MORDVA - SUPRA-ETHNOS; MOKSHA, ERZYA - SUB-ETHNOSES? (Experience of interdisciplinary dialogue)

The prominent Mordovian historian-ethnologist N.F. Mokshin chronologically and consistently presented information about Mordovians, Moksha and Erzya in the mass-political publication "Mordovia through the eyes of foreign and Russian travelers". This information was taken from Iordan, Konstantin Bagryanorodnyj, Rubruk, Joseph, Strabo, Ptolemy Claudius, Abu Ishaq al'-Farisi al' Istakhri, Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, Ibn-Haukal', Julian, H. Fren, P.S. Savel'ev, A.Ya. Garkavi; “The Tale of Bygone Years” (Povest Vremennykh let), V.N. Tatishchev, P.I. Rychkov, P.S. Pallas, Johann-Gottlieb Georgi and others recent and modern historians and ethnologists. In the proposed publication, a comparativist, a specialist in comparative historical linguistics, gives consistent comments to those presented by N.F. Mokshin's views, assumptions and conclusions of travelers, geographers, historians, ethnologists, among whom there was not a single professional linguist. In particular, there are doubts about the rapprochement of the modern ethnonym Erzya with exoethnonyms: Aors (Strabo), Arsiites (Ptolemy Claudius), Aris (Joseph), which are offered other explanations. It is clarified that Artania, as one of the three names of the Eastern Slavs (Rus, Slavia, Artania) mentioned by K. Bagryanorodnyj, should be read [Art̠āniya] in the Latin transliteration of the Arabic original. [Arsaija / Ersanija] readings are distorted; therefore, the archetype of the modern ethnonym Erzya is erroneous. The idea is that the urbanonym ‘Art(a)’ and the name of the country Artania both have a Turkic-Bulgarian origin and the real basis ‘Art’ (“back”; “backside”; “north”, etc.), being the equivalent of the ancient name of northeastern Russia - Zales’e, which had not only a geographical, but political dimension.

A Meta-Analytical Investigation of the Gap between Measured and Predicted Inter-Population Genetic Diversity in Species of High Conservation Concern—The Case of the Critically Endangered European Mink Mustela lutreola L., 1761

Although properly designed sampling in population genetic studies is of key importance for planning evidence-informed conservation measures, sampling strategies are rarely discussed. This is the case for the European mink Mustela lutreola, a critically endangered species. In order to address this problem, a meta-analysis aiming to examine the completeness of mtDNA haplotype sampling in recent studies of M. lutreola inter-population genetic diversity was conducted. The analysis was performed using the sample-size-based rarefaction and extrapolation sampling curve method for three populations—the Northeastern (Russia, Belarus and Estonia), the Western (France and Spain), and the Southeastern (Romania). The extrapolated values of the Shannon–Wiener index were determined, assuming full sample coverage. The gap between the measured and predicted inter-population genetic diversity was estimated, indicating that the identified level of sample coverage was the lowest for the NE population (87%), followed by the SE population (96%) and the W population (99%). A guide for sampling design and accounting for sampling uncertainty in future population genetic studies on European mink is provided. The relatively low sample coverage for the Russian population clearly indicates an urgent need to take conservation measures for European mink in this country.

Complexity and Simplification in Language Shift

This paper examines the question of linguistic complexity in two shift ecologies in northeastern Russia. It is frequently claimed that language shift results in linguistic simplification across a range of domains in the grammars of shifting speakers (Campbell and Muntzel 1989; Dorian 1989; O’Shannessy 2011). We challenge the breadth of this claim, showing that while there are undoubtedly patterns that can be described as a simplification of some grammatical domain, the overall grammars of these speakers cannot be said to be “simple,” as simplification in one part of the grammar often corresponds to complexification in other parts (“complexity trade-offs”). Furthermore, patterns that are deemed loss or simplification are often presented in such a way because they are being compared to earlier varieties of the shifting languages; however, such patterns are entirely typologically expected, are consistent with other languages of the world, and can be seen as more or less complex depending on one’s locus of measurement. In this paper, we present incipient changes taking place in Chukchi (Chukotko-Kamchatkan, ISO ckt) and Even (Tungusic, ISO eve) stemming from the modern language shift context. We evaluate these changes against different notions of complexity to demonstrate that a more nuanced approach to morphosyntactic change in language obsolescence is warranted. While morphological simplification is expected in these scenarios, other changes in these speakers’ systems (occurring as potential adaptations in light of simplification) provide a more enlightening avenue for research on shifting varieties.