A Comprehensive Introduction to the Mari Language

A Comprehensive Introduction to the Mari Language

This textbook is based on the 1990/1991 Russian-language textbook Марийский язык для всех, Volumes I & II, and was rewritten and extensively adapted in English, in cooperation with the original authors. The first half of this textbook was published in 2010; as of 2017, the book has been published in its entirety (771 pages).

In adapting this textbook, special attention is being paid to the needs of self-learners who do not have access to a teacher when learning the Mari language. More details can be found in the book’s preface.

You can either download the entire textbook or individual sections or chapters by choosing the appropriate links in the table below. You can also download the audio materials accompanying this book in.mp3 format.

We have created supplementary courses for the popular online learning tool Memrise, which can be used to learn and review vocabulary. Two individual courses exist: one covering all vocabulary used in the textbook, and one excluding Russian loan words and internationalisms. Learners not familiar with Russian are advised to use the first course; learners already competent in Russian are advised to use the second. The courses are separated into individual sections corresponding to the individual chapters in the textbook. Each chapter in the textbook corresponds to two in the Memrise courses: one containing the vocabulary used in the chapter text, and one containing additional vocabulary items used in example sentences and exercises in the chapter in question.

To date, this textbook has only been published on this website. We suggest visiting a copy shop or using lecture note printing services available at many universities, for example, to create individual paper versions, should these be desired. As this book has been released into the public domain (see license information on page 2), this will not involve any legal difficulties.

If you wish to cite this textbook in a scientific publication, we suggest the following reference, adapted to the formatting of your bibliography:

Riese, Timothy; Bradley, Jeremy; Yakimova, Emma; Krylova, Galina 2017. Оҥай марий йылме: A Comprehensive Introduction to the Mari language. [Release 3.2] Vienna: University of Vienna. [published online at omj.mari-language.com]

A scanned version of the 1990/1991 Russian-language textbook can also be downloaded from this site.

https://www.univie.ac.at/maridict/site-2014/book.php?int=0