The Inflectional Potential of a Noun in the Payovsko-Adashevsky Accents of the Moksha Language

The research is the result of a study in the field of the Moksha dialectology. A number of scholars, in Russia and abroad, studied the dialects of the Moksha language. They are A. Reguly, H. Paasonen, V. Steinitz, E. Itkonen, D.V. Bubrich, R. Bartens, Yu.N. Azrapkin, K.I. Ananyin, A.P. Feoktistov, S.Z. Devaev, G.S. Ivanova and others. However, the full description of Moksha dialects has not yet been presented. It first of all concerns a certain group of Moksha accents, the Payovsko-Adashevsky accents, which have not been previously examined in detail. The Payovsko-Adashevsky accents of the Moksha language are common in the southern part of the Republic of Mordovia on the territory of the Insarsky, Kadoshkinsky, Kovylkinsky regions. The purpose of this study is to provide a detailed description of the word-changing potential of a noun in the Paevsko-Adashevsky dialects of the Mokshan language and, based on them, to distinguish them from among the other dialects of the Moksha language. The methodological basis is the main provisions of the inflection theory of both foreign and domestic researchers. The key method is the synchronous description method. It presupposes direct observation, analysis, classification of linguistic facts. The inter-dialectal study involved the comparative analysis method. The comparative historical method was also employed as a means of restoring certain historical aspects. The accents of the Moksha language differ from each other in phonetic, morphological and lexical features. And that is directly related to the territorial disunity of the Moksha caused by migration processes. The analysis of the dialectal material showed that there are no pronounced boundaries for the spread of this or that linguistic phenomenon. The Payovsko-Adashevsky accents have features typical of different dialects of the Moksha language: central, southeastern, western, transitional. However, they are unique due to the fact that they have a specific inflectional potential, which allows them to set them apart from other accents and define them as a separate group in the system of Moksha dialects.

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