member of the Finno-Ugric division of the Uralic language family, spoken primarily in the Mari El republic, Russia. The three major dialects of Mari are the Meadow dialect, spoken in Mari El and north of the Volga River; the Mountain (Hill) dialect, spoken mostly south of the Volga, between the Volga and Sura rivers (Chuvashiya republic); and the Eastern dialect, spoken around the Kama River. The Meadow and Mountain dialects are quite similar, but each has produced a distinct literary language. The linguistic and cultural history of Mari has been closely tied to that of its closest Uralic neighbours, Mordvin and the Permic languages—Udmurt, Komi, and Permyak. There were more than 500,000 Mari speakers in the late 20th century.