Ingrian is a nearly extinctFinnic 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 askirjakeeli, "book language") introduced by the Ingrian linguistVäinö 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.
The following chart shows the monophthongs present in the Ingrian language:
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | |||
| Close | i/i/ | y/y/ | (ь/ɨ/) | u/u/ |
| Mid | e/e/ | ö/ø/ | o/o/ | |
| Open | ä/æ/ | a/ɑ/ | ||
Besides the diphthongs that arise due todiphthongisation of the long mid vowels ([ie̯yø̯uo̯]), Ingrian has a wide range of phonemic diphthongs, present in both dialects:
| -i | -u | -i | -y | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a- | ai/ɑi̯/ | au/ɑu̯/ | ä- | äi/æi̯/ | äy/æy̯/ |
| i- | – | iu/iu̯/ | |||
| e- | ei/ei̯/ | eu/eu̯/ | |||
| o- | oi/oi̯/ | ou/ou̯/ | ö- | öi/øi̯/ | öy/øy̯/ |
| u- | ui/ui̯/ | – | y- | yi/yi̯/ | – |
Ingrian has only one falling phonemic diphthong,iä (/iæ̯/), which is only present in the personal pronounsmiä ("I") andsiä ("you", singular).
Phonemically, Ingrian vowels can be long (/Vː/) and short (/V/) in both dialects. Short vowels after short stressed syllables are realised as half-long:[1]
Vowel reduction is furthermore a common feature in both dialects. In the Soikkola dialect, vowel reduction is restricted to the vowelsa andä; These vowels are sometimes reduced to[ə] in quick speech:[1]
In Ala-Laukaa, this process is much more common and regular, but varies greatly by speaker.[1] In the northernmost varieties, reduction is similar to that of the Soikkola dialect. In the southernmost idiolects, the following features appear:[1]
Although some vowels merge in the process of reduction, speakers do generally have the knowledge of the original (unreduced) vowel quality.
Ingrian, just like its closest relativesFinnish andKarelian, has the concept ofvowel 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}.[2][5]
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") fromliiva ("sand") andiäkäs ("elderly") fromikä ("age").[2][5]
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") fromkivi ("rock").[2]
Compound words don't have to abide by the rules of vowel harmony, since they consist of two stems:rantakivi ("coastal stone") fromranta ("coast") +kivi ("stone").[2]
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.[1]
| Labial | Dental | Postalveolar/ Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p, b/p/ | t, d/t/ | k, g/k/ | ||
| Nasal | m/m/ | n/n/ | [ŋ] | ||
| Fricative | f/f/ | s, z/s/ | [x] | h/h/ | |
| Lateral | l/l/ | ||||
| Trill | r/r/ | ||||
| Affricate | ts/t͡s/ | c/t͡ʃ/ | |||
| Approximant | v/ʋ/ | j/j/ |
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):[4]
A similar phenomenon can be observed in the relatedEstonian language.
A word with the underlying structure*(C)VCVCV(C) is geminated to(C)VCˑVːCV(C) in the Soikkola dialect:
This rule however does not apply to forms that are underlyingly tetrasyllabic:
The Soikkola dialect also exhibits a phonetic three-way voicing distinction for plosives and the sibilant:
A word-final dental nasal (/n/) assimilates to the following stop and nasal:[7]
Some speakers also assimilate word-final/n/ to a following liquid, glottal fricative or bilabial approximant:[7]
| Labial | Dental | Postalveolar/ Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p/p/ | b/b/ | t/t/ | d/d/ | k/k/ | g/ɡ/ | |||
| Nasal | m/m/ | n/n/ | /ŋ/ | ||||||
| Fricative | f/f/ | s/s/ | z/z/ | š/ʃ/ | ž/ʒ/ | h/h/ | |||
| Lateral | l/l/ | ||||||||
| Trill | r/r/ | ||||||||
| Affricate | ts/t͡s/ | c/t͡ʃ/ | |||||||
| Approximant | v/ʋ/ | j/j/ | |||||||
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/:[1]
The palatalised/t/ and/k/ may both be realised as[c] by some speakers. Furthermore, palatalisation before/y(ː)/ and/i(ː)/ that have developed from an earlier */ø/ or */e/ respectively is rare:
The cluster ⟨lj⟩ is realised as a long palatalised consonant in the Ala-Laukaa dialect:[7]
These same phenomena are noticed in the extinct Ylä-Laukaa dialect:[7]
At the end of a word, the sibilant ⟨s⟩ and the stop ⟨t⟩ are voiced:
Like in the Soikkola dialect, when preceding a word beginning with a voiceless stop, this sibilant is again devoiced:
Stress in Ingrian falls on the first syllable in native words, but may be shifted in loanwords. An exception is the wordparaikaa (/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.[1][5]