Baltic-Finnic languages
Encyclopedia
The Finnic or Baltic Finnic (Balto-Fennic) languages are a branch of the Uralic language family
spoken around the Baltic Sea
by about 7 million people.
The major modern representatives of the family are Finnish
and Estonian
, the official languages of their respective nation states. The other Finnic languages in the Baltic Sea region are Ingrian
, Karelian
, Ludic
, Veps
, and Votic
, spoken around the Gulf of Finland
and Lakes Onega
and Ladoga
. Võro
and Seto
(modern descendants of historical South Estonian
) are spoken in south-eastern Estonia
and Livonian
in parts of Latvia
.
The smaller languages are disappearing. In the 20th century both Livonian
and Votic had fewer than 100 speakers left. Other groups of which there are records have long since disappeared.
Meänkieli
(in northern Sweden) and Kven
(in northern Norway) are Finnish dialects that the Scandinavian countries of Sweden and Norway have given a legal status of independent languages. They are mutually intelligible with Finnish.
The geographic centre of the maximum divergence between the languages is located south of the Gulf of Finland
.
in Finnic languages, nor are there articles nor definite or indefinite forms.
The morphophonology
(the way the grammatical function of a morpheme
affects its production) is complex. One of the more important processes is the characteristic consonant gradation
. Two kinds of gradation occur: the radical and suffix gradation, which affect the plosives /k/, /t/ and /p/. This is a lenition
process, where the consonant is changed into a "weaker" form with some (but not all) oblique cases. For geminates, the process is simple to describe: they become simple stops, e.g. kuppi + -n → kupin (Finnish: "cup"). For simple consonants, the process complicates immensely and the results vary by the environment. For example, haka +-n → haan, kyky + -n → kyvyn, järki + -n → järjen (Finnish: "pasture", "ability", "intellect"). (See the separate article for more details.) Vowel harmony
(lost in Livonian, generally also in Estonian and Veps) is also an important process. Historically, the "erosion" of word-final sounds (strongest in Livonian, Võro and Estonian) may leave a phonemic status to the morphophonological variations caused by the agglutination of the lost suffixes, which is the source of the third length level in these languages.
The original Uralic palatalization
was lost in proto-Finnic, but most of the diverging dialects reacquired it. Palatalization is a part of the Estonian literary language and is an essential feature in Võro
, as well as Veps, Karelian
and other eastern Finnic languages. It is also found in East Finnish dialects, and is only missing from West Finnish dialects and Standard Finnish.
A special characteristic of the languages is the large number of diphthongs. There are 16 diphthongs in Finnish and 25 in Estonian; at the same time the frequency is greater in Finnish than in Estonian.
There are 14 noun cases
in Estonian and 15 in Finnish, which are denoted by adding a suffix.
with few clear-cut boundaries. A division into two areal
groups of four languages is usually used:
All of these except Votic are centred on a literary
standard language
.
In the Proto-Finnic period, three original dialects can be reconstructed: an inland dialect (South Estonian); a southwestern dialect (Livonian); and a northern dialect (the rest of the family). The last two can be grouped as a common Coastal group.
Viitso (2000) surveys 59 isoglosses separating the family into 58 dialect areas (finer division is possible), finding that an unambiguous perimeter can be set up only for South Estonian, Livonian, Votic, and Veps. In particular, no isogloss exactly coincides with the geographical division into 'Estonian' south of the Bay of Finland and 'Finnish' north of it.
The Southern group, excluding a few archaic coastal Estonian dialects and the highly Ingrian-influenced Kukkuzi Votic, is united by the presence of a ninth vowel phoneme õ, usually a close-mid back unrounded
/ɤ/ (but a close central unrounded
/ɨ/ in Livonian), as well as loss of *n before *s with compensatory lengthening
. This may be contrasted with a Northern group comprising the remainder. However, more secure is the Eastern group, comprising East Finnish
dialects as well as Ingrian, Karelian and Veps. This leaves the West Finnish dialects, within which the oldest division is that into Southwestern and Tavastian dialects.
Numerous new dialects have arisen through contacts of the old dialects: these include e.g. the more northern Finnish dialects (a mixture of West and East Finnish), and the Ludic
varieties (probably originally Veps dialects but heavily influenced by Karelian).
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
spoken around the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
by about 7 million people.
The major modern representatives of the family are Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
and Estonian
Estonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
, the official languages of their respective nation states. The other Finnic languages in the Baltic Sea region are Ingrian
Ingrian language
The Ingrian language is a Finnic language spoken by the Izhorians of Ingria. It has approximately 500 speakers left, most of whom are aging...
, Karelian
Karelian language
Karelian language 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 some Finnish linguists even classified Karelian as a dialect of Finnish...
, Ludic
Ludic language
Ludic or Ludian or Ludic Karelian is a Finnic language in the Uralic language family. Some consider it a transitional language between Olonets Karelian language and Veps language. It is spoken by 3,000 people in the Republic of Karelia in Russia, near the northwestern shore of Lake Onega,...
, Veps
Veps language
The Veps language , spoken by the Vepsians , belongs to the Finnic group of the Uralic languages...
, and Votic
Votic language
Votic or Votian is the language spoken by the Votes of Ingria. It is closely related to Estonian and belongs to the Finnic subgroup of Uralic languages. Votic is spoken only in Krakolye and Luzhitsy, two villages in the Kingisepp district, and is close to extinction...
, spoken around the Gulf of Finland
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...
and Lakes Onega
Lake Onega
Lake Onega is a lake in the north-west European part of Russia, located on the territory of Republic of Karelia, Leningrad Oblast and Vologda Oblast. It belongs to the basin of Baltic Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and is the second largest lake in Europe after Lake Ladoga...
and Ladoga
Lake Ladoga
Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, not far from Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake in Europe, and the 14th largest lake by area in the world.-Geography:...
. Võro
Võro language
The Võro language is a language belonging to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. Traditionally it has been considered a dialect of the South Estonian dialect group of the Estonian language, but nowadays it has its own literary language and is in search of official recognition as an...
and Seto
Seto language
Seto or Setu language is a dialect of the South Estonian or Võro language , spoken by about 5,000 people...
(modern descendants of historical South Estonian
South Estonian language
South Estonian emerged in the 17th century as a distinct language in Swedish Livonia aside the North Estonian language spoken in Swedish Estonia.The first South Estonian grammar was compiled by Johann Gutslaff in 1648....
) are spoken in south-eastern Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
and Livonian
Livonian language
Livonian belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. It is a nearly extinct language, with one of its last native speakers having died in February 2009. It is closely related to Estonian...
in parts of Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
.
The smaller languages are disappearing. In the 20th century both Livonian
Livonian language
Livonian belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. It is a nearly extinct language, with one of its last native speakers having died in February 2009. It is closely related to Estonian...
and Votic had fewer than 100 speakers left. Other groups of which there are records have long since disappeared.
Meänkieli
Meänkieli
Meänkieli is the name used in Sweden for Finnish dialects spoken in the northernmost parts of the country, around the valley of the Torne River....
(in northern Sweden) and Kven
Kven language
The Kven language is a Finnic language spoken in Northern Norway by the Kven people. For political and historical reasons it received the status of a minority language in 2005 within the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(in northern Norway) are Finnish dialects that the Scandinavian countries of Sweden and Norway have given a legal status of independent languages. They are mutually intelligible with Finnish.
The geographic centre of the maximum divergence between the languages is located south of the Gulf of Finland
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...
.
General characteristics
There is no grammatical genderGrammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
in Finnic languages, nor are there articles nor definite or indefinite forms.
The morphophonology
Morphophonology
Morphophonology is a branch of linguistics which studies, in general, the interaction between morphological and phonetic processes. When a morpheme is attached to a word, it can alter the phonetic environments of other morphemes in that word. Morphophonemics attempts to describe this process...
(the way the grammatical function of a morpheme
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
affects its production) is complex. One of the more important processes is the characteristic consonant gradation
Consonant gradation
Consonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation, in which consonants alternate between various "grades". It is found in some Uralic languages such as Finnish, Estonian, Northern Sámi, and the Samoyed language Nganasan. In addition, it has been reconstructed for Proto-Germanic, the parent...
. Two kinds of gradation occur: the radical and suffix gradation, which affect the plosives /k/, /t/ and /p/. This is a lenition
Lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...
process, where the consonant is changed into a "weaker" form with some (but not all) oblique cases. For geminates, the process is simple to describe: they become simple stops, e.g. kuppi + -n → kupin (Finnish: "cup"). For simple consonants, the process complicates immensely and the results vary by the environment. For example, haka +-n → haan, kyky + -n → kyvyn, järki + -n → järjen (Finnish: "pasture", "ability", "intellect"). (See the separate article for more details.) Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
(lost in Livonian, generally also in Estonian and Veps) is also an important process. Historically, the "erosion" of word-final sounds (strongest in Livonian, Võro and Estonian) may leave a phonemic status to the morphophonological variations caused by the agglutination of the lost suffixes, which is the source of the third length level in these languages.
The original Uralic palatalization
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
was lost in proto-Finnic, but most of the diverging dialects reacquired it. Palatalization is a part of the Estonian literary language and is an essential feature in Võro
Võro
Võro may refer to:* Võro people, an ethnic group of Estonia* Võro language, a language belonging to the Baltic-Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages of Estonia* Võro Institute, the governing organization of the Võro languageVoro may refer to:...
, as well as Veps, Karelian
Karelian
Karelian refers to something from or related to the region of Karelia, in present-day Russia and FInland*Karelians*Karelian language*Karelian foods* Karelian pasties* Karelian hot pot* Karelian Birch, a cultivar of Betula pendula...
and other eastern Finnic languages. It is also found in East Finnish dialects, and is only missing from West Finnish dialects and Standard Finnish.
A special characteristic of the languages is the large number of diphthongs. There are 16 diphthongs in Finnish and 25 in Estonian; at the same time the frequency is greater in Finnish than in Estonian.
There are 14 noun cases
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
in Estonian and 15 in Finnish, which are denoted by adding a suffix.
List of Finnic innovations
These features distinguish Finnic languages from other Uralic families:- Development of long vowelsVowel lengthIn linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
and various diphthongDiphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s from loss of word-medial consonants such as *x, *j, *w, *ŋ- Before a consonant, the Uralic "laryngealLaryngeal theoryThe laryngeal theory is a generally accepted theory of historical linguistics which proposes the existence of one, or a set of three , consonant sounds termed "laryngeals" that appear in most current reconstructions of the Proto-Indo-European language...
" *x yielded long vowels at an early stage (e.g. *tuxli "wind" → tuuli), but only the Finnic branch clearly preserves these as such. Later, the same process occurred also between vowels (e.g. *mëxi "land" → maa). - Semivowels *j, *w were usually lost when a root ended in *i and contained a preceding front (in the case of *j, e.g. *täji "tick" → täi) or rounded vowel (in the case of *w, e.g. *suwi "mouth" → suu).
- The velar nasalVelar nasalThe velar nasal is the sound of ng in English sing. It is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N....
*ŋ was vocalized to a semivowel in various positions (e.g. *joŋsi "bow" → jousi, *suŋi "summer" → suvi). In some cases further loss occurred (e.g. *müŋä "backside" → Estonian möö-, Finnish myö-).
- Before a consonant, the Uralic "laryngeal
- A development *š → h.
- Consonant gradationConsonant gradationConsonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation, in which consonants alternate between various "grades". It is found in some Uralic languages such as Finnish, Estonian, Northern Sámi, and the Samoyed language Nganasan. In addition, it has been reconstructed for Proto-Germanic, the parent...
, most often for stops, but also found for some other consonants. - Agreement of the attributes with the noun, e.g. in Finnish vanho·i·lle mieh·i·lle "to old men" the plural -i- and the case -lle is added also to the adjective.
- Use of a copula verb like on, e.g. mies on vanha "the man is old".
- Grammatical tenses analogous to Germanic tenses, i.e. the system with present, past, perfect and pluperfect tenses.
- The telicTelicityIn linguistics, telicity is the property of a verb or verb phrase that presents an action or event as being complete in some sense...
contrast of the object, which must be in the accusative caseAccusative caseThe accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
or partitive casePartitive caseThe partitive case is a grammatical case which denotes "partialness", "without result", or "without specific identity". It is also used in contexts where a subgroup is selected from a larger group, or with numbers....
.
Subclassification
The Finnic languages form a complex dialect continuumDialect continuum
A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
with few clear-cut boundaries. A division into two areal
Sprachbund
A Sprachbund – also known as a linguistic area, convergence area, diffusion area or language crossroads – is a group of languages that have become similar in some way because of geographical proximity and language contact. They may be genetically unrelated, or only distantly related...
groups of four languages is usually used:
- Southern
- (North) EstonianEstonian languageEstonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
- LivonianLivonian languageLivonian belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. It is a nearly extinct language, with one of its last native speakers having died in February 2009. It is closely related to Estonian...
- South EstonianSouth Estonian languageSouth Estonian emerged in the 17th century as a distinct language in Swedish Livonia aside the North Estonian language spoken in Swedish Estonia.The first South Estonian grammar was compiled by Johann Gutslaff in 1648....
- VoticVotic languageVotic or Votian is the language spoken by the Votes of Ingria. It is closely related to Estonian and belongs to the Finnic subgroup of Uralic languages. Votic is spoken only in Krakolye and Luzhitsy, two villages in the Kingisepp district, and is close to extinction...
- (North) Estonian
- Northern
- FinnishFinnish languageFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
- IngrianIngrian languageThe Ingrian language is a Finnic language spoken by the Izhorians of Ingria. It has approximately 500 speakers left, most of whom are aging...
- KarelianKarelian languageKarelian language 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 some Finnish linguists even classified Karelian as a dialect of Finnish...
- VepsVeps languageThe Veps language , spoken by the Vepsians , belongs to the Finnic group of the Uralic languages...
- Finnish
All of these except Votic are centred on a literary
Literary language
A literary language is a register of a language that is used in literary writing. This may also include liturgical writing. The difference between literary and non-literary forms is more marked in some languages than in others...
standard language
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
.
In the Proto-Finnic period, three original dialects can be reconstructed: an inland dialect (South Estonian); a southwestern dialect (Livonian); and a northern dialect (the rest of the family). The last two can be grouped as a common Coastal group.
| Clusters *kt, *pt | Clusters *kc, *pc (IPA: *[kts], *[pts]) |
Cluster *čk(IPA: *[tʃk]) | 3rd person singular marker | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Estonian | *kt, *pt → tt | *kc, *pc → ts | *čk → tsk | endingless |
| Coastal Finnic | *kt, *pt → *ht | *kc, *pc → *ks, *ps | *čk → *tk | *-pi |
Viitso (2000) surveys 59 isoglosses separating the family into 58 dialect areas (finer division is possible), finding that an unambiguous perimeter can be set up only for South Estonian, Livonian, Votic, and Veps. In particular, no isogloss exactly coincides with the geographical division into 'Estonian' south of the Bay of Finland and 'Finnish' north of it.
The Southern group, excluding a few archaic coastal Estonian dialects and the highly Ingrian-influenced Kukkuzi Votic, is united by the presence of a ninth vowel phoneme õ, usually a close-mid back unrounded
Close-mid back unrounded vowel
The close-mid back unrounded vowel, or high-mid back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is , called "ram's horns"...
/ɤ/ (but a close central unrounded
Close central unrounded vowel
The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . The IPA symbol is the letter i with a horizontal bar...
/ɨ/ in Livonian), as well as loss of *n before *s with compensatory lengthening
Compensatory lengthening
Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda...
. This may be contrasted with a Northern group comprising the remainder. However, more secure is the Eastern group, comprising East Finnish
East Finnish
East Finnish culture and dialect are chiefly vested in the Savonians and the Karelians. It is distinguished by considerably less of influence from Scandinavian and Finland-Swedish culture and language....
dialects as well as Ingrian, Karelian and Veps. This leaves the West Finnish dialects, within which the oldest division is that into Southwestern and Tavastian dialects.
Numerous new dialects have arisen through contacts of the old dialects: these include e.g. the more northern Finnish dialects (a mixture of West and East Finnish), and the Ludic
Ludic language
Ludic or Ludian or Ludic Karelian is a Finnic language in the Uralic language family. Some consider it a transitional language between Olonets Karelian language and Veps language. It is spoken by 3,000 people in the Republic of Karelia in Russia, near the northwestern shore of Lake Onega,...
varieties (probably originally Veps dialects but heavily influenced by Karelian).
External links
- Tapani Salminen. Problems in the taxonomy of the Uralic languages in the light of modern comparative studies.
- Lexicon of Early Indo-European Loanwords Preserved in Finnish
- Swadesh list for Finnic languages (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)