| Veps language | |
|---|---|
| vepsän kel’ | |
| Spoken in | Russia |
| Region | Republic of Karelia Ingria Vologda Oblast Veps National Volost |
| Ethnicity | Veps |
| Native speakers | 6,360 (1989 census)[1] |
| Language family | |
| Writing system | Latin (Vepsian alphabet) |
| Official status | |
| Official language in | recognised as minority language in: Republic of Karelia[2] |
| Regulated by | No official regulation |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | vep |
The Veps language (also known as Vepsian, natively as vepsän kel’, vepsän keli, or vepsä), spoken by the Vepsians (also known as Veps), belongs to the Finnic group of the Uralic languages. Closely related to Finnish and Karelian, Veps is also written using Latin script.
According to Soviet statistics, 12 500 people were self-designated ethnic Veps at the end of 1989.
According to the location of the people, the language is divided into three main dialects: Northern Veps (at Lake Onega to the south of Petrozavodsk, to the north of the river Svir, including the former Veps National Volost), Central Veps (in the Saint Petersburg region and Vologda Oblast), and Southern Veps (in the Saint Petersburg region). The Northern dialect seems the most distinct of the three; however, it is still possible for speakers of one dialect group to understand those of another. Speakers of the Northern dialect call themselves “Ludi” (lüdikad), or lüdilaižed.
Contents |
Veps is an agglutinating language.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | nado (sister-in-law) | nadod |
| Genitive | nadon | nadoid'en or nadoiden |
| Accusative | nadon, nado (in some cases) | nadod |
| Partitive | nadod | nadoid |
| Translative | nadoks | nadoikš |
| Abessive | nadota | nadoita |
| Comitative | nadonke | nadoidenke |
| Inessive | nados | nadoiš |
| Elative | nadospäi | nadoišpäi |
| Illative | nadoho | nadoihe |
| Adessive | nadol | nadoil |
| Ablative | nadolpäi | nadoilpäi |
| Allative | nadole | nadoile |
| Essive-Instructive | nadon | nadoin |
| Prolative | nadodme | nadoidme |
| Approximative I | nadonno | nadoidenno |
| Approximative II | nadonnoks | nadoidennoks |
| Egressive | nadonnopäi | nadoidennopäi |
| Terminative I | mechasai 'till the forest' | mecoihesai 'till the forests' |
| Terminative II | nadolesai | nadoilesai |
| Terminative III | noressai 'from young days' | |
| Additive I | mechapäi 'in the direction of the forest' | mecoihepäi 'in the direction of the forests' |
| Additive II | nadolepäi | nadoilepäi |
The personal pronouns are of Finno-Ugric origin:
| Veps | English |
| minä | I |
| sinä | you |
| hän | he/she/it |
| mö | we |
| tö | you (plural) |
| hö | they |
| Number | Veps |
| 1 | üks' |
| 2 | kaks' |
| 3 | koume |
| 4 | nell' |
| 5 | viž |
| 6 | kuz' |
| 7 | seičeme |
| 8 | kahesa |
| 9 | ühesa |
| 10 | kümne |
| 11 | üks'toštkümne |
| 12 | kaks'toštkümne |
| 20 | kaks'kümne |
| 34 | koumekümne nell' |
| 100 | sada |
| 1000 | tuha |
The modern Vepsian alphabet is a Latin-based alphabet.[3] It consists of a total of twenty-nine characters: twenty-three are from the basic modern Latin alphabet, five are derived from basic Latin letters by the addition of diacritical marks, and the final character is the apostrophe, which signifies palatalization of the preceding sound.
| Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | B | C | Č | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | Š | Z | Ž | T | U | V | Ü | Ä | Ö | ' |
| Minuscule Forms (also called lowercase or small letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | c | č | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | š | z | ž | t | u | v | ü | ä | ö | ' |
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
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