Learn Erzya

About the spelling

The 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/	ärźa, äŕva, täv	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, ćanav, kraveć	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, tarad	д
Ď ď	/dʲ/ ~ /ɟ/	keď, viďga, boďa	дь
E e	/e/, after č, š, ž sometimes — /ɛ/	eŕva, tev, vete	е
Ë ë	/ɛ/	sëvems, pizë, kedsë	э
F f	/f/	forma, fiľma, finnëń	ф
G g	/ɡ/	guj, gajgića, 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/	sïveľ, sastïne, mazïj	ы
J j	/j/	jorok, mijav, kelej	й
K k	/k/	kev, kiŕksala, kurok	к
L l	/l/, before ä, e, i — /lʲ/	lavś, veleń, al	л
Ľ ľ	/lʲ/	ľomźor, keľ, sejeľ	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	/ɲ/	ńaka, izńams, veń	нь
O o	/o/	ortat, porems, toro	о
P p	/p/	pizë, opańa, škap	п
R r	/r/, before ä, e, i — /rʲ/	rakša, krenč, mastor	р
Ŕ ŕ	/rʲ/	pŕa, keŕme, viŕ	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, leťke, kuvať	ть
U u	/u/	utom, kudo, ućaska	у
(Ŭ ŭ)	/w/	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: eŕamo, inže, vešića.

➢ 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: čansť, velťams, ledstnema.

➢ Soft consonants before suffixes such as -së, -stë, -sï, etc., are not marked as soft. For example: virsë, sejedstë, nevtsï.

➢ The phonemes /ji/ and /je/ are written as ji and je. For example: tejića, not teića, buje, not bue, but also judej, not iudej.

❗ Note that the transliteration tool supports only Sentence case and lower case. UPPER CASE will not work correctly!