Features of the case system of the Erzya dialects of the Sura area

Introduction: the issue of studying the Prisursky dialects of Chuvashia is of particular importance for the study of the dialectal features of the Erzya language. The isolated development of these dialects made it possible to preserve the archaic phenomena of the ancient system of the proto-language and created conditions for the emergence of innovative phenomena. This work is a continuation of research in the field of the Mordovian dialect morphology. The article examines the case system of the noun in the Erzya dialect area. The case category of the linguistic area under study is analyzed, the structure of case forms is considered, the features of their use are revealed, and the new forms characteristic only of this dialectal landscape are described. Objective: identification of structural changes and features of the use of case forms of nouns in the dialects of the Chuvash Prisursky area. Research materials: field materials collected by the authors during linguistic expeditions in places of compact residence of the Erzya people of this area. Results and novelty of the research: the article provides the first comparative analysis of the dialect specificity of the case systems of the noun of the Erzya dialects of the Chuvash Prisursky area with the literary language and other dialects. As a result of the study of the dialects of this landscape, it was revealed that there are 13 cases in the case paradigm of the indefinite declension of the noun. The comitative with morphological markers -ks’ek / -s’ek / -c’ek / -n’ek / -nek acts as an independent case; the dative has a truncated form -n’e / -ne; in the inessive case, in addition to the morphological markers -so / -se, an ancient variant -sne is recorded, which is realized in words with a base on hissing and sibilant consonants. It has been established that dialectal variation of case suffixes is associated with the preservation of archaic suffixes and suffix combinations. In this area, several nouns with the formant -zaj have been recorded, indicating a separate object from a set of similar objects, for example: kudo-zaj ‘in each house (of all these houses)’. The scientific novelty lies in the introduction of new dialect data into scientific circulation, which contributes to further study of the morphological features of the Erzya language.