The Ingrian language is a highly endangered language spoken in Ingria, Russia. Ingrian is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, along with, among others, Finnish and Estonian. Ingrian is an agglutinative language and exhibits both vowel harmony and consonant gradation.
In the late 1930s, a written standard of the Ingrian language (referred to as kirjakeeli, "book language") was developed by the Ingrian linguist . Following the Soviet Union's 1937 politics regarding minority languages, the Ingrian written language has been forbidden and Ingrian remains unstandardised ever since. This article describes the grammar of kirjakeeli with references to (modern) dialectal nuances.
Morphological processes
Consonant gradation Many words in Ingrian display consonant gradation, a grammatical process where the final consonant of a root may change in some inflected forms. Gradated words have two forms, called the strong grade and the weak grade. Follows a list of consonant gradations present in Ingrian, with examples: {| class="wikitable" |- !rowspan=2| Strong !rowspan=2| Weak !colspan=2| Example !rowspan=2| Translation |- ! . ! . |- | k || ∅ || jalka || jalan || "foot, leg" |- | nk || ng || kenkä || kengän || "shoe" |- | t || ∅ || vahti || vahin || "guard" |- | lt || ll || ilta || illan || "evening" |- | rt || rr || merta || merran || "basket" |- | nt || nn || ranta || rannan || "shore" |- | st || ss || riista || riissan || "thing" |- | p || v || apu || avun || "help" |- | mp || mm || kumpa || kumman || "which" |- | pp || p || leppä || lepän || "alder" |- | uut, yytoot, ööt || uuvv, yyvvoovv, öövv|| suuto || suuvvon || "court" |- | Vut || Vvv || rauta || ravvan || "iron" |- | Vuk || Vvv || leuka || levvan || "jaw, chin" |- | Vit || Vij || maito || maijon || "milk" |- | Vik || Vj || poika || pojan || "boy, son" |- | eik, iik || eij, iij || reikä || reijän || "hole"
Consonant gemination
In nominals and verbs alike, consonant gemination is an active process where a consonant following a light, uneven syllable, if followed by an (underlyingly) open syllable with a long vowel or a diphthong, is geminated. This process can be seen in the following examples: sana ("word") → kaks sannaa ("two words") käkö ("cuckoo") → kaks käkköä ("two cuckoos") Gemination is absent before diphthong inherited from Proto-Finnic: aja! ("drive!") → aijaa ("(s)he drives"), ajoi ("(s)he drove") This gemination should not be confused with consonant gradation: Both can occur in one word. For instance, pittää ("to keep") has both consonant gradation and gemination: pittää ("to keep"); miä piän ("I keep"); höö pitävät ("they keep") Consonant gemination does not affect consonants that start an uneven syllable: literatura ("literature"); literaturaa ("into the literature") Some (recent) loanwords aren't affected by gemination either: inženera ("engineer"); kaks inženeraa ("two engineers") In the Soikkola dialect, there is a phonological distinction between primary geminates (those that were originally present in Proto-Finnic) and secondary geminates (those formed as a result of gemination). Primary geminates are realised as long, while secondary geminates are short. In the other dialects of Ingrian, both types of geminates are equally long.
Vowel elongation In contrast with consonant gemination, nouns that do not have an even number of syllables or do not have a penultimate light syllable, experience vowel elongation in the inessive and adessive endings, where the final vowel becomes long: paikka ("area") → paikaas ("in the area"), koira ("dog") → koiraal ("on the dog") orava ("squirrel") → oravaal ("on the squirrel"), Soikkola ("Soikinsky Peninsula") → Soikkolaas ("on the Soikinsky Peninsula") If the noun has consonant gradation, the weak grade determines the vowel length of the inflectional ending: poika ("boy") → pojal ("on the boy") In the Soikkola dialect, this rule also holds true for the elative, ablative, translative and exessive cases: paikka ("area") → paigaast ("from the area") orraava ("squirrel") → oravaalt ("off the squirrel") soomi ("Finnish") → soomeeks ("in Finnish")
Nouns The Ingrian language does not distinguish gender in nouns, nor is there a definiteness distinction. Nouns can be declined for both case and number.
Cases Ingrian nouns have thirteen noun cases. Unlike some plural pronouns, nouns don't have the accusative case and its function is taken over by either the genitive in the singular or the nominative in the plural. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Case !! Suffix !! English !! Example !! Translation |- | nominative (nominativa) || -∅ || — || talo || a house |- | genitive (genitiva) || -n || of/'s || talon || a house's |- | partitive (partitiva) || -(t)a / -(t)ä || a bit of || talloa || a bit of a house |- | illative (illativa) || -V || into || talloo || into a house |- | inessive (inessiva) || -s || inside || talos || inside a house |- | elative (elativa) || -st || out of || talost || out of a house |- | allative (allativa) || -lle || onto || talolle || onto a house |- | adessive (adessiva) || -l || on top of || talol || on top of a house |- | ablative (ablativa) || -lt || out of || talolt || out of a house |- | translative (translativa) || -ks || into (being) || taloks || into (being) a house |- | essive (essiiva) || -nna / -nnä || as || talonna || as a house |- | exessive (eksessiva) || -nt || out of (being) || talont || out of (being) a house |- | comitative (komitativa) || -nka / -nkä || with || talonka || with a house |} In the modern (spoken) language, the exessive case has grown to be obsolete. Furthermore, the comitative is only present in the Ala-Laukaa dialect of the Ingrian language, although it was adopted into the written language as well.
Some of the endings differ among dialects. In the Soikkola dialect, for instance, the essive ending is -Vn rather than -nna, yielding talloon. On the other hand, many cases in the Ala-Laukaa dialect contain a final vowel: talossa, talosta, talolla, talolta, talokse, talonta.
Nominative The nominative case is used primarily to mark the subject of a verb: Kana kaakattaa ("The chicken cackles") Kana muni munan ("The chicken laid an egg") Furthermore, it can be used as a form of address: Mama, miä tahon söövvä ("Mum, I want to eat")
Accusative As mentioned above, the accusative isn't morphologically distinct from the genitive in the singular and the nominative in the plural. The accusative case is used to mark a direct object of an affirmative telic verb: Poika sööp lihan ("The boy will eat the meat") Tyttö näki koirat ("The girl saw the dogs") The accusative is identical to the nominative when a direct object of an impersonal verb, a verb in the imperative mood, or impersonal constructions: Söö liha! ("Eat the meat!") Söövvää liha ("The meat is eaten") Pittää söövvä liha ("It is necessary to eat the meat")
Partitive The partitive is used in a number of functions. First of all, it is used to mark a direct object of an affirmative atelic verb or any negative verb: Poika sööp lihhaa ("The boy is eating the meat") Tyttö näki koiria ("The girl was seeing the dogs") Elä söö lihhaa! ("Do not eat the meat!") Ämmä ei nää koiraa ("Grandma doesn't see the dog") Secondly, the partitive case is used with numerals (other than yks, "one") and determiners to designate amounts of an object: Miul on kaks silmää ("I have two eyes") Miä näin paljo koiria ("I saw a lot of dogs") The partitive can be used to designate indefinite amounts: Miul on rahhaa ("I have money") The partitive is used in comparative constructions to mark the object of comparison: Miä oon paremp häntä ("I am better than him") Finally, the partitive is used as an indirect object of some postpositions: Tämä ono podarka miun lapsia vart. ("This is a present for my children")
Genitive The genitive is used primarily to mark a possession by the inflected noun: Miä näin pojan koiran. ("I saw the boy's dog.") Lapsiin pere on suur. ("The children's family is big.") Furthermore, it is used as an indirect object of many prepositions and postpositions: Talon al ei oo mittä. ("Under the house there isn't anything.") Möö elämmä talon sises. ("We live inside the house.")
Illative The illative is primarily used to describe a direction into something: Miä mänin talloo. ("I went into the house.") Miä tokuin merree. ("I fell into the sea.") It is also used to mark the designation of an object: Tämä poika tööhö ei kelpaa. ("This boy isn't fit for work.") Furthermore, the illative is used to indicate a cause: Miun emä kooli lässyy. ("My mother died of a sickness.") Finally, the illative is used to denote a timespan during which something didn't happen: En miä joont kahtee päivää. ("I haven't had a drink in two days.")
Inessive The inessive is primarily used to describe a location inside something: Miä oon talos. ("I am inside the house.") Miä ujun meres. ("I am swimming in the sea.") It is also used to describe a duration during which something has happened: Ei stroitettu Rim yhes päivääs. ("Rome wasn't built in one day.")
Elative The elative is primarily used to describe a movement out of something: Miä tulin talost. ("I came out of the house.") Miä hyppäisin merest. ("I jumped out of the sea.") It is furthermore used to describe the subject of some kind of information: Miä luen lehmilöist. ("I am reading about cows.") Miä kirjutan meijen maast. ("I am writing about our country.") The elative is used to denote a domain to which an object belongs: Miä oon paremp kaikist lapsist. ("I am the best of all the children.") Kaikest miun perreest, miä suvvaan vaa miun emmää. ("Out of all my family, I only love my mother") Finally, the elative is used to denote a material from which something is made: Miä tein pöksyt täst kankaast. ("I made trousers from this fabric.") Laps teki samoljotan paperist. ("The child made an airplane from paper.")
Allative The allative is primarily used to describe motion onto something: Miä hyppäisin kannelle. ("I jumped onto the table.") Kolja pani koiran stoolille. ("Kolja put the dog on the chair.") It is furthermore used in a dative function to mark an indirect object: Miä annoin hänelle omenan. ("I gave him an apple.") Mitä hää siulle saoi? ("What did he say to you?")
Adessive The adessive is primarily used to describe a location on top of something: Miä issun kanneel. ("I am sitting on the table.") Koljan koira ležžii stooliil. ("Kolja's dog is lying on the chair.") It is also commonly used in a construction with the verb olla ("to be") to denote a possession: Miul ono kirja. ("I have a book.") Lapseel ovat pöksyt. ("The child has trousers.") In the Soikkola dialect, the adessive is used instead of the comitative to denote an instrument of an action: Miä kirjutan krandoššiil. ("I am writing with a pencil.") Miä kuuntelen korviil. ("I am listening with [my] ears.") Finally, the adessive is used to denote a location in time: Ööl suet jahtiijaat. ("At night, the wolves hunt.") Kesäl ilma ono lämmää. ("In summer, the weather is warm.")
Ablative The primary function of the ablative is to describe a motion off of something: Miä hyppäisin kanelt. ("I jumped off the table.") Kolja nosti koiran stolilt. ("Kolja picked the dog up from the table.") It is furthermore used to mark a source of an action: Miä sain hänelt omenan. ("I got an apple from him.") Mitä hää siult kuuli? ("What did he hear from you?")
Translative The primary function of the translative is to describe one's change of state towards being something: Miä tahon noissa siun ystäväks. ("I want to become your friend.") I konna muuttui käppiäks tytöks. ("And the frog turned into a beautiful lass.") It is also used to denote that an action was or will be done by a specific point in time: Hää noisen sinnua unohtamaa voovven lopuks. ("He will forget you by the end of the year.")