This is the second part of the paper published in the opening issue of the journal in 2025, it examines the phonetic and word-formation features of the most reliable linguistic data from the extinct Finno-Ugric varieties once spoken in the Historical Meryan Lands (HML), together with their closest parallels in the Volga-Finnic languages. A historical-phonetic and word-formation analysis of the material supports the earlier conclusion that the linguistic landscape of the HML prior to Russian settlement did not consist of a single language, but of several Finno‑Ugric dialects or languages. The lexical, phonetic and word-formation features observed correspond broadly to those found across the Volga-Finnic branch (Finnic, Mordvin, Mari, and to a lesser extent Saami). Distinct isoglosses can be identified and contrasted, and they represent not merely dialectal but, in many cases, linguistic divisions within the Volga-Finnic continuum. At the same time, these isoglosses intersect in different ways, indicating a linguistic situation far more complex than the recently proposed tripartite division into “Rostov”, “Kostroma” and “Murom” Meryan dialects. The material analysed demonstrates that the hypothesised “language of the Merya and Muroma” cannot be genetically aligned with any of the known Volga‑Finnic languages. The most plausible scenario is that the substrate Volga-Finnic languages of the HML represent independent offshoots of a broader Proto-Volga-Finnic community. Some of these varieties were in close contact with Finnic and Mordvin languages, while others developed affinities with Proto-Mari or Proto-Saami. The article further suggests that the ethnonym *märə may have been used in its original form by the indigenous Volga-Finnic population during the period of the Gorodets culture (second half of the first millennium AD ), in a manner comparable (albeit only typologically) to the emergence of the ethnonym *rus’ among the Eastern Slavs. The phonetic features reconstructed for the Volga-Finnic varieties of the HML are consistent with the derivation of the ethnonyms Merya, Mari and Muroma from this original märə form.
Maarja-Liisa Pilvik, Liina Lindström, Helen Plado
et al.
Artiklis vaatleme hulgasõnast osa, enamik ja enamus ning mitmuslikust komplektisõnast moodustatud fraaside struktuurilist ja semantilist varieerumist tänapäeva eesti keeles. Lähemalt keskendume hulgasõna arvu (nt osale inimestele, osadele inimestele), komplektisõna käände (enamikku inimesi, enamikku inimestest) ning verbi vormi valikut (enamus inimesi läheb ~ lähevad) mõjutavate tegurite analüüsile. Nii hulgasõna valikut kui ka kõiki kolme varieerumise aspekti on varasemalt seotud käimasoleva keelemuutusega, milles hulgasõnast põhi ja komplektisõnast laiendiga kvantorifraas on asendumas hulgasõnast laiendi ja komplektisõnast põhjaga nimisõnafraasiga. Keelekasutajaid on võinud sealjuures motiveerida vajadus eristada hulgasõna kvantifitseerivat ja määratlevat funktsiooni. Uurimuse tulemused kinnitavad paljusid varasemaid, väiksema materjali põhjal tehtud või intuitsioonil põhinevaid tähelepanekuid, ent toovad lisaks esile fraaside süntaktilise rolli olulisuse: fraasisisese arvuühildumise võimalikuks lähtekohaks on tõenäoliselt adverbiaalid, samas kui hulgasõna määratlev funktsioon on kinnistumas pigem subjektina toimivates fraasides. Muu hulgas näeme keelemuutuse levikul ka selget žanri ja tekstiloome spontaansuse mõju.
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"On the border of noun phrases and quantifier phrases: osa ‘some’, enamik ‘most’, and enamus ‘most; majority’ as quantifiers" *** In this article, we examine the structural and semantic variation of phrases which are formed with the quantifiers osa ‘some’, enamik ‘most’, or enamus ‘most; majority’, and plural set nouns in contemporary Estonian. We focus specifically on the analysis of factors influencing the number agreement of the quantifier (e.g., enamikule inimestele, enamikele inimestele ‘to some people’), the case form of the set noun (e.g., enamikku inimesi ‘most people,’ enamikku inimestest ‘most (of the) people’), and the verbal number agreement (e.g., enamus inimesi läheb ~ lähevad ‘most people go’). Both the choice of quantifier and all three aspects of variation have previously been linked to an ongoing linguistic change, in which the quantifier as the head and set noun as the modifier in quantifier phrases are being replaced by noun phrases with quantifier as the modifier and the set noun as the head. The motivation behind this change might stem from the need to distinguish the quantifying and specifying functions of the quantifier. This study’s results confirm many previous observations, made either on a smaller data set or based on intuition, but additionally highlight the importance of the syntactic role of phrases: the potential source of number agreement within phrases is likely adverbials, while the specifying function of the quantifier is increasingly solidifying in phrases where it serves as the subject. Among other things, we also see a clear effect of genre and the degree of text editing in the expansion of this linguistic change.
Adpositions localize an entity (Figure) with respect to another entity (Ground), designated by the complement of the adposition. Most Finnic adpositions are postpositions with a genitive Ground, while prepositions typically have a partitive Ground. This work is a cognitive-linguistic study of the synchronic and diachronic semantics of partitive-Ground adpositions. It is argued that adpositions with a partitive Ground select a proximal perspective to the locational relationship, while those with a genitive Ground select a distal perspective. Three alternative hypotheses are introduced and compared concerning the origin of two Finnish partitive-Ground adpositions, kohti ‘towards’ and päin ‘towards’: 1) These adpositions originated as instructive-case bodypart expressions of position (cf. selin ‘with one’s back at’), and their partitive Ground indicated a viewpoint person; 2) They were instructive forms with a meronymic-locative meaning, expressing a more precise target area within the Ground, together with a directionality toward that area; 3) The Ground of kohti and päin was originally a partitive object of ‘aiming’ or ‘shooting’ verbs, and the soon-to-be adpositions themselves were lexicalized adverbs of direction. Kokkuvõte. Tuomas Huumo: Milleks partitiiv? Kaassõnade laiendit markeeriva partitiivkäände motiividest läänemeresoome keeltes. Kaassõnad suhestavad trajektori orientiiriga, mida väljendab kaassõna laiend. Enamik läänemeresoome keelte kaassõnadest on tagasõnad, mille laiend on genitiivis, eessõnade laiend aga on tavaliselt partitiivis. Käesoleva töö eesmärgiks on selgitada partitiivis laiendiga kaassõnade sünkroonilist ja diakroonilist semantikat kognitiivse lingvistika vaatenurgast. Autor väidab, et partitiivlaiendiga kaassõnad valivad asukohasuhtele proksimaalse perspektiivi, erinevalt genitiivlaiendiga kaassõnadest, mis valivad distaalse ja holistilise perspektiivi. Autor pakub välja kolm alternatiivset hüpoteesi, mis puudutavad kahe soome keele partitiivlaiendiga kaassõna, kohti ja päin (mõlemad tähendusega ’suunas, poole’), päritolu: 1) kaassõnad grammatiseerusid instruktiivis kehaosaväljenditest (vrd. selin ’seljaga millegi poole’) ja nende partitiivlaiend väljendas esialgselt vaatleja asukohta; 2) vormid olid lokatiivsed instruktiivid, mis väljendasid meronüümiliselt täpsemat sihtala orientiiri sees; 3) partitiivlaiend oli esialgselt objekt ning väljendas suunatud tegevuse (nt. ’sihtima’, ’laskma’) sihtkohta, tulevased kaassõnad aga olid suunda täpsustavad adverbid.
Itämerensuomen germaanilainojen likvidametateesisubstituutiosta: uusia ja vanhoja tapauksiaTässä artikkelissa käsittelen itämerensuomen vanhoissa germaanilainoissa tavattavaa niin kutsuttua likvidametateesia, jossa sananalkuisen konsonanttiyhtymän jälkiosana oleva likvida heittyy sanansisäiseen asemaan. Alkuun artikkelissa tarkastelen lyhyesti entuudestaankin tunnettuja likvidametateesitapauksia, pääasiallisena mielenkiinnon kohteenani on kuitenkin selvittää, voidaanko kantasuomeen rekonstruoitavat sanat, ksm. *kiiltä-, *purka-, *tarkka, *tarpo-, *turkka- ja *turta, selittää likvidametateesin avulla germaanisiksi lainasanoiksi. Johtopäätökseni artikkelissa on, että mainitut sanat ovat viime kädessä lainautuneet kantagermaaniin rekonstruoiduista sanoista *glītan- ’to shine, sparkle’, *bruk(k)ōn- ’to break, crumble’, *straka- ’stretched’, *þrappōn-/*þrabōn ’to trot’, *struk(k)ōn- ’to stroke’ ja *þrutan ’lack, want; weariness’. Lopuksi pohdin muutamia mahdollisia lisäesimerkkejä ja lainojen ikäämistä. Artikkelini osoittaa, että niinkin tarkkaan tutkitusta aiheesta kuin itämerensuomen germaaniset lainasanat voidaan vielä tehdä uusia etymologisesti varteenotettavia huomioita.
This article briefly presents a new handwritten version of the Lord’s Prayer in Finnish that is currently stored in the National Library of Sweden. It is found in a manuscript attributed to Georg Bruno and dated to the late 16th century. Here we discuss its status and identify its sources. We also question some of the ideas of an earlier researcher of this manuscript.
Kokkuvõte. Ernesta Kazakėnaitė, Petri Kallio: Georg Bruno soomekeelne meieisapalve 16. sajandist. Aastal 1955 leidis Lätis sündinud Rootsi teoloog Haralds Biezais Rootsi Rahvusraamatukogu arhiivist 16. sajandi käsikirja, mis sisaldas ühe esimestest lätikeelsetest meieisapalvetest. Tõenäoliselt Georg Bruno poolt kirjutatud käsikirjas on veel 19 muukeelset meieisapalvet, mis on seni uurimata. Artikkel esitab filoloogilise ülevaate käsikirja soomekeelsest meieisapalvest, mis osutub koopiaks Sebastian Münsteri raamatu Cosmographei 1561. aasta trükist.
This article examines the usage patterns and declining process of possessive suffixes in Finnic languages. Possessive suffixes are pronoun originated grammatical markers that have cognates in all branches of Uralic language. Alongside their main function as adnominal possessive markers, they are known to have a range of other meanings and functions, such as emphasizing the referent of a personal pronoun. The role of possessive suffixes has also been significant in the development of reflexive and possessive-reflexive pronominal constructions. Even in languages where no longer in use, possessive suffixes have left their mark on these constructions. In Finnic languages, the use of possessive suffixes has either ceased or it is on decline, though the details of the declining process display variation across the languages. Several stages of decline can be observed, and they are accessed by comparing the same or similar text material, as well as grammatical descriptions of Finnic languages.
В работе на материале шести прибалтийско-финских идиомов (вепсского, северного и ливвиковского вариантов карельского языка, сето, финского и эстонского) рассматривается подкласс неопределенных местоимений, который в литературе часто именуется отрицательными местоимениями. Материалом исследования послужили переводы текстов Евангелий на эти языки. Под отрицательными местоимениями подразумеваются такие неопределенные местоимения, которые в основном используются в сфере действия сентенциального отрицания, а также, возможно, в некоторых близких контекстах (контекстах с нисходящей монотонностью или контекстах со снятой утвердительностью). В статье описывается дистрибуция отрицательных местоимений в прибалтийско-финских языках и показывается, что эти единицы распадаются на две группы. В финском и северном карельском языках отрицательные местоимения образуются на основе аддитивного показателя -kaan/-kana соответственно, чья дистрибуция ограничена отрицательными контекстами. Дистрибуция этих местоимений соответствует сильным единицам отрицательной полярности (strong Negative Polarity Item (NPI)), поскольку, помимо собственно отрицательных контекстов, они могут употребляться при предикатах с импликацией отрицания, во вложенной клаузе при отрицании матричного предиката, а также в общих вопросах, однако они исключаются из иных контекстов, типичных для NPI, например, не употребляются в протазисе условной конструкции. Для ливвиковского карельского и вепсского языков характерны местоимения с префиксом ni-, который был заимствован из русского. Эти единицы ведут себя как единицы отрицательного согласования (Negative Concord Item (NCI)): они могут использоваться только в присутствии в одной локальной области с ними показателя отрицания. Отмечается, что вепсские и ливвиковские местоимениями на ni- отличаются в дистрибуции. Наконец, для эстонского и сето не характерны специальные отрицательные местоимения. Вместо этого используются местоимения на -gi, имеющие крайне широкую дистрибуцию. В эстонском эти местоимения могут в отрицательных контекстах дополнительно модифицироваться показателем присловного отрицания mitte. The article deals with the subset of indefinite pronouns which are often denoted in the literature as negative pronouns in six Finnic languages (Estonian, Finnish, North and Livvi Karelian, Seto and Veps). The data for the study comes from the translations of the Gospel texts into those languages. Negative pronouns are understood as such indefinite pronouns which are used primarily in the scope of negation and in some related contexts (downward-entailing or non-veridical). The distribution of negative pronouns in the text is described. It is shown that different types of negative pronouns are used in these languages. Finnish and North Karelian have a series of negative pronouns formed with the additive operator -kaan (-kana in North Karelian), which is used primarily in negative contexts. It is argued that these pronouns should be analyzed as strong Negative Polarity Items because they could occur in the contexts where an overt marker of negation is not present, such as the scope of adversative predicates, embedded clause of the negated matrix predicate or polar questions. Livvi Karelian and Veps employ pronouns with the prefix ni- borrowed from Russian. These pronouns behave like Negative Concord Items because they occur only in the presence of the clausemate sentential negation marker. Some differences in the distribution of these items are attested. Finally, Seto and Estonian do not have any special series of negative pronouns. Instead, the -gi pronouns, which have a very broad distribution, are used in these contexts. In Estonian, these can be modified by the marker of constituent negation mitte.
The digitization of large archival collections of oral folk poetry in Finland and Estonia has opened possibilities for large-scale quantitative studies of intertextuality. As an initial methodological step in this direction, I present a method for pairwise line-by-line comparison of poems using the weighted sequence alignment algorithm (a.k.a. ‘weighted edit distance’). The main contribution of the paper is a novel description of the algorithm in terms of matrix operations, which allows for much faster alignment of a poem against the entire corpus by utilizing modern numeric libraries and GPU capabilities. This way we are able to compute pairwise alignment scores between all pairs from among a corpus of over 280,000 poems. The resulting table of over 40 million pairwise poem similarities can be used in various ways to study the oral tradition. Some starting points for such research are sketched in the latter part of the article.
The article examines the possible Finnic origin of 24 word roots found in the Livonian-like Vainiži dialect of Latvian, spoken in Limbaži region, north-western Latvia, which have either not been hitherto discussed in etymological literature or whose available interpretation leaves to be desired.
"Finnish as a source language, Hungarian as a target language: Is it possible to learn language by translating?".
Translation was commonly used as a language learning method before the functional communicative approach appeared. In earlier decades, the pedagogical emphasis was placed on formalistic language learning and translating textbooks word by word, whereas today the focus is on communication and functional language learning. In our project, university students translate authentic texts in interaction with each other. Meanwhile, they describe the translation processes. The aim of our research is to examine to what extent translating may prove to be a useful and efficient way to teach and learn a language. We analyse how the students improve their language skills and learn not only the language but also tools to describe the process.
The context of the study is a Finnish language translation course in a Hungarian university. During the course, the students translated Finnish fiction into Hungarian under the supervision of a Finnish language teacher and a translation teacher. At the start of the course, an introductory lecture was given on translation theories and methods. After that the students produced a translation sample and a comment on their translation. A translation sample with a comment was also written at the end of the course. The authentic texts translated during the course were Finnish speculative fiction short stories on environment-related themes. The students were advised to describe their process of translation during the whole project.
In our article, we analyse how the students described their learning process, and how their skills developed during the translation process. The results demon strate that different translator competences improved during the process, but the development of the language competence appeared the most pivotal. This may be due to the students’ presumption of the essence of translating: prior to the course, they regarded translating as a way to learn the language, which presumably lead them to pay special attention to language learning also in their comments.
This study reports two experiments that investigate the variation between two Estonian third-person referential devices – zero reference vs. the overt pronoun ta. First, in a speech-restoration paradigm (Experiment 1), we test whether the structure of a reference chain affects referential choice. Second, drawing on Experiment 1, we designed an acceptability judgement task (Experiment 2) to explore a possible systematic variation between zero reference vs. overt pronoun in different sentential configurations (two separated sentences vs. one coordinated sentence). Our findings suggest that sentential configuration affects referential choice. Thus, our study accords with earlier observations that salience-only accounts cannot fully explain referential choice. Furthermore, this study supports the form-specific account of reference, by showing that zero reference is more sensitive to sentential configuration than the overt pronoun. We suggest that along with microstructure and the local coherence effects on referential devices, it is necessary to consider macrostructure and the effect of discourse segmenting on referential devices.
Kokkuvõte. Helen Hint, Maria Reile, Elsi Kaiser: Kolmanda isiku eksplitsiitne pronoomen ja nullviitamine eesti keeles. Tähelepanekuid kahe katse tulemustest. Artiklis analüüsime eesti keele kolmanda isiku nullviitamise ja eksplitsiitse personaalpronoomeni ta vaheldumist ja referentsiaalseid omadusi. Viisime läbi kaks katset. Esimeses katses uurisime, kas valikut nullviitamise ja ta vahel mõjutab viiteahela struktuur ehk see, millised on olnud eelnevad samale referendile osutavad viitevahendid. Teises katses testisime, kas viitevahendi vastuvõetavuse hinnangut mõjutab lausete omavahelise ühendamise viis (kas kasutatakse kaht iseseisvat lauset või üht kahe rindliikmega lauset). Katsete tulemused näitavad, et viiteahela struktuur nullviitamise ja eksplitsiitse pronoomeni valikut üksinda ei mõjuta, vaid on seotud lausungite ühendamisega. Viimane on aga oluline tunnus eraldiseisvana: nullviitamine on tavalisem siis, kui kasutatakse üht rinnastusseoses olevate liikmetega lauset, ta esineb pigem siis, kui kaks (liht)lauset on omavahel punktiga eraldatud. Teisalt mõjutab lausete ühendamise viis eelkõige nullviitamist, samas kui ta kasutus ei näita selle tunnuse suhtes olulisi erinevusi. Siinne uurimus osutab selgelt, et viitevahendite kasutuses peegeldub diskursuse töötluse mitmetahulisus. Lisaks kohesioonisuhetele mõjutab viitevahendi valikut diskursuse üldisem ülesehitus. Seega on siinse uurimuse tulemused kooskõlas mitmefaktorilise ja vormispetsiifilise lähenemisega viitamisele.
The paper studies a correlation between the duration of a consonant and the length or presence of the following vowel in the Finnic varieties of Ingria of the Lower Luga region: dialects of the Finnish, Ingrian and Votic languages, as well as in a mixed Siberian Ingrian/Finnish variety which also originates from the same region. Our first hypothesis (a) about a compensatory (inversely proportional) lengthening of preceding consonants which accompanies the final vowel loss was confirmed on the basis of the three idiolects with a high percentage of final vowel loss (two Southern Lower Luga Ingrian and one Siberian speaker). These idiolects can be considered to be at an intermediate stage of the final vowel reduction between the Finnish language, which has no reduction, and the Estonian language, where the short final vowel has been completely lost from the disyllabic words of the structures discussed in the paper (CVVCV and CVCxCyV). In our data, C2 directly preceding the reduced V2 (i.e. the short intervocalic consonant in the CVVCV structure or the second consonant of an intervocalic cluster in a CVCxCyV structure) is lengthened if the final vowel is lost. In Estonian, either the long vowel of the first syllable (in the *CVVCV > CVV:C structure) or the first consonant in the cluster (in the *CVCxCyV > *CVCx:Cy structure) had been lengthened. On the other hand, C2 lengthening in our data is often phonetically manifested as a slight post-aspiration of this consonant rather than through a prolongation of its main articulation. Durations of C2 and C2x were the longest in the Siberian data, which represent the most advanced stage of the reduction and loss of V2 among the studied varieties. Our second hypothesis (b) about an anticompensatory (directly proportional) lengthening of the word-initial consonant (C1) before a long vowel (V1), as compared to the position before the short V1, was also generally confirmed. However, a statistically significant increase in the duration of C1 before a long V1 was found only for the Votic speaker, while for the rest of speakers, it was observed only as a weak insignificant trend. The compared structures CVVCV and CVCxCy, however, differed not only in the length of V1, but also in the length of C2 (single consonant vs. cluster), so their comparison was not perfect to study this effect. In general, the type of interaction between the duration of some segments and the length or presence of other segments in the studied Finnic varieties seems to depend, at least partially, on the stage of the final vowel reduction and loss. This type of interaction may also be different for the first and second syllable. The correlation between C1 duration and V1 length does not depend on the degree of V2 reduction, while the correlation between C2 duration and the presence of V2 apparently does
This article analyses dialect lexemes recorded in the Russian dialects of Karelia, which genetically go back to the Finnic lexical fund and represent a fragment of the semantic field “A speaking person”. The purpose of the article is to describe the features of the adaptation of loanwords and the peculiarities of their functioning in Russian dialects at the formal-grammatical level. Such an analysis of a genetically and semantically related group of words borrowed into dialects has never been carried out previously. The author focuses on verbal nominations denoting the speaking process and derivatives from them referring to Russian dialect and etymological dictionaries and dialectological and etymological research as a source base. For comparison, the author uses data from dictionaries of the Karelian, Vepsian, and Finnish languages. The analysis of words reveals a high variability of the material due to the adaptation of genetically different morphemes. As a foreign word entered the system of the receiving language, the root morpheme carried the main load, and to adapt it, the language used a Slavic word-formation element. The correlation of the derived nominations demonstrates that there are certain lacunae in the fixation of materials due to the peculiarities of data collection. In some cases, missing lexemes can be reconstructed according to well-known grammatical and most popular and active word-formation models in the Russian language. Also, the author puts forward a hypothesis about the time of possible occurrence of such words in the system of dialects. Russian studies of the features of formal and grammatical adaptation of the nominations of the speech process prove that loanwords first became a fact of the lexical system of the Russian language in the border territories of interaction between Russians and Veps and Karelians, and then they were introduced into the speech of Russian-speaking residents of Karelia in a wider space. The latter is confirmed by the geography of the existence of the studied lexemes related to the Russian dialects of Karelia and adjacent regions. The author pays special attention to bright indicators of borrowing at the grammatical and morphemic levels — the verbs ending in -андать/-айдать.
Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot (Old Poems of the Finnish People) is a collection of nearly 90,000 oral folk poems written down between 1564 and the early 20th century. It is characterized by frequent reoccurrence of similar pieces of text on various levels (from entire poems, through passages to single verses and collocations). However, finding these similarities is challenging due to a high degree of orthographical, morphological, and compositional variation. In this article, we propose a method for automatically identifying equivalent verses, i.e. verses conveying the same meaning with the same words, using a clustering based on cosine similarity of character bigram vectors. The method achieves around 81% F-score and has been successfully used for identifying similarities across the entire SKVR corpus on the level of verse, passage, and poem. The results can be browsed through a Web interface.
This article represents a first step in the corpus-based study of metric variation in Finnic runosong, a poetic tradition shared by several Finnic peoples and documented extensively in the 19th and 20th centuries. Runosong metre has generally been assumed to be a syllabic tetrametric trochee with specific rules about the placement of stressed syllables according to their quantity: long stressed syllables occupy the strong positions in the trochaic schema while short stressed syllables appear in the weak positions. Recent studies by Mari Sarv (2008, 2015, 2019) of Estonian runosong metre have shown, however, that due to linguistic changes, it has gradually lost its quantitative properties and acquired the features of accentual metre. Using computational methods, this study aims to give a preliminary overview of the extent of metric variation on the quantitative-accentual scale across the entire Finnic runosong area. After an approximate syllabification, we apply two separate indirect methods for estimating variation. These appear to generate coherent results: quantitative runosong metre dominates in the north-east and has gradually been replaced by accentual runosong metre towards the south-west. Subsequent studies should verify these results through more precise and detailed investigations.
Abstract This article discusses a group of South Finnic languages and/or dialects that share common phonological features. These languages and dialects are Livonian, Mulgi South Estonian, Island North Estonian and Western North Estonian, all deriving from Proto-Finnic. In contemporary Finnic taxonomy, the first language to diverge from Proto-Finnic was South Estonian, followed by Livonian, and later by North Estonian and Votic. Nevertheless, all the mentioned languages have converged after their initial divergence, resulting in an areal grouping called South Finnic. The contribution of this article is to assess linguistic features shared by the mentioned languages and dialects and what their nature can reveal. I argue that the features point to a new understanding of Finnic taxonomy in that the addition of a narrower group of Southwest Finnic can be justified as a Finnic branch.