Evolution of consonant combinations of a Finno-Ugric word’s stem in the Mordovian languages

Introduction: the article presents a comparative analysis of phonetic structure of a word’s stem on the material of the Mordovian (Moksha and Erzya) and Baltic-Finnish (Finnish and Estonian) languages. Particular interest of the study is the study of changes that occurred in the structure of consonant combinations and affected the state of the structure of the Finno- Ugric word’s stem. Objective: on the basis of a comparative method to study the phonetic changes that occurred in the combinations of consonants in the nominal and verbal stems of Finno-Ugric origin in the middle of the word, and to determine the preserved degrees of identity of the ancient Finno-Ugric word-formation stem. Research materials: the nominal and verbal word stems of modern Mordovian (Moksha and Erzya) languages, considered from the point of view of the comparative and historical method, as well as their etymological correspondences in the Baltic-Finnish (Finnish and Estonian) languages, revealed by the method of continuous sampling from etymological dictionaries. Results and novelty of the research: the article presents a detailed description of the development of consonant combinations in the Finno-Ugric word stem; the differences that arose in the common stems in the modern Mordovian, Finnish and Estonian languages as a result of separate development are revealed; the reasons transforming the structure of the Proto-Finno-Ugric word stem are identified. The relevance of the study is determined by the lack of knowledge of the structure of the Finno-Ugric word stem on the material of the Mordovian languages, as well as the need to identify additional data required for further in-depth study of the phonemic and morphemic levels of the Mordovian (Moksha and Erzya) languages. It will help to more fully describe certain aspects of both Finno-Ugric and Mordovian linguistics. The novelty of the study lies in the absence of comparative works devoted to the study of the phonemic structure of the Finno-Ugric word stem with the use of materials of closely related (Moksha and Erzya) and distantly related (Finnish and Estonian) languages at the same time.