Erzya and Moksha — two distinct languages

Thousands of people search for the “Mordvin language”, a “Mordvin dictionary” or a “Mordvin translator”. The short answer: there is no single Mordvin language. “Mordvins” is an umbrella name for two peoples — the Erzya and the Moksha — and each speaks its own Finno-Ugric language: Erzya and Moksha.

The label “Mordvin” was an administrative convenience. Linguistically these are two literary languages, each with its own norms, spelling and literature; mutual intelligibility is limited.

So if you were looking for a “Mordvin dictionary”, you almost certainly need one of the two languages specifically. Valks is a dictionary of Erzya, the larger of the two: open the Erzya dictionary and translator →. Moksha is an equally real language — Valks simply focuses on Erzya.