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Language Information
Mari is a Uralic language natively spoken by about 320,000(data: 2020, 400,000 in total) people in Russia. The speakers mainly live in the Mari Republic (Марий Эл), and also along the Vjatka river basin, eastwards to the Urals, as well as in Tatarstan, Udmurtia and Perm of the Russian Federation.
The language used to be known as Cheremis. There are two main varieties of Mari: Hill or Western Mari and Meadow or Eastern Mari. The Eastern variety is the most widely used. There are significant difference between the two varieties. Mari was proclaimed an official language of the Mari Republic, along with Russian, and is now taught in over 200 schools. In a number of colleges, other half the subjects are taught through the medium of Mari.
Mari is not currently taught on the IU campus. Learn more about Mari at omniglot and "languages of the world".