Komi-Permyak language^[2] (перем коми кыв [ˈperem ˈkomi kɨv]^[3] or коми-пермяцкӧй кыв [ˈkomi perˈmʲɑtskəj kɨv]), also known as Permyak, is one of two Permic varieties in the Uralic language family that form a pluricentric language, the other being Komi-Zyryan (Udmurt is another Permic language spoken outside of the region and not a member of the Komi pluricentric language).

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Quick Facts Permyak, Native to ...

Permyak
коми-пермяцкӧй кыв komi-permyacköj kyv
Native to	Russia
Region	Perm Krai, Kirov Oblast
Native speakers	63,000 (2010 census)[1]
Language family	Uralic Permic Komi Permyak
Language codes
ISO 639-3	koi
Glottolog	komi1269
ELP	Komi-Permyak
Traditional distribution of the Komi languages
Permyak is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)
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The Komi-Permyak language, spoken in Perm Krai of Russia and written using the Komi Cyrillic alphabet, was co-official with Russian in the Komi-Permyak Okrug of the Perm Krai.

The original name of the Komi-Permyak language is коми кыв "Komi language", identical with the native name of the Komi-Zyryan language.

In the 1920s, the Soviet authorities introduced the new name for the Komi language in the Perm Region as коми-пермяцкий язык, the Komi-Permian language, combining the native name of the language with the Russian one. The new name was transliterated in Komi as коми-пермяцкöй кыв 'Komi-Permyak language'. In this way, the local language was nominally separated from the Komi-Zyryan language, that officially received the original name, the Komi language. The Komis of the Perm Region had to officially use the new name, even though it has negative connotations for the speakers, continuing to use the original name, the Komi language, exclusively in their colloquial speech.

Only in the early years of the first decade of the 2000s has there begun a controversial process of replacing the offensive official name with a more correct one. The term перем коми кыв 'Permian Komi language' was proposed and it is used nowadays (alongside the old term) in local mass-media, in scientific papers and in the Komi-Permyak version of Wikipedia.

All of the Komi-Permyak dialects are easily mutually intelligible and, to a lesser extent, mutually intelligible with the Komi-Zyryan dialects.

The Komi-Permyak dialects might be divided geographically into Northern and Southern groups, and phonemically into /l/ and /v/ groups:^[4]

1. Northern
   • /l/ type: лым /lɨm/ "snow", вӧл /vɘl/ "a horse", вӧлтӧг /vɘltɘg/ "without a horse", вӧлӧн /vɘlɘn/ "with a horse, on a horse"
     • Upper Lupya
     • Mysy (former rural council)
     • Kosa-Kama
     • Kochevo
     • Zyuzdino (Afanasyevo)
     • Yazva
2. Southern
   • /v/ type: вым /vɨm/, вӧв /vɘv/, вӧвтӧг /vɘvtɘg/, вӧвӧн /vɘvɘn/
     • Kudymkar-Inva
     • Lower Inva
   • Southern /l/ type: лым /lɨm/, вӧл /vɘl/, вӧлтӧг /vɘltɘg/, вӧлӧн /vɘlɘn/
     • On
     • Nerdva

Formerly a southern dialect group existed in the Obva river basin, but it is now extinct except for the Nerdva dialect. Because of this the latter is nowadays usually considered together with the central group, which in this way has become "southern".

The central (new southern) and northern groups of Komi-Permyak are spoken in Komi Okrug of Perm Krai, where the language was standardized in the 1920s. The modern standard is based on Kudymkar dialect of the central group, but many elements of northern dialects were included as well, so that the "literary language" has significant differences in its morphological system from the "main" dialect.

The central dialects, spoken in the Ińva river basin, differ considerably from the other Komi-Permyak dialects due to the general shift of etymological /l/ to /v/, then to /w/, and finally to the disappearance of the consonant, which has triggered significant changes in morphology.

The differences between the Kudymkar and Uliś Ińva dialects are mainly in accentuation: the Uliś Ińva has a phonological stress (the Öń too), whereas the Kudymkar dialect (like as Ńerdva) has a morphological one. The Ńerdva dialect retains the etymological /l/. The same can be said about the Öń dialect (recently extinct), that had connections with the eastern Permian.^[5]

The northern group of the Permian dialects (upon Kösva, Kama and Lup rivers) was under a strong Zyryan influence on all levels. The Köć and Kös dialects are closely related with some Syktyv dialects of Zyryan, whereas the Lup dialect was in tenuous connections with the Upper Ezhva dialect for a long time.

The Komi-Permyak standard language refers only to the central and northern groups of the Komi-Permyak dialects. They can be called as proper Permian dialects.^{[by whom?]} The other two groups are marginal.

An only relic of the eastern Permian is the Yaźva dialect, ca. 200 speakers of the ca. 900 ethnical Komis in Krasnovishersky District of Perm Krai. In the early 2000s (decade) it was standardized by authority of the krai. The dialect has archaic system of vowels (including /ö/, /ü/ and /ʌ/), while its accentuation is similar to Uliś Ińva's and its lexical system is like the Northern Permian one.

The Western Permian group is represented by another marginal dialect, Źuźdin (ca. 1000 persons living in Kirov Oblast near the border of Komi Okrug).

In the Komi-Permyak standard language there are the same 26 main consonants and 7 vowels as in Komi-Zyryan.

Both regional standards of the Komi language have an identical alphabet, introduced in 1938. The alphabet (anbur, анбур) includes all the Russian letters plus two additional graphemes: і and ӧ.

Komi-Permyak is an agglutinating language. It uses affixes to express possession, to specify mode, time, and so on.

• Fedosejeva, Jelena. "Замечания по лексикологии коми-пермяцкого языка (с этимологиями)" [Some Lexicological Remarks on the Komi-Permyak Language]. In: Linguistica Uralica 53, nr. 3, 2017. pp. 179–185. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.3176/lu.2017.3.02
• Kochetov, Alexei, and Alevtina Lobanova. “Komi-Permyak Coronal Obstruents: Acoustic Contrasts and Positional Variation”. In: Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37, no. 1 (2007): 51–82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44526448.