Ingrian dialects ( fi, Inkerin suomalaismurteet) are the

Finnish dialects Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish) ...

spoken by

Ingrian Finns The Ingrians ( fi, inkeriläiset, ; russian: Ингерманландцы, translit=Ingermanlandts'i), sometimes called Ingrian Finns, are the Finnish population of Ingria (now the central part of Leningrad Oblast in Russia), descending from Lut ...

around

Ingria Ingria is a historical region in what is now northwestern European Russia. It lies along the southeastern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordered by Lake Ladoga on the Karelian Isthmus in the north and by the River Narva on the border with Est ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Today, the Ingrian dialects are still spoken in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. In 2010 there were only 20 300 Ingrian Finns left in Russia. The Ingrian dialects are gradually dying out, as primarily elderly people speak them anymore, and unlike Standard Finnish, the dialects are not taught in schools.

History

After Sweden annexed ingria in 1617, many people moved to Ingria from Finland. After Russia annexed it again in around 1700, many Russians moved in. However the Finnish language stayed because of the Lutheran church, the difference of religion made mixed marriages rare. In 1900 the situation changed a lot. At first, minority languages were supported; however, around 1930 Finnish was banned and the Ingrian Finns were deported ( Deportation of the Ingrian Finns,

Genocide of the Ingrian Finns The genocide of the Ingrian Finns () was a series of events triggered by the Russian Revolution in the 20th century, in which the Soviet Union deported, imprisoned and killed Ingrians and destroyed their culture. In the process, Ingria, in the h ...

). Because of this, language communities broke and Russian influence became larger.

Grammar

The dialects' personal pronouns differ significantly from the standard language. Follows a comparison with the

Karelian language Karelian (North Karelian and Livvi Karelian: ; Ludic: ; Tver Karelian: ) is a Finnic language spoken mainly in the Russian Republic of Karelia. Linguistically, Karelian is closely related to the Finnish dialects spoken in eastern Finland, and so ...

and Standard Finnish:

Phonology

The phonology of Ingrian Finnish is very much alike that of the neighbouring Ingrian and

Votic Votic, or Votian (''vaďďa tšeeli'', ''maatšeeli'') �vɑːdʔda ˈtʃɨlɨ, mɑːt.ʃɨlɨ is the language spoken by the Votes of Ingria, belonging to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. Votic is spoken only in Krakolye and Luzhits ...

languages. One process present in the dialects is the deletion of final front vowels and their replacement by palatisation, much like in Ala-Laukaa Ingrian and

: : ''äitj'' (, "mother") for Standard Finnish ''äiti'' () : ''vesj'' (, "water") for Standard Finnish ''vesi'' () : ''mäkj'' (, "hill") for Standard Finnish ''mäki'' () : ''kylj'' (, "village") for Standard Finnish ''kylä'' () Another is the diphthongation of historically long vowels in initial syllables, much like in the

: : ''piä'' (, "head") for Standard Finnish ''pää'' () : ''kualj'' (, "cabbage") for Standard Finnish ''kaali'' () Like in the Ingrian language, Standard Finnish morphological -d- is often replaced by -v-, -vv- and -ij-: : ''sovan'' (, "war", gen) for Standard Finnish ''sodan'' ( : ''pöyvvän'' (, "table", gen) for Standard Finnish ''pöydän'' () Finally, a shift of the

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...

s , and to ( in front-vocalic stems), and respectively is present: : ''piänj'' (, "small") for the Standard Finnish ''pieni'' ().

Vocabulary

Historically, multiple Swedish loanwords have appeared in Ingrian Finnish. Furthermore, the dialects have borrowed extensively from the neighbouring Finnic languages. In more recent years, it has also borrowed extensively from the

Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...

: : ''latjjat'' (, "dress") from Russian ''платье'' (plat'je) : ''liäppä'' (, "hat") from Russian ''шляпа'' (šljapa)

Example

Follows a sample text in Ingrian Finnish:

References