Editing Mari language (section)

=== Word order ===
Word order in Mari is [[subject–object–verb]].<ref name=":0">Saarinen, Sirkka, 'Mari', in [[Marianne Bakró-Nagy]], [[Johanna Laakso]], and Elena Skribnik (eds), ''The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages'' (Oxford, 2022; online edn, Oxford Academic, 23 June 2022), {{doi|10.1093/oso/9780198767664.003.0024}} , accessed 31 July 2023.</ref> This means that the object appears directly before the predicate.<ref name=":0" /> Word order in Mari is affected by information structure.<ref name=":0" /> However, the position of the verb is not affected.<ref name=":0" /> The focus position is directly before the verb. <ref name=":0" /> Subjects, objects, adverbial, and secondary predicate can appear in this position.<ref name=":0" /> The examples below quoted in Saarinen (2022)<ref name=":0" /> show the different elements that can appear in the focus position.

<section begin="list-of-glossing-abbreviations"/><div style="display:none;">
1PST:first preterite
2PST:second preterite
</div><section end="list-of-glossing-abbreviations"/>
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Element in the focus position 
!
|-
|Object  
|{{fs interlinear
|Чачи корно мучко '''Сакарым''' шонен кайыш.
|t͡ɕɑt͡ɕi korno mut͡ɕko '''sɑkɑr-əm''' ʃon-en kɑjə-ʃ
|Chachi road end-ILL.U '''Sakar-ACC''' think-CVB go-1PST.3SG
|'Chachi walked to the end of the road, while thinking of '''Sakar'''.'}}
|-
|Subject
|{{fs interlinear
|Школым '''мый''' ыштенам мо?
|ʃkol-əm '''məj''' əʃt-en-ɑm mo
|school-ACC '''1SG''' make-2PST-1SG Q
|'Was it '''I''' who built the school?'}}
|-
|Adverbial
|{{fs interlinear
|Игече келге '''шыжыш''' тошкалын.
|iget͡ɕe kelge '''ʃəʒə-ʃ''' toʃkɑl-ən
|weather deep '''autumn-ILL''' step-2PST.3SG
|'The weather changed to that '''of a true autumn'''.'}}
|-
|Secondary predicate
|{{fs interlinear
|Мам '''нулевой''' '''мычаш''' маныт?
|mɑ-m '''nuleβoj''' '''mət͡ʃɑʃ'''  mɑn-ət
|what-ACC '''zero''' '''ending''' say-3PL
|'Which (elements) are called '''zero endings'''?'}}
|}
Question particles мо /mo/ and ма /mɑ/ are clause-final.<ref name=":0" />

However, Georgieva et al. (2021) point out that Mari also allows backgrounded material to occur after the verb.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Georgieva |first1=Ekaterina |last2=Salzmann |first2=Martin |last3=Weisser |first3=Philipp |date=2021-05-01 |title=Negative verb clusters in Mari and Udmurt and why they require postsyntactic top-down word-formation |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-020-09484-w |journal=Natural Language & Linguistic Theory |language=en |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=457–503 |doi=10.1007/s11049-020-09484-w |s2cid=225270981 |issn=1573-0859|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Example taken from Georgieva et al. (2021)<ref name=":1" /> showing that backgrounded material can occur after the verb 
|-
|{{interlinear
|məj kert-am kušt-en
|1SG can-1SG dance-GER
|'I can dance (e.g. as opposed to you).}}
|}
Moving the verb to other positions in the sentence is possible for stylistic reasons or for emphasis.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Riese |first1=Timothy |url=https://mari-language.univie.ac.at/book.php?int=0 |title=A Comprehensive Introduction to the Mari Language |last2=Bradley |first2=Jeremy |last3=Yakimova |first3=Emma |last4=Krylova |first4=Galina |year=2017 |location=Department of Finno-Ugric Studies, University of Vienna}}</ref>