Votic / Votian
Posted: 2011-03-27, 9:47
This is one of my favorite languages. It is a dying, if not already extinct, language. It is a Baltic-Finnic language spoken in the Russian region of Ingria which is situated between Estonia and Finland. It is like a mix of Estonian, Finnish, and Russian (in that order). It is most closely related to Estonian, but it has vowel harmony and extensive consonant gradation. The lexicon seems somewhat more conservative and resembles Finnish a bit more sometimes than Estonian. There are also a number of Russian borrowings. The phonology is also mainly Russian influenced. Almost all the letters are like those of Russian except those specific to the Estonian style of Finnic languages (ä, ö, ü, õ, etc.). Since it is used in Russia, there is both a Latin and a Cyrillic version of the orthography.
I will select an example that illustrates the same thing in both Cyrillic and Latin:
(I'm not entirely sure on the exact correspondence between the cyrillic and latin letters, so I hope this is correct)
Исун теекырвылл
Ајаја вајылтыб веероа.
Ен тахо ылла сиинэ, кусса тулын.
Ен тахо ылла сиинэ, кухыы менен.
Михси терпитөисси
Нэен тэмээ вајылтыттава веероа?
Isun teekõrvõll
Ajaja vajõltõb veeroa
En taho õlla siine, kussa tulõn
En taho õlla siine, kuhõõ menen
Mihsi terpitöissi
Näen tämää vajõltõttava veeroa?
Anyway, I'd be happy to give lessons on this language and try to promote interest in it...
I will select an example that illustrates the same thing in both Cyrillic and Latin:
(I'm not entirely sure on the exact correspondence between the cyrillic and latin letters, so I hope this is correct)
Исун теекырвылл
Ајаја вајылтыб веероа.
Ен тахо ылла сиинэ, кусса тулын.
Ен тахо ылла сиинэ, кухыы менен.
Михси терпитөисси
Нэен тэмээ вајылтыттава веероа?
Isun teekõrvõll
Ajaja vajõltõb veeroa
En taho õlla siine, kussa tulõn
En taho õlla siine, kuhõõ menen
Mihsi terpitöissi
Näen tämää vajõltõttava veeroa?
Anyway, I'd be happy to give lessons on this language and try to promote interest in it...