Võro language
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- "Voro" redirects here. For the Spanish footballer, see Voro (footballer).
| Võro võro kiil |
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|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Estonia | |
| Region: | Southern Estonia | |
| Total speakers: | 70,000 | |
| Language family: | Uralic Finno-Ugric Baltic-Finnic Võro |
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| Official status | ||
| Official language of: | none | |
| Regulated by: | Võro Institute (semi-official) | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | fiu | |
| ISO 639-3: | est — Estonian | |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
The Võro language (võro kiil) is a language belonging to the Baltic-Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. Traditionally it is considered a dialect of South Estonian or Estonian, but it has its own literary language and is in search of official recognition as an autochthonous regional language of Estonia. Võro language has about 70,000 speakers (Võros) mostly in south-eastern Estonia, in the eight parishes of historical Võru County (Võromaa): Karula, Harglõ, Urvastõ, Rõugõ, Kanepi, Põlva, Räpinä, and Vahtsõliina. These parishes are currently centered (due to redistricting) in Võru and Põlva Counties with parts extending into Valga and Tartu counties. Speakers can also be found in the towns of Tallinn, Tartu and the rest of Estonia.
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[edit] History
Võro is a descendant of the old South Estonian tribal language and is the least influenced by Standard Estonian (based on Northern Estonian dialects). Võro was once spoken further south and east of historical Võromaa in what is now Latvia and Russia. In addition to Võro, other contemporary variants of South Estonian include the Mulgi, Tartu and Seto language or dialect.
One of the earliest written evidences of South Estonian is a translation of the New Testament (Wastne Testament) published in 1686. Although the status of South Estonian began to diminish after the 1880s, the language began to undergo a revival in the late 1980s.
[edit] Present situation
Today, Võro is used in the works of some of Estonia's most well known playwrights, poets, and authors. Võro is taught once a week in 26 schools. The only Võro language newspaper, Uma Leht, comes out twice a month. Estonia's contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, the song "Tii" performed by Neiokõsõ, was in Võro. Võro language is seriously endangered by standard Estonian due to the lack of the government's legal commitment to protect the language.
[edit] Orthography
Võro (like Estonian and Finnish) employs the Roman script. Most letters (also ä, ö, ü, and õ) denote the same sounds as in Estonian. Exceptions: q stands for glottal stop (ʔ), y denotes the barred-i (a vowel very close to Russian ы), ´ marks synchronic phonetic palatalization of consonants (like in Polish): ś, ń, ľ, ť, ḱ, h́, ḿ etc. Instead of the acute accent, an apostrophe is often used: s', l', etc.
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Vowels
| Front | Back | |||
| Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |
| Close | i | y | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e | ø | ɤ | o |
| Open | æ | ɑ | ||
In Võro there is vowel harmony, typical in most Finno-Ugric languages but lacking in modern standard Estonian.
[edit] Consonants
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
| Plosive | p pʲ | t tʲ | k kʲ | ʔ | |||
| Nasal | m mʲ | n nʲ | ŋ ŋʲ | ||||
| Fricative | v vʲ | s sʲ | h hʲ | ||||
| Approximant | l lʲ | j | |||||
| Trill | r rʲ |
All Võro consonants (except /j/ and /ʔ/) can be palatalized. The glottal stop (q, IPA [ʔ]) is a very common sound in Võro (see more about it).
[edit] Language example
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Võro: Kõik inemiseq sünnüseq avvo ja õiguisi poolõst ütesugumaidsis. Näile om annõt mudsu ja süämetunnistus ja nä piät ütstõõsõga vele muudu läbi käümä.
As comparison the same sentence in Standard Estonian: Kõik inimesed sünnivad vabadena ja võrdsetena oma väärikuselt ja õigustelt. Neile on antud mõistus ja südametunnistus ja nende suhtumist üksteisesse peab kandma vendluse vaim.
[edit] Differences between Võro and Estonian
- Significant difference between standard Estonian and the Võro language is vowel harmony. There is no vowel harmony in the majority of North Estonian dialects and standard Estonian, but it exists in the Võro language; compare:
| Estonian | Võro | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| küla | külä | village |
| küsinud | küsünüq | (has been) asked |
| hõbedane | hõbõhõnõ | (made of) silver |
- Some morphological features of the Võro language are considered to be very old. For instance the 3rd person singular of the indicative mood can be either without an ending or, alternatively, with a s-ending:
| Estonian | Võro | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| kirjutab | kirotas | he writes |
| annab | and | he gives |
Among the Finnic languages, such double verb conjugation can be found only in the South Estonian and Karelian languages.
- Võro has a negative particle that is appended to the end of the verb, whereas standard Estonian has a negative verb, which precedes the verb. In standard Estonian, the negative verb ei is used in both present and past negation, whereas in Võro the same is expressed by different particles:
| Estonian | Võro | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| sa ei anna | saq anna-aiq | You don't give |
| ma ei tule | maq tulõ-õiq | I don't come |
| sa ei andnud | saq anna-as | You didn't give |
| ma ei tulnud | maq tulõ-õs | I didn't come |
- Differences in vocabulary between Estonian and the Võro language can be clearly seen in everyday speech (yet a common Estonian is able to understand most everyday Võro words, since many of them exist in Standard Estonian as dialectal synonyms for the words given or in literary language):
| Estonian | Võro | Estonian (dialectal) literary word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| punane | verrev | verev | red |
| soe | lämmi | lämmi, lämbe | warm |
| jahe | oigõ | - | cool, chilly |
| õde | sõsar | sõsar- (in compound words) | sister |
| uus | vahtsõnõ | vastne | new |
| koer | pini | peni | dog |
| pöial | päss | - | thumb |
| pesema | mõskma | mõskma | to wash |
| tänavu | timahavva | - | this year |
| hunt | susi | susi | wolf |
| mäger | kähr | - | badger |
| laupäev | puulpäiv | - | Saturday |
| surema | kuulma | koolma | to die |
| sõstar | hõrak | - | currant |
| kask | kõiv | kõiv | birch |
| nutma | ikma | itkema | to weep |
| märkama | rõbahtama | - | to notice |
[edit] Basic greetings
- Tereq! - Hello! Good day!
- (Tere) hummogust - Good morning
- (Tere) õdagust - Good evening
- Hääd üüd / hüvvä üüd - Good night
- Näemiq - See you later
- Hüvvä / hääd nägemist - Goodbye
- Rõõm nätäq - Nice to meet you
- Aiteh / Aitjumma - Thank you
- Aiteh sullõ kah - Likewise
- Kuis lätt - How are you / How you doing?
- Häste - I'm fine
- Olõq terveq tulõmast! - Welcome!
[edit] Important words
- jah / jaa - yes
- ei - no
- ma olõ - I am
- maq, saq, tä - I, you, he/she
- miiq, tiiq, nääq - we, you, they
- seo - this, it
- taa / tuu - that, it
- muidoki - of course
- Üts silmäpilk - One moment!
- Mul om - I have
- Sul om - You have
- Kas sul om? - do you have?
- üts, kats, kolm - one, two, three
- neli, viis, kuus - four, five, six
- säidse, katõsa - seven, eight
- ütesä, kümme - nine, ten
- sada, tuhat, mill'on - hundred, thousand, million
- vabandust / pallõ andis - sorry or excuse me
- vesi - water
- oluq - beer
- Eesti - Estonia
- Võromaa - Võro area
- võro kiil - Võro language
- võrokõnõ - Võro (person)
- eestläne - Estonian (person)
- saa-i arvo - I don't understand
- saa arvo - (I) understand
- Kas võro kiilt mõistat? - Do you understand Võro?
- Kas inglüse kiilt kõnõlõt? - Do you speak English?
- Ma olõ ingläne / ameeriklanõ / kanadalanõ / austraallanõ / vahtsõmeremaalanõ / iirläne / sotlanõ - I am English / American / Canadian / Australian / New Zealander / Irish / Scottish
- Kas ti olõt ingläne? - Are you English?
- Kon sa elät / kon ti elät? - Where do you live?
[edit] Bibliography
- Eller, Kalle (1999): Võro-Seto language. Võro Instituut'. Võro.
- Jüvä, Sullõv (2002): Võro-eesti synaraamat (Võro-Estonian dictionary). Publications of Võro Institute 12. Tarto-Võro.
- Keem, Hella (1997): Võru keel. Võro Instituut ja Eesti teaduste akadeemia Emakeele selts. Tallinn.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Võro-Estonian dictionary (Võro Institute)
- Võro Institute
- Võro language newspaper "Uma Leht"
- Audio example of Võro language
- "Estonian dialects and layers" on http://www.estonica.org
- Swadesh list for Baltic-Finnic languages
- Homepage of computer programs in Võro
- English-Võro dictionary of computer terms
- Eurominority (in English)
- Uralic languages (Salminen 2003)
- Online games in Võro language
| Finno-Ugric languages | |||
| Ugric | Hungarian | Khanty | Mansi | ||
| Permic | Komi | Komi-Permyak | Udmurt | ||
| Finno-Volgaic | Mari | Erzya | Moksha | Merya† | Meshcherian† | Muromian† | ||
| Sami | Akkala Sami† | Inari Sami | Kemi Sami† | Kildin Sami | Lule Sami | Northern Sami | Pite Sami | Skolt Sami | Southern Sami | Ter Sami | Ume Sami | ||
| Baltic-Finnic | Estonian | Finnish | Ingrian | Karelian | Kven | Livonian | Ludic | Meänkieli | South Estonian | Veps | Votic | Võro † denotes extinct |
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