Mari Men and Women as Bearers of the Mari Language and Identity

N.Glukhova, V.Glukhov

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Decisions from the "Conception Education in Mari El", the program "National Schools", and the "Language Law" are either under development or have been implemented. 

At present the Mari languages and literature are being taught in 226 schools (the  Mari languages are studied as their mother tongue by 21.6% of schoolchildren), the  history of Mari culture in 406 schools (93% of all schoolchildren). As the state  languages of the Republic of Mari El, they are taught in 184 Russian language  schools (to 35,126 schoolchildren, 37.1%), in 284 kindergartens, in 10 secondary  specialized educational establishments. It is also an optional subject in secondary  schools, in teachers' training colleges, at the college of arts and culture (Danilova  2000:151-154; Shvetsova, 2002:16-17). 

Higher education in the mother tongue can be obtained only at the History and  Philology Department of the Mari State University and the Philology Faculty of the  Krupskaya Teachers' Training Institute. There, more than half of the disciplines of the  curriculum are taught in Mari. 

Despite certain positive changes, the Mari languages have a relatively restricted use  in the mass media of the Republic. There are 4 national, 13 regional newspapers and  4 magazines in Mari. Due to economic circumstances there is a considerable  shortage in the circulation of printed mass media. For example, before the congress  of "Mari Ushem" (Mari Union) at the beginning of the 1990.s its activists organized  the publication of the newspaper "Mari Chang" (Mari Bell) (2,000 issues). The  newspaper has been irregularly published since that time in 1 to 2 issues every year  and at certain periods has not appeared at all. The newspaper "Kugarnya" (Friday) was initiated in 1991 and since that time has come to its readers regularly once a week, but the number of its issues has been reduced from 5,000 to 3,500 in January 2000, 3,217 in 2001 and 1,617 at present). The newspaper "Eryk" (Freedom) whose founder is "Kugeze Mlande" (Forefathers' Land) appeared in 1993. The circulation of the first two issues was 1,000 copies. Only a few editions have been published with a limited number of copies (Efimova 2000:146-147). The leading national newspaper is "Mari El". This newspaper has continued the traditions of "Mari Kommuna". At present it has 8,736 subscribers. Regional newspapers such as"Shernur vel" have 1,464 issues, "Morko mlande" - 1,159. Mari readers in Bashkiria subscribe to the newspaper "Cholman" (4,932 subscribers in 2002). There  is "Gornomariiskaya gazeta" in Russian (2,138) and "Zherä" in Hill Mari (1908  subscribers in 2002). 

The same situation can be observed in book publication. As of 2000 only fiction has  been published in Mari. Not more than five books in Mari per hundred persons are  published today. In 2000 with the financial help of the Finnish government several  textbooks for schools and higher educational establishments were published.  Nevertheless it is practically impossible to find technical, scientific, or philosophical  books written in Mari. Their lack testifies to the absence of a scientific-technical style  in the system of functional styles of the Mari languages. 

The oral transmission of information in Mari takes places through radio broadcasts  and TV programs.At present the radio programs in the Mari languages last only 20  hours and 10 minutes and the television programs in Mari 12 hours and 10 minutes  per week (Ivanov 2000:158). 

The Mari literary languages are better known by the representatives of town Mari  intelligentsia (born and brought up in villages), both men and women, working in  educational establishments or in governmental bodies. In the countryside womenare  the preservers and disseminators of the languages. The average age of men in the  Russian Federation is 59 years, women live longer - they survive their male partners  by 13 years (72).

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