Learn Erzya

About the spelling

The experimental Romanization of the Erzya language used on this site is loosely based on the proposals found in Историческая морфология мордовских языков by linguist Boris Serebrennikov and in Parlons mordve (erzya et mokša) by linguists Ksenija Djordjević and Jean-Léo Léonard.

The alphabet has 35 letters:

Letter	Transcription (IPA)	Sample words	Russian (Cyrillic) equivalents
A a	/a/	ašo, anokstams, varma	а
(Ä ä / Æ æ)	/æ/ (dialectal)	ärźań, mäze, täv / ærźań, mæze, tæv	я in мягкий
B b	/b/	baška, beŕań, bjudžet	б
C c	/t͡s/ or /t͡sʲ/, before ä, e, i — /t͡sʲ/	ceća, citnema, pozicija	ц
Ć ć	/t͡sʲ/	ćora, ulća, kargoć	ць
Č č	/t͡ʂ/, before ä, e, i sometimes — /t͡ɕ/	čevte, čačoma, venč	ч, тш
D d	/d/, before ä, e, i — /dʲ/ ~ /ɟ/	domka, videma, ked	д
Ď ď	/dʲ/ ~ /ɟ/	boďa, nulgoďks	дь
E e	/e/, after č, š, ž sometimes — /ɛ/	erva, tev, vete	е
Ë ë	/ɛ/, /æ/	sëvems, pizë, kedsë	э
F f	/f/	forma, fiľma, finnën	ф
G g	/ɡ/	gui, gaigića, kurgo	г
H h	/x/	hirurg, horvat, čeh	х
I i	/i/, after č, š, ž sometimes — /ɨ/	idema, sija, ki	и
Ï ï	/ɨ/	sïvel, sastïne, mazïj	ы
J j	/j/	jorok, mijav	й
K k	/k/	kev, kirksala, kurok	к
L l	/l/, before ä, e, i — /lʲ/	lavś, velen, al	л
Ľ ľ	/lʲ/	ľomźor, avoľ, veľavtoms	ль
M m	/m/	marto, makso, kemema	м
N n	/n/, before ä, e, i — /ɲ/	nuvsems, pine, san	н
(ng)	/ŋɡ/, before ä, e, i — /ɲg/	rungo, pinge, langs	ҥг
Ń ń / Ň ň	/ɲ/	ńaka, izńams, sapoń / ňaka, izňams, sapoň	нь
O o	/o/	ortat, porems, toro	о
P p	/p/	pizë, opana, škap	п
R r	/r/, before ä, e, i — /rʲ/	rakša, krenč, mastor	р
Ŕ ŕ / Ř ř	/rʲ/	pŕa, kopoŕ / přa, kopoř	рь
S s	/s/, before ä, e, i — /sʲ/	sovamo, usija, tarkas	с
Ś ś	/sʲ/	śavadoms, raśke, eś	сь
Š š	/ʂ/	šenže, viška, šumbra	ш
T t	/t/, before ä, e, i — /tʲ/ ~ /c/	tonś, teveľav, art	т
Ť ť	/tʲ/ ~ /c/	ťus, veťams, kuvať	ть
U u	/u/	utom, kudo, ućaska	у
(Ŭ ŭ)	/w/ (dialectal)	teŭ, keŭkstems, koŭ	в
V v	/v/, in the end of a word and before consonants often — /w/	valdo, kevkstems, kov	в
Z z	/z/, before ä, e, i — /zʲ/	zepe, ozado, tarvaz	з
Ź ź	/zʲ/	źardo, piźolks, tejeź	зь
Ž ž	/ʒ/	žojsë, eždića, kež	ж

⇒ Consonants before i, e, and the dialectal ä are always soft. In contrast, ë and ï make the preceding consonant hard. For example: tejemstë /tʲejemstɛ/, lijalgadï /lʲijɑlɡɑdɨ/.

⇒ Letters ë and ï never appear at the beginning of a word and after č, š, or ž. For example: inže, vešića, či.

⇒ When there is more than one palatalized sound in a sequence, only the last consonant is marked as soft — either through a consonant or a vowel letter (i, e, or ä). For example: velt, velťams, ledstnema. Instead of the final t the second-to-last consonant is marked as soft: avoľt, eŕamońt, čanśt.

⇒ All the consonants except s and z before e, ë, i, ï and ä are almost always soft and therefore are not marked as soft. For example: kel, vir, kirks.

⇒ All the consonants before suffixes such as -së, -stë, -sï, etc., are not marked as soft. For example: kalsë, sejedstë, nevtsï.

⇒ After all vowels except i and ï, the phoneme /j/ is written as i: kelei, not kelej. The phonemes /ji/ and /je/ are written as ji and je. For example: tejića, not teića, buje, not bue, but also judei, not iudej.

❗ Note: The transliteration tool supports only sentence case and lower case. UPPER CASE will not work correctly!