Votic

Votic (Vaďďa; Estonian: vadja; Finnish: vatja; Russian: Водский) is a moribund Finnic language closely related to Estonian. It is spoken in Ingria in western modern-day Russia, near the coast of the Gulf of Finland. Several other Finnic varieties are known from Ingria, including the titular Ingrian, but Votic is thought to be the original language of the region.

Among the Finnic languages, Votic features some interesting archaisms (most of these are also found elsewhere). In several respects Votic resembles the also archaic Finnish-Karelian continuum more than the highly innovative (North) Estonian.

Dialects

Two main dialects groups of Votic have been recorded, Western and Eastern (the latter is now extinct), both spoken in an area of about 25×15 kilometers. The language has been on the decay for a while: 34 Votic-speaking villages with a total population of ~6000 were known in 1848, 21 ones with a population of ≤1000 in the 1910s. A third dialect extinct since the early 19th century, Krevinian, is recorded from in Curonia in eastern Latvia, descending from prisoners of war transported there by the Teutonic Knights circa 1450 CE.

A fourth supposed dialect was spoken in the village of Kukkozi separated from the main Votic-speaking area in Ingria. This Finnic variety, however, shows crucial differences from the main dialects of Votic (e.g. general retention of /o/, /ns/, /wh/, /Vːh/, /k/, /NP/), and may be better considered a dialect of Ingrian with strong Votic influence. The language of Kukkozi is not treated further here.

Development

By far most of this section is sourced from Lauri Kettunen (1915): Vatjan kielen äännehistoria.

Core Finnic to Proto-Peipsian

Old sound changes (& such) shared with Estonian or its eastern dialects. Core Finnic originally split into Northern Finnic (= Finnish proper + Savonian + Ingrian + Karelian + Veps) and Central Finnic (= Estonian + Votic). According to Tiit-Rein Viitso the latter then split into Northern Estonian and "Proto-Peipsian", from which Votic and the distinctive Kodavere dialect of Estonian descend.

• *b *d *g → *β *ð *ɣ, except before a nasal. Probably a fairly old change, being also found in South Estonian and most of Northern Finnic.
• *str → *tr. Shared with rest of South Finnic, and somewhat strangely also found in Savonian.
• *Vn → Vː / _s (aasa "trap", čüüsi "nail", ees- "first", kaasa "with", kaasi "lid", kõõz "when", lääsi "west", maazikaz "strawberry", põõzaz "bush", õõsi "hollow"; tuusi- imperfect stem of tuntõ- "to know") Shared with rest of South Finnic.
• Shortening: *Vː → V / _h (e.g. mehe- obl. stem of mees "man", rihi "room", roho "grass", toho "birch bark", voho "goat"; also in illativs of monosyllabic roots, e.g. suu : suhõõ)
• Loss of /h/:
  • *h → ∅ / #_ (not fully general across the Estonian dialects; some cases may be loans from Finnish).
  • *h → ∅ / C_ (e.g. anõ "goose", vana "old"; karu "bear", tara "yard")
  • *h → ∅ / V_V other than ˈV_V
  • The consonant remains syllable-finally (e.g. nahka "leather"), and intervocally following the stressed syllable (e.g. raha "money").

Proto-Peipsian to Old Votic

All changes here are either evident in Krevinian, or chronologically demanded here. Changes that are ambiguous in their dating have been listed in the next section.

Old Votic to Common Votic

Changes that mostly take place between 1500 and 1900 CE, or must have been apparent as dialectal differences before the split of Krevinian.