as residing south of
Kasimov and
Nizhny Novgorod While
Robert G. Latham had identified
Mordva as a self-designation, identifying it as a variant of the name
Mari,
Aleksey Shakhmatov in the early 20th century noted that
Mordva was not used as a self-designation by the two Mordvinic
tribes of the Erzya and Moksha. Nikolai Mokshin again states that the term has been used by the people as an internal self-defining term to constitute their common origin. The linguist underlines that the Mordvins do not use the name 'Mordvins' as a self-designation. Feoktistov wrote "So-called Tengushev Mordvins are Erzyans who speak the Erzyan dialect with Mokshan substratum and in fact they are an ethnic group of Erzyans usually referred to as
Shokshas. It was the Erzyans who historically were referred to as Mordvins, and Mokshas usually were mentioned separately as "Mokshas". There is no evidence Mokshas and Erzyas were an ethnic unity in prehistory". Isabelle T. Keindler writes:Gradually major differences developed in customs, language and even physical appearance (until their conversion to Christianity the Erzia and Moksha did not intermarry and even today intermarriage is rare.) The two subdivisions of Mordvinians share no folk heroes in common – their old folksongs sing only of local heroes. Neither language has a common term to designate either themselves or their language. When a speaker wishes to refer to Mordvinians as a whole, he must use the term "Erzia and Moksha"
Early references The ethnonym
Mordva is possibly attested in
Jordanes'
Getica in the form of
Mordens who, he claims, were among the subjects of the Gothic king
Ermanaric. A land called
Mordia at a distance of ten days journey from the
Petchenegs is mentioned in
Constantine VII's
De administrando imperio. In medieval European sources, the names
Merdas, Merdinis, Merdium, Mordani, Mordua, Morduinos have appeared. In the Russian
Primary Chronicle, the ethnonyms
Mordva and
mordvichi first appeared in the 11th century. After the
Mongol invasion of Rus', the name Mordvin rarely gets mentioned in Russian annals, and is only quoted after the Primary Chronicle up until the 15th–17th centuries.
Etymologies The name
Mordva is thought to originate from an
Iranian (
Scythian) word,
mard, meaning "man" (
Persian مرد). The Mordvin word
mirde denoting a husband or spouse is traced to the same origin. This word is also probably related to the final syllable of "
Udmurt", and also in and perhaps even in . The first written mention of
Erzya is considered to be in a letter dated to 968 AD, by
Joseph, the
Khazar khagan, in the form of
arisa. More controversially, it is sometimes linked to the
Aorsy and
Alanorsi mentioned in the works of
Strabo and
Ptolemy. (However, the consensus view is that the
Alans, a nomadic Iranian tribe from east Central Asia, were also known as the
Aorsi/Alanorsi.)
Estakhri, from the 10th century, has recorded among the three groups of the
Rus people the
al-arsanija, whose king lived in the town of
Arsa. The people have sometimes been identified by scholars as Erzya, sometimes as the
aru people, and also as
Udmurts. It has been suggested by historians that the town
Arsa may refer to either the modern
Ryazan or
Arsk and as
rzjan by Jusuf, the Nogaj khan In Russian sources, the ethnonym Erza first appears in the 18th century.
Restoration of Erzya and Moksha ethnonyms Mokshas from wrote a collective open letter to
Literaturnaya Gazeta in 1991. On the First Erzya and Moksha Peoples' Congress in 1989 the first point of the Congress Declaration was renaming
Mordovia to the Erzya and Moksha Autonomous Republic and banning the term
Mordva.{{cite journal|last1=Nadkin|first1=Dmitry|title=Erzya and Moksha Spiritual Culture and Issues of "Homeland" Society. Insights from the Report of the First Moksha and Erzya Congress ==History==