Editing Moksha language (section)

== Sociolinguistics ==

=== Official status ===
[[File:Trilingual street sign in Saransk.jpg|thumb|A trilingual street sign in [[Saransk]], Russia showing a street name in [[Russian language|Russian]], Moksha and [[Erzya language|Erzya]]]]
Moksha is one of the three official languages in [[Mordovia]] (the others being Erzya and Russian). The right to one's own language is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Mordovia Republic.<ref>{{in lang|ru}} [http://constitution.garant.ru/region/cons_mordov/chapter/1/#block_1300 Статья 12. Конституция Республики Мордовия] = Article 12. Constitution of the Republic of Mordovia</ref> The republican law of Mordovia N&nbsp;19-3 issued in 1998<ref>{{in lang|ru}} [http://rus-gos.spbu.ru/public/files/bills/12_5391ba1e366c0.pdf Закон «О государственных языках Республики Мордовия»]</ref> declares Moksha one of its state languages and regulates its usage in various spheres: in state bodies such as Mordovian Parliament, official documents and seals, education, mass-media, information about goods, geographical names, road signs. However, the actual usage of Moksha and Erzya is rather limited.

=== Revitalisation efforts in Mordovia ===
Policies regarding the [[Language revitalization|revival]] of the Moksha and Erzya languages in Mordovia started in the late 1990s, when the Language, and Education Laws were accepted. From the early 2000s on, the policy goal has been to create a  unified Mordvin standard language despite differences between Erzya and Moksha.<ref>{{Citation |last=Zamyatin |first=Konstantin |title=Language policy in Russia: The Uralic languages |date=2022-03-24 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/43672/chapter/366300469 |work=The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages |pages=79–90 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198767664.003.0005 |isbn=978-0-19-876766-4 |access-date=2022-10-18|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

However, there have been no executive programmes for the implementation of the Language Law. Only about a third of Mordvin students had access to Mordvin language learning, the rest of whom are educated through Russian. Moksha has been used as the medium of instruction in some rural schools, but the number of students attending those schools is in rapid decline. In 2004, Mordovian authorities attempted to introduce compulsory study of the Mordvin/Moksha as one of the Republic's official languages, but this attempt failed in the aftermath of the 2007 education reform in Russia.