Traces of Tatar in the language biographies of Mari speakers in Bashkortostan

This article presents the results of fieldwork conducted with Mari speakers residing in Bashkortostan, focusing on their use of the Tatar language. A comprehensive sociolinguistic survey was conducted in the spring of 2024, aimed at describing the current linguistic situation in the Mari community in the Mishkinо district of Bashkortostan. Data was collected from the linguistic biographies of one hundred respondents and representatives of the older generations in their families. The author examines the circumstances in which Maris in Bashkortostan learn Tatar and identifies factors (economic, cultural, etc.) contributing to close language contact between Tatars and Maris in Bashkortostan over the past several centuries. Knowledge of the Tatar language, which served as a lingua franca in areas where Tatars and Maris lived in close proximity to each other, used to be taken for granted. Language biographies gathered from the survey participants in the Mari community of Bashkortostan revealed a decreasing tendency (from generation to generation) to know Tatar well. A few elderly respondents indicated proficiency in Tatar, some middle-aged respondents claimed to have a passive understanding of Tatar, but younger respondents did not mention Tatar at all in the set of languages that their older family members may have spoken. The author attempts to identify factors that significantly impacted the nature of Mari-Tatar language contact, leading to the replacement of Tatar by Russian.