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Ingrian is a nearly extinct Finnic language of Russia. The spoken language remains unstandardised, and as such statements below are about the four known dialects of Ingrian (Ala-Laukaa, Hevaha, Soikkola and Ylä-Laukaa) and in particular the two extant dialects (Ala-Laukaa and Soikkola).

The written forms are, if possible, based on the written language (referred to as kirjakeeli, "book language") introduced by the Ingrian linguist Väinö Junus [fi] in the late 1930s. Following 1937's mass repressions in the Soviet Union, the written language was abolished and ever since, Ingrian does not have a (standardised) written language.

Vowels

The following chart shows the monophthongs present in the Ingrian language:

• The vowel /ɨ/ is only present in some Russian loanwords, like rьbakka ("fisher"); this vowel has been replaced by /i/ in some idiolects.

All vowels can occur as both short (/æ e i ɨ ø y ɑ o u/) and long (/æː eː iː ɨː øː yː ɑː oː uː/). The long vowel /ɨː/ is extremely rare, occurring in borrowed words like rььžoi ("red-haired"). The vowels /eː øː oː/ are often realised as either diphthongs () or diphthongoids () and in some dialects even as .

Diphthongs

Besides the diphthongs that arise due to diphthongisation of the long mid vowels (), Ingrian has a wide range of phonemic diphthongs, present in both dialects:

Ingrian has only one falling phonemic diphthong, iä (/iæ̯/), which is only present in the personal pronouns miä ("I") and siä ("you", singular).

Vowel reduction

Vowel reduction is a very common feature of the Ala-Laukaa dialect, and is to a very restricted extent also present in Soikkola. The term refers to the process of acoustically weakening the unstressed vowels.

In Soikkola, vowel reduction is restricted to the vowels a and ä; These vowels are sometimes reduced to , but mostly in quick speech, making it a purely phonetic feature:

linna /ˈlinːɑ/ ("city")

ilma /ˈilmɑ/ ("weather")

In Ala-Laukaa, this process is much more common. In open final syllables, the vowels /ɑ æ e/ are reduced to , the other vowels (/i ø y o u/) are simply shortened (). The process of reducing vowels is contrastive in Ala-Laukaa:

linna /ˈlinːə/ ("city", NOM) linnaa /ˈlinːɑ/ ("city", PTV)

In a closed final syllable, the reduction of the vowel /e/ is much more uncommon, and occurs primarily in polysyllabic words. In words with three syllables and a long third syllable (in the form CVV), the penultimate syllable will reduce in the same way as described above. In three-syllable words with a short final syllable (in the form (C)CV), however, any short vowel in the second syllable will be reduced to . In polysyllabic words, reduction of the even syllables doesn't occur after short syllables.

The reduced vowels in Ala-Laukaa Ingrian can further experience deletion:

istuisi ("he/she sat down") ~ ~

Vowel harmony

Ingrian, just like its closest relatives Finnish and Karelian, has the concept of vowel harmony. The principle of this morphophonetic phenomenon is that vowels in a word consisting of one root are all either front or back. As such, no native words can have any of the vowels {a, o, u} together with any of the vowels {ä, ö, y}.

To harmonise formed words, any suffix containing one of these six vowels have two separate forms: a front vowel form and a back vowel form. Compare the following two words, formed using the suffix -kas: liivakas ("sandy") from liiva ("sand") and iäkäs ("elderly") from ikä ("age").

The vowels {e, i} are considered neutral and can co-occur with both types of vowels. However, stems with these vowels are always front vowel harmonic: kivekäs ("rocky") from kivi ("rock").

Compound words don't have to abide by the rules of vowel harmony, since they consist of two stems: rantakivi ("coastal stone") from ranta ("coast") + kivi ("stone").

Consonants

The consonantal phonology of Ingrian varies greatly among dialects. For example, while Soikkola Ingrian misses the voiced-unvoiced distinction, it has a three-way consonant length distinction, missing in the Ala-Laukaa dialect.

Soikkola dialect

• The velar nasal is a form of /n/ occurring before the plosive /k/ (written ⟨nk⟩).
• The velar fricative is a (half-)long version of /h/ (written ⟨hh⟩).
• Common realisations of /s/ are (in most subdialects) and (in some subdialects).
• /t͡ʃ/ is most commonly realised as the palatalised
• /t͡s/ may be realised as the consonant cluster .

Consonant length

In the Soikkola dialect, consonants have a three-way distinction in length. Geminates can be either short (1.5 times the length of a short consonant) or long (twice the length of a short consonant):

tapa /ˈtɑpɑ/ ("manner" NOM)

tappaa /ˈtɑpˑɑː/ ("he/she catches" also: "manner" PTV)

tappaa /ˈtɑpːɑː/ ("to kill")

A similar phenomenon can be observed in the related Estonian language.

A word with the underlying structure *(C)VCVCV(C) is geminated to (C)VCˑVːCV(C) in the Soikkola dialect:

omena /ˈomˑeːnɑ/ ("apple" NOM; respelled ommeena)

omenan /ˈomˑeːnɑn/ ("apple" GEN; respelled ommeenan)

orava /ˈorˑɑːʋɑ/ ("squirrel" NOM; respelled orraava)

This rule however does not apply to forms that are underlyingly tetrasyllabic:

omenaal (< *omenalla) /ˈomenɑːl/ ("apple" ADE)

omenaks (< *omenaksi) /ˈomenɑːks/ ("apple" TRANSL)

Consonant voicing

The Soikkola dialect also exhibits a phonetic three-way voicing distinction for plosives and the sibilant:

• Intervocalically, short (ungeminated) consonants, when followed by a short vowel, are generally realised as semi-voiced, so , , and for /p/, /t/, /k/ and /s/ respectively:

  poika /ˈpoi̯kɑ/,

  poikaa /ˈpoi̯kɑː/,

• When preceding a hiatus, word-final consonants are also semi-voiced. When not, voicing assimilation occurs, resulting in voiced consonants (, , , ) before voiced consonants and vowels, and voiceless consonants (, , , ) before voiceless consonants:

  pojat /ˈpojɑt/,

  pojat nooret /ˈpojɑt ˈnoːret/,

  pojat suuret /ˈpojɑt ˈsuːret/,

  pojat ovat /ˈpojɑt ˈoʋɑt/,

• Word-initially, plosives and sibilants are generally voiceless. Some speakers, however, may pronounce Russian loanwords, deriving from Russian words with a word-initial voiced plosive, with a voiced initial consonant:

  bocka ~ ; compare also pocka

Nasal assimilation

A word-final dental nasal (/n/) assimilates to the following stop and nasal:

meehen poika

meehen koira

kanan muna

Some speakers also assimilate word-final /n/ to a following liquid, glottal fricative or bilabial approximant:

meehen laps

joen ranta

miul on vene

varis on harmaa

Ala-Laukaa dialect

• The velar nasal /ŋ/ only appears before the plosive /k/ (written ⟨nk⟩) or /ɡ/ (written ⟨ng⟩)
• /t͡s/ may be realised as the consonant cluster .
• /t͡s/ sometimes corresponds to Soikkola /t͡ʃ/ and is thus written ⟨c⟩: compare mancikka (Soikkola /ˈmɑnt͡ʃikːɑ/, Ala-Laukaa /ˈmɑnt͡sikːə/).

Palatalisation

In the Ala-Laukaa dialect, phonetic palatalisation of consonants in native words occurs first of all before the vowels {y, i} and the approximant /j/:

tyttö ("girl"); compare Soikkola and Standard Finnish .

The palatalised /t/ and /k/ may both be realised as by some speakers. Furthermore, palatalisation before /y(ː)/ and /i(ː)/ that have developed from an earlier */ø/ or */e/ respectively is rare:

töö ~ ~ ("you (plural)")

The cluster ⟨lj⟩ is realised as a long palatalised consonant in the Ala-Laukaa dialect:

neljä ("four"); compare Soikkola

paljo ("many"); compare Soikkola

kiljua ("to shout"); compare Standard Finnish

These same phenomena are noticed in the extinct Ylä-Laukaa dialect:

tyttö ("girl")

neljä ("four")

Consonant voicing

At the end of a word, the sibilant ⟨s⟩ and the stop ⟨t⟩ are voiced:

lammas ("sheep")

linnut ("birds")

Like in the Soikkola dialect, when preceding a word beginning with a voiceless stop, this sibilant is again devoiced:

lammas pellool

linnut kyläs

Prosody

Stress

Stress in Ingrian falls on the first syllable in native words, but may be shifted in loanwords. An exception is the word paraikaa (/pɑrˈɑi̯kɑː/, "now"), where the stress falls on the second syllable. Secondary stress falls on odd-numbered syllables or occurs as a result of compounding and is not phonemic.

References

1. ^ N. V. Kuznetsova (2009). Фонологические системы Ижорских диалектов [The phonological systems of the Ingrian dialects]. Institute for Linguistic Studies (dissertation).
2. ^ V. I. Junus (1936). Iƶoran Keelen Grammatikka [The grammar of the Ingrian language]. Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva.
3. A. Laanest (1966). "Ижорский Язык". Финно-Угорские и Самодийские языки. Языки народов мира. pp. 102–117.
4. ^ N. V. Kuznetsova (2015). "Две фонологические редкости Ижорского языка" [Two phonological rarities of the Ingrian language]. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. XI (2).
5. ^ O. I. Konkova; N. A. D'jachinkov (2014). Inkeroin Keel: Пособие по Ижорскому Языку. Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography .
6. F. I. Rozhanskij (2010). "Ижорский язык: Проблема определения границ в условиях языкового континуума". Вопросы языкознания: 74–93. ISSN 0373-658X.
7. ^ R. E. Nirvi (1971). Inkeroismurteiden sanakirja [Dictionary of the Ingrian dialects].

• Ingrian language
• Uralic phonologies