Votic language

Votic is one of numerous Finnic varieties known from Ingria. Votic shares some similarities with and has acquired loanwords from the adjacent Ingrian language, but also has deep-reaching similarities with Estonian to the west, which is considered its closest relative. Some linguists, including Tiit-Rein Viitso and Paul Alvre,[5] have claimed that Votic evolved specifically from northeastern dialects of ancient Estonian.[6] Votic regardless exhibits several features that indicate its distinction from Estonian (both innovations such as the palatalisation of velar consonants and a more developed system of cases, and retentions such as vowel harmony). According to Estonian linguist Paul Ariste, Votic was distinct from other Finnic languages, such as Finnish and Estonian, as early as the 6th century AD and has evolved independently ever since.

Isoglosses setting Votic apart from the other Finnic languages include:

• Loss of initial *h
• Palatalization of *k to /tʃ/ before front vowels. This was a relatively late innovation, not found in Kreevin Votic or Kukkuzi Votic.
• Lenition of the clusters *ps, *ks to /hs/
• Lenition of the cluster *st to geminate /sː/

Features shared with Estonian and the other southern Finnic languages include:

• Loss of word-final *n
• Shortening of vowels before *h
• Introduction of /ɤ/ from backing of *e before a back vowel
• Development of *o to /ɤ/ in certain words (particularly frequent in Votic)
• Loss of /h/ after a sonorant (clusters *lh *nh *rh)

A map of Votic and neighbouring Ingrian-Finnish and Izhorian villages 1848–2007

In the 19th century Votic was already declining in favour of Russian (there were around 1,000 speakers of the language by the start of the World War I). After the Bolshevik Revolution, under Lenin, Votic had a brief revival period, with the language being taught at local schools and the first-ever grammar of Votic (Jõgõperä/Krakolye dialect) being published. But after Joseph Stalin came into power, the language began to decline. World War II had a devastating effect on the Votic language, with the number of speakers considerably decreased as a result of military offensives, deliberate destruction of villages by Nazi troops, forced migration to the Klooga concentration camp in Estonia and to Finland under the Nazi government, and the Stalinist policy of "dispersion" immediately after the war against the families whose members had been sent to Finland under the Nazi government. Since then, the Votes have largely concealed their Votic identity, pretending to be Russians in the predominantly Russian environment. But they continued to use the language at home and when talking to family members and relatives. After the death of Stalin, the Votes were no longer mistreated and many of those who had been sent away returned to their villages. But the language had considerably declined and the number of bilingual speakers increased. Because Votic was stigmatised as a language of "uneducated villagers", Votic speakers avoided using it in public and Votic children were discouraged from using it even at home because, in the opinion of some local school teachers, it prevented them from learning to speak and write in Russian properly. Thus, in the second half of the 20th century there emerged a generation of young ethnic Votes whose first language was Russian and who understood Votic but were unable to speak it.

There have been multiple attempts in Votic language education. In 1995–1998, Votic language courses were held in St. Petersburg, which were organized by Mehmet Muslimov. These courses were attended by about 30 people. In 2003–2004, courses were held again, and these were also organized by Muslimov. Muslimov has also made Votic self-study material available on the internet.[7] During 2010–2015, there were Votic courses established, which were attended by around 10 people.[8] There are also Votic events where studying material for Votic is given to people.[9][10] In 2015, a Votic study book called "Vad'd'a sõnakopittõja" was published by Heinike Heinsoo and Nikita Djačkov. There have also been a few lessons organized by T.F. Prokopenko for little children in a school in a Votic village.[11]

Three definite dialect groups of Votic are known:

• Western, the areas around the mouth of the Luga River
• Eastern, in villages around Koporye
• Krevinian, areas around the city of Bauska, Latvia

The Western dialect area can be further divided into the Central dialects (spoken around the village of Kattila) and the Lower Luga dialects.[12]

Of these, only the Lower Luga dialect is still spoken.

In 1848 it was estimated that of a total of 5,298 speakers of Votic, 3,453 (65%) spoke the western dialect, 1,695 (35%) spoke the eastern and 150 (3%) spoke the dialect of Kukkuzi. Kreevin had 12–15 speakers in 1810, the last records of Kreevin speakers are from 1846. The Kreevin dialect was spoken in an enclave in Latvia by descendants of Votic prisoners of war who were brought to the Bauska area of Latvia in the 15th century by the Teutonic order.[13] The last known speaker of the eastern dialect died in 1960, in the village of Icäpäivä (Itsipino).[14] A fourth dialect of Votic has often been claimed as well: the traditional language variety of the village of Kukkuzi. It shows a mix of features of Votic and neighboring Ingrian, and some linguists, e.g. Arvo Laanest have claimed that it is actually rather a dialect of Ingrian.[15] The vocabulary and phonology of the dialect are largely Ingrian-based, but it shares some grammatical features with the main Votic dialects, probably representing a former Votic substratum.[12] In particular, all phonological features that Votic shares specifically with Estonian (e.g. the presence of the vowel õ) are absent from the dialect.[16] The Kukkuzi dialect has been declared to be dead since the 1970s,[14] although three speakers have still been located in 2006.[12]

In the 1920s, the Votic linguist Dmitri Tsvetkov wrote a Votic grammar using a modified Cyrillic alphabet. The current Votic alphabet was created by Mehmet Muslimov in 2004:[17]

A peculiarity of Muslimov's orthography is using c for /t͡ʃ/ (this phoneme comes mostly from palatalization of historical /k/, compare Votic ceeli 'language', ciri 'book', cülä 'village' with Finnish kieli, kirja, kylä). Some publications use tš or č instead.

One may find different orthographies for Votic in descriptive work. Some use a modified Cyrillic alphabet, and others a Latin one. The transcriptions based on Latin have many similarities with those used in closely related Finnic languages, such as the use of č for /t͡ʃ/. At least a couple of ways exist for indicating long vowels in Votic; placing a macron over the vowel (such as ā) as in Latvian, or as in written Estonian and Finnish, doubling the vowel (aa). Geminate consonants are generally represented with two characters. The representation of central vowels varies. In some cases the practice is to use e̮ according to the standards of Uralic transcription, while in other cases the letter õ is used, as in Estonian.

Votic is an agglutinating language much like the other Finnic languages. In terms of inflection on nouns, Votic has two numbers (singular, plural), and 16 cases: nominative, genitive, accusative (distinct for pronouns), partitive, illative, inessive, elative, allative, adessive, ablative, translative, essive, exessive, abessive, comitative, terminative.

Unlike Livonian, which has been influenced to a great extent by Latvian, Votic retained many of its Finnic characteristics. Although there are many loanwords from Russian, its phonological and grammatical influence on Votic is less marked than the Latvian influence on Livonian.

In terms of verbs, Votic has six tenses and aspects, two of which are basic: present, imperfect; and the rest of which are compound tenses: present perfect, past perfect, future and future perfect. Votic has three moods (conditional, imperative, potential), and two 'voices' (active and passive). Caution however should be used with the term 'passive', with Finnic languages though as a result of the fact that it is more active and 'impersonal' (it has an oblique 3rd person marker, and so is not really 'passive').

Votic language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

Wikiversity has learning resources about Grammar of Votian dialects

• Votian at Indigenous Minority Languages of Russia
• The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire
• Classification of Votian dialects at wikiversity
• Чернявский В. М. Vaďďa ceeli. Izeõpõttaja / Водский язык. Самоучитель. (Note: The actual link is permanently dead)
• Wikipedia language test in Votic
• Водские сказки (stories in Votic)
• Workbook for Vad'd'a sõnakõpittõja