistically common and follows ordinary English noun compounding, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Cheremiss language is an older name that comes from a Russian name for the Mari people, so outsiders called their speech Cheremiss and named it the Cheremiss language. Today the same speech is usually called the 'Mari language', so Cheremiss language refers to that language.