Mari lesson 1 - alphabet and pronunciation
Mari uses a modified version of the cyrillic alphabet. The alphabet presented here is that of Meadow Mari, but later on we’ll be introducing you also to the Hill Mari alphabet. From now on in this post, the term Mari will be used to refer to Meadow Mari for the sake of simplicity.
а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н ҥ о ӧ п р с т у ӱ ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я
Now, let’s take a look at how those bois are pronounced. Much like many of its relatives, the language is rather phonetic so once you know the sound the letters make separately, you just need few extra rules to be able to pronounce pretty much any word correctly.
In Mari there are the following consonant sounds:
(letter - example word with link to forvo (translation) - IPA - approximate sound)
б - ӱмбал (sour cream) - /b/ - the b in “big”
в - вӱд (water) - /v~β/ - either the v in “vast” or the b in the spanish “libre”
г - туге (yes) - /g~ɣ/ - either the g in “give” or the g in the spanish “amigo”
ж - жап (time) - /ʒ/ - the si in “vision”
з - рвезе (boy) - /z/ - the z in “zoo”
й - йӱр (rain) - /j/ - the y in “yo-yo”
к - кол (fish) - /k/ - the ck in “thick”
л - лум (snow) - /l/ - the l in “live”
м - муно (egg) - /m/ - the m in “move”
н - нимо (nothing) - /n/ - the n in “name”
ҥ - таҥ (friend) - /ŋ/ - the ng in “hang”
п - пырыс (cat) - /p/ - the p in “tape”
р - рис (rice) - /r/ - no equivalent in english, the rr in the spanish “perro”
с - сераш (to write) - /s/ - the s in “say”
т - теле (winter) - /t/ - the t in “put”
ф* - флаг (flag) - /f/ - the f in “find”
х* - характер (character) - /x/ - no equivalent in english, the russian х
ц* - центр (center) - /t͡s/ - the ts in “cats”
ч - чӱчӱ (uncle) - /t͡ɕ/ - no equivalent in english, somewhat similar to the ch in “choose”
ш - шочмо (monday) - /ʃ/ - the sh in “ship”
щ* - щит (shield) - /ɕ/ - no equivalent in english, the russian щ
* Used only in Russian loanwords
Also note, that д, when followed by a consonant or in word-final position is pronounced as /t/.
The Mari language contains the following vowel sounds:
(letter - example word with link to forvo (translation) - IPA - approximate sound)
а - ача (father) - /a/ - like the a in “palm” but shorter
э - эр (morning) - /е/ - like the english e in “get”
и - икте (one) - /i/ - the ea in “easy” but shorter
o - мотор (beautiful) - /o/ - like the o in “door” but shorter
ӧ - мӧҥгӧ (home) - /ø/ - like the i in “bird” but shorter
у - уна (guest) - /u/ - the oo in “boot” but shorter
ӱ - ӱдыр (girl) - /y/ - no english equivalent, the german ü
ы - пырыс (cat) - /ɤ̘/ - like the final e in “heaven”
You might now be wondering why е, ё, ю and я weren’t covered. Well, the reason is that they don’t have their own sounds but instead basically have a й-sound before the vowel sound, like there is one before o in the english “yolk”. Thus, ё is й+о, ю is й+у and я is й+а. It is worth noting that ю and я palatalize preceding н and л, and that ё is only found in Russian loanwords and in native Mari words йо is used instead. While е basically is й+э, that’s not all there is to it. э is used only in the beginning of words and before vowels, otherwise /e/ is marked simply with е. Thus, миен is pronounced /mijem/ while толем is /tolem/ and not /toljem/.
In addition, there are two letters, ь and ъ, that have no sound value of their own, but are still essential for pronouncing Mari correctly. ь, the soft sign, is simple - it indicates that the previous letter is palatalized. ъ, the hard sign, is used only in compound words where the first word ends in a consonant and the second one starts with e, я, or ю where it separates the two parts of the compound. In case of е, it indicates a syllable break and thus, shows that the letter is pronounced as /je/ instead of /e/.
The stress in Mari doesn’t always fall on some set syllable, but that doesn’t mean it’d be in any way random or arbitrary. The stress falls on the last full vowel of the word, meaning vowels apart from ы, and е, о and ö in word-final position. If there are no full vowels in the word, the stress falls on the first vowel. Thus, the words пырыс (cat), теле (winter), олма (apple) and толет (you steal) have the following stresses (bolding indicating stressed vowel): пырыс, теле, олма and толет.
Word-final е, о and ö are to an extent reduced in pronunciation, so basically pronounced closer to ы. Later on, once we get to the cases, you’ll become very familiar with what that means in practice.
