Editing Mari language (section)

== Dialects ==
[[File:Mari language dialect map.svg|thumb|right|400px|The four main dialects of Mari:
{{legend|chocolate|Hill Mari}}
{{legend|#d7d700|Northwestern Mari}}
{{legend|violet|Meadow Mari}}
{{legend|royalblue|Eastern Mari}}]]
The principal division between Mari varieties is the West and the East. According to the Soviet linguist Kovedyaeva (1976:9-15, 1993:163-164) the Mari macrolanguage is divided into four main dialects:
* [[Hill Mari language|Hill Mari]], spoken mainly on the right upper bank of the Volga River around [[Kozmodemyansk]] (hence the name), but also on the left bank and in the mouth of [[Vetluga River|Vetluga]].
* [[Northwestern Mari language|Northwestern Mari]]
* [[Meadow Mari language|Meadow Mari]], spoken on the left Volgan bank on the central and eastern plain ("meadow") of Mari El around the republican capital, [[Yoshkar-Ola]].
* [[Eastern Mari language|Eastern Mari]] is scattered to the east of Mari El from [[Vyatka River|Vyatka]] through [[Kama River|Kama]] to [[Ufa River|Ufa]].
Each main dialect is divided into their own smaller local subdialects. Only Hill and Meadow Mari have their own literary written standard varieties, based on the dialects of Kozmodemyansk and Yoshkar-Ola respectively.

Eastern and Meadow Mari are often united as a Meadow-Eastern [[supra-dialect]]. Northwestern Mari is transitional between the Hill and Meadow dialects, and its phonology and morphology are closer to Hill Mari.