It is spoken primarily in the Mari Republic of the Russian Federation, as well as in the area along the Vyatka river basin and eastwards to the Urals.

The latter is predominant and spans the continuum Meadow Mari to Eastern Mari from the Republic into the Ural dialects of Bashkortostan, Sverdlovsk Oblast and Udmurtia), whereas the former, Hill Mari, shares a stronger affiliation with the Northwestern dialect (spoken in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and parts of the Kirov Oblast).

The use of two "variants", as opposed to two "languages", has been debated: Maris recognize the unity of the ethnic group, and the two forms are very close, but distinct enough to cause some problems with communication.

[citation needed] The Mari language and people were known as "Cheremis" (Russian: черемисы, черемисский язык, cheremisy, cheremisskiy yazyk).

In medieval texts the variant forms Sarmys and Tsarmys are also found, as well as Tatar: Чирмеш, romanized: Çirmeş; and Chuvash: Ҫармӑс, Śarmăs before the Russian Revolution.

There was no state support for Mari language in Imperial Russia, and with the exception of some enthusiasts and numerous ecclesiastical texts by the Russian Orthodox Church, there was almost no education in Mari language.

After the October Revolution, there was a period of support of all lesser national cultures in the Soviet Union, but eventually Russification returned.

The period of glasnost and perestroika in the 1990s opened opportunities for a revival of efforts expand the use of Mari in education and the public sphere.

Only Hill and Meadow Mari have their own literary written standard varieties, based on the dialects of Kozmodemyansk and Yoshkar-Ola respectively.

The schwa /ə/ and its fronted counterpart are usually transcribed in Finno-Ugric transcription as ə̑ (reduced mid unrounded vowel) and ə (reduced front unrounded vowel) respectively.

The former has sometimes been transcribed in IPA as /ɤ/, but phonetically the vowel is most strongly distinguished by its short duration and reduced quality.

For example, пӧ́рт (pört, "house") гыч (gəč, "out of") ([ˈpørt ɣɤt͡ʃ]); or му́ро (muro, "song") дене (dene, "with") ([ˈmuro ðene]).

Consonants are shown in Cyrillic, Latin, and the IPA: Like several other Uralic languages, Mari has vowel harmony.

[8] The examples below quoted in Saarinen (2022)[8] show the different elements that can appear in the focus position.

1PST:first preterite 2PST:second preterite Чачиt͡ɕɑt͡ɕiChachiкорноkornoroadмучкоmut͡ɕkoend-ILL.UСакарымsɑkɑr-əmSakar-ACCшоненʃon-enthink-CVBкайыш.kɑjə-ʃgo-1PST.3SGЧачи корно мучко Сакарым шонен кайыш.t͡ɕɑt͡ɕi korno mut͡ɕko sɑkɑr-əm ʃon-en kɑjə-ʃChachi road end-ILL.U Sakar-ACC think-CVB go-1PST.3SG'Chachi walked to the end of the road, while thinking of Sakar.'

Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);Школымʃkol-əmschool-ACCмыйməj1SGыштенамəʃt-en-ɑmmake-2PST-1SGмо?moQШколым мый ыштенам мо?ʃkol-əm məj əʃt-en-ɑm moschool-ACC 1SG make-2PST-1SG Q'Was it I who built the school?

'Игечеiget͡ɕeweatherкелгеkelgedeepшыжышʃəʒə-ʃautumn-ILLтошкалын.toʃkɑl-ənstep-2PST.3SGИгече келге шыжыш тошкалын.iget͡ɕe kelge ʃəʒə-ʃ toʃkɑl-ənweather deep autumn-ILL step-2PST.3SG'The weather changed to that of a true autumn.

[8] However, Georgieva et al. (2021) point out that Mari also allows backgrounded material to occur after the verb.

[9] məj1SGkert-amcan-1SGkušt-endance-GERməj kert-am kušt-en1SG 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.

[8] However, Saarinen (2022) notes that in dialects and with verbs such as йӱкты- /jyktə-/ 'water' and пукшы- /pukʃə-/ 'feed' both objects appear in the accusative case.

[8] Observation: Note that the accent mark, which denotes the place of stress, is not used in actual Mari orthography.