Muromian language

Muromian is an extinct Uralic^[1] language formerly spoken by the Muromian tribe, in what is today the Murom region in Russia.^[2] They are mentioned by Jordanes as Mordens and in the Primary Chronicle. Very little is known about the language, but it was probably closely related to the Mordvinic languages Moksha and Erzya.^[3] Muromian probably became extinct in the Middle Ages around the 10th century,^[3][4] as the Muromians were assimilated by the Slavs.^[5] The Muromian language^[6] is unattested, but is assumed to have been Uralic, and has frequently been placed in the Volga-Finnic category.^[7][8][9]

Muromian
Muromanian
Native to	Russia
Region	Murom region
Ethnicity	Muromians
Extinct	10th century
Language family	Uralic Mordvinic?/Merya? Muromian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Linguist List	0te
An approximate map of the non-Varangian cultures in European Russia, in the 9th century. The Muromian area is shown in bright green.

Toponymy

A. K. Matveyev identified the toponymic area upon Lower Oka and Lower Klyazma, which corresponds with Muroma. According to the toponymy, the Muroma language was close to the Merya language.^[10] A few words have been reconstructed in the Muroma language, based on toponyms, such as: *juga 'river', *vi̮ksa ‘river connecting two bodies of water', and *voht(V) ‘neck of land between two bodies of water’.^[11]