Erzya Forums — internet forums where issues concerning the Erzya are discussed, and where one can find help and cultural support.

Erzianj.borda.ru

« - Semen: sergey writes: I have been living in an Erzya selo for a long time, but I don't see any particular "will to survive," any desire to preserve one's identity, in any of the residents.

- I'll name names. Pavel Lyubayev, an Erzya poet, is a native of Pikshen. Lyubov Doronina, director of the Chilisema ensemble. Nina Tsyganova — a schoolteacher's aide. Vasily Lyubayev — trying to write a history of the selo. There are others too...

- If you have difficulties with Erzya, I'll be glad to help. There are plenty of materials here to get started communicating in Erzya. Write in Erzya even with a dictionary — we'll understand. If you have a particular interest, we can try to discuss it in Erzya Language. Suggest a topic; at the current stage of the forum's development, politics doesn't appeal much to me — it's better to discuss ancient and modern culture. If you've listened to pop music in Erzya, we can discuss that. I was very pleased that even many chiryazy spoke positively about the new Erzya pop music. A chiryaz from Chuvashia told me in a personal conversation: "I will support young Erzya pop music singers in every way I can." A friend of mine once learned English through songs — through the Beatles' songs — and I think there will be people like that among the Erzya too.
 »


Melkuzho Erzyan Mastor

The main Erzya forum of the Runet was "Melkuzho Erzyan Mastor" — "Land of the Erzya" — running on the free FastBB engine at erzianj.borda.ru. It opened on November 22, 2006; the first post was the announcement "Yavolyavks. Erzыat, dy liya rasken yalgat! Uchan kulят" — "Erzya people and friends of other peoples, I await your news." By the time the forum closed, it had been read over six thousand times.[1][2]

There were about twenty sections, each named in two languages simultaneously — in Erzya and in Russian: "Erzyan' Inyazor / Grand Prince — Head of the Erzya People," "Paznyen' kemema / Religion," "Erzyan' kel' / Erzya Language," "Sedyamo-moramo koyt' / Musical Arts," "«Erzyan' Mastor» kulyalopas' / The «Erzyan Mastor» Newspaper," "Erzyan' Eriy lopa / Erzya LiveJournal," "Kie sakshños' toro marto Erzyan' Mastors / Who Came with a Sword to Erzyan Mastor." There was also a text version for mobile phones — the very one from which the conversation about Pikshen quoted above was taken.[1][3]

It all ended quietly. Meaningful conversations dried up by the mid-2010s, and in 2020 the section "Vesemeze erzyan' raskeden't'" — "Everything about the Erzya people" — was flooded with poker spam by a single user; dozens of identical posts were layered over an announcement from 2006. The address now returns an error, and the forum can only be read through web archive snapshots.[2]

Yavolyavks. Erzya't, dy liya rasken' yalgat! Uchan kulya't.

— the forum's first message, November 22, 2006[2]

Neighbors on the web

The forum was not alone. The website of the Erzyan Mastor newspaper — a publication of the A. P. Ryabov Foundation for the Salvation of the Erzya Language, which has been published in Saransk since September 1994 twice a month in Erzya and Russian — maintained an open archive of issues; the web archive preserves a run up to issue No. 428 from June 26, 2014. The newspaper's address itself has long been taken over by an unrelated company.[4][5]

In 2007, the portal "Erzyan' Rasken' Val'ma" at erzian.com was added to their number: a wiki encyclopedia running on the MediaWiki engine, a library, a photo gallery, a residents' database, and its own podcast. The portal lasted about a year and a half — by the summer of 2009 the domain was already listed for sale.[6]

A separate node was the "Erzya Journal" on LiveJournal, created on January 26, 2006: 275 entries and nearly three thousand comments received. Unlike the forum, it remains active to this day.[7]

This environment also carried civic narratives — for instance, the symbolic elections of the inyazor, the head of Erzyan Mastor: a post that has been held without interruption by journalist Grigory Musalyov.[8]

The Erzya Language Online

How large that audience was can be seen from search statistics: the query "Erzya-Mordovian language" generated around seven hundred impressions per month, with the bulk coming from Mordovia and Saint Petersburg — even though search engines typically make no distinction between the Mordovian languages and people simply type "Mordovian".[9]

By the mid-2010s, Erzya had accumulated a respectable set of digital resources: dictionaries, automatic spell-checking, a minimal text corpus, a digital library, a social media presence, online press, internet radio, and internet television. One thing was missing — digital educational resources.[10]

See also

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Forum "Melkuzho Erzyan Mastor / Land of the Erzya" at erzianj.borda.ru: section listing (first web archive snapshot, December 5, 2006) (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Section "Vesemeze erzyan raskedenʼ" at erzianj.borda.ru: announcement from November 22, 2006, and 2020 spam (web archive snapshot) (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Mobile text version of the forum, wap.erzianj.borda.ru (web archive snapshot, June 7, 2012) (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Masthead of the newspaper Erzyan Mastor: published by the A. P. Ryabov Foundation for the Preservation of the Erzya Language, in publication since September 1994 (web archive snapshot) (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Newspaper Erzyan Mastor at erzia.saransk.ru, archive of issues (web archive snapshot, June 7, 2012) (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — Portal "Erzyan Rasken Valma" at erzian.com: wiki encyclopedia, library, photo gallery, residents database, forum (web archive snapshot, July 6, 2008) (archive)
  7. erzianj-jurnal.livejournal.com — Profile of the "Erzya Journal" on LiveJournal: created January 26, 2006; 275 entries (archive)
  8. cyberleninka.ru — Bogatova O. A. Ethnicization of religion and sacralization of ethnicity in Mordovia. Bulletin of Leningrad State University named after A. S. Pushkin, 2019 (archive)
  9. cyberleninka.ru — Nekrasov A. N., Nekrasova G. A. Popularity and trends of Finno-Ugric languages on the Internet (Russian-language segment). Finno-Ugric World, 2015
  10. cyberleninka.ru — Fedina M. S. Finno-Ugric languages of the Russian Federation in the electronic information space. Finno-Ugric World, 2016