Votian/Genitive

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Genitive , accusative , instructive

	Singular	Plural
Genitive marker	-n	-iten

Pronunciation

• The final -n is usually pronounced as a prolongation of the preceding vowel e.g. isä+n > izǟ ("father's"), jǟ+n > jǟ ("of ice"), ve̮i+n > ve̮i ("of oil").
• The final -n may be preserved mainly in front of the following words e̮ma, aлā, aллa, aлta, ete̮, ēzä, ēssä, nain ~ naine̮, aika e.g. minūn ̮ e̮ma ("mine"), лahzē̮n ̮ e̮ma ("something belonging to a child"), siллān ̮ aлā ("under the floor"), pǟn ̮ aллa ("under head"), rässǟn ̮ aлta ("under the roof (out) "), rehēn ̮ etē ("into the vestibule"), saunān ̮ ēzä ("into the vestibule of the sauna"), izǟn ̮ aikana ("at my father's time"), t r i f o n ān ̮ nain ("wife of Trifona").
  • In such cases the final -n usually moves into the beginning of the following word ( liaison) e.g. minū ̮ ne̮ma ("mine"), siллā ̮ naлā ("under the floor"), rehē ̮ netē ("into the vestibule").

• The final -n has not been preserved in plural.
  • The plural morpheme -iten may have totally lost it's -ten component to be pronounced as a pure plural stem e.g. jaлka+iten > jaлkoi ("leg" plural genitive), лahse̮+iten > лahsai ("child" plural genitive), lintu+iten > lintui ("bird" plural genitive), lino+iten > linoi ("flax" plural genitive), rattā+iten > rattai ("wheel" plural genitive), ōne̮+iten > ōne̮i ("building" plural genitive), se̮rme̮+iten > se̮rmī ("finger" plural genitive), ke̮ikke̮+iten > ke̮ikkī ("everyone" plural genitive), ińehmīse̮+iten > ińehmīsī ("human" plural genitive).
  • Yet the morpheme -iten is usually pronounced as -jē ( -jē̮ depending in vowel harmony in some dialects ) e.g. jaлka+iten > jaлkojē ("leg" plural genitive), лahse̮+iten > лahsajē ("child" plural genitive), lintu+iten > lintujē ("bird" plural genitive), lino+iten > linojē ("flax" plural genitive), rattā+iten > rattajē ("wheel" plural genitive), ōne̮+iten > ōne̮jē ("building" plural genitive).
  • In every dialect (e.g. Jarvikoištšülä) we may find the pronunciation -d́d́ē ( in some dialects -d́d́ē̮ depending in vowel harmony ) in words like seipǟ+iten > seipäd́d́ē ("picket" plural genitive), jǟ+iten > jäd́d́ē ("ice" plural genitive), koi+iten > kod́d́ē ("moth" plural genitive), tüttärikko+iten > tüttärikkod́d́ē ("girl" plural genitive).

Morphophonology

• All the genitive suffixes take a vowel stem e.g. rataz ('wheel' singular nominative) vs. rattā ( singular genitive ), rattajē ( plural genitive ).
  • Singular genitive is usually in a grade opposite to singular nominative, caused by consonant gradation in stems e.g. kotti ('bag' singular nominative) vs. kotī ( singular genitive ), uhsi ('door' singular nominative) vs. uhzē̮ ( singular genitive ), ammaz (' tooth' singular nominative) vs. ampā (singular genitive) .
  • Plural genitive is always in the strong grade e.g. rataz ('wheel' singular nominative) vs. rattajē ( plural genitive ), linnuD ('bird' plural nominative) vs. lintujē ( plural genitive ) .

Phonological history

• Genitive may have included the former accusative marker -m by a protofinnic sound change * m > n in the end of a word e.g. * sütäm > * sütän > süǟ ~ *südän (in Rudja dialect ) ("heart") vs. süämmē ( singular genitive ).
• The final -n was lost in Votian, Estonian and Livonian dialects of Baltic Finnic group .
• The plural genitive marker of Votian, Ingrian , Karelian , Vepsian , East Finnish and South Estonian dialects * -iten was composed of :

1. a plural marker -i
2. another plural marker -t
3. a buffer -e-
4. and a genitive marker -n

Later on

1. t melt together with -i into -d́d́ or -j caused by consonant gradation in suffixes .
2. The final n melt regularily into preceding vowel ē .
3. Long vowel disappeared in Jõgõperä and the dialects of Estonia.

Usage

1. Genitive serves as an attribute of a (following) noun e.g. poigā tširja ('a letter from (my) son'), se on sigā suku ("They are pig's relatives" = immoral folks), tševǟllä on lintui лauлu iлoza ("In spring the singing of birds is beautiful.").
   1. In lyrics an attribute should not necessarily precede the noun, what it is qualifying e.g. pilvi e̮лi tuллu taivā (" A cloud of the sky had came .").
2. Genitive may serve as an independent possessive noun e.g. se e̮лi minū (" It was mine ."), štop ̮ se e̮лe̮is̄   tämǟ (" It should be his .") vs. minūn ̮ e̮ma ("mine"), лahzē̮n ̮ e̮ma ("something belonging to a child").
3. Genitive marks the agent (in an ergative construction) e.g. f j o k л a   on karū revittü ("Fyokla has been ripped by a bear ."), izǟ tuллe̮za kotōsē̮ ("The time, when father comes home .").
4. Genitive may have dative functions (like in Finnish ) e.g. ke̮ikkī piti e̮ллa (" Everybody had to be (there)."), kumpa sinū näüttīp ̮ pare̮p ke̮ikkia ("Which one (of those two) looks the best for you ."), ohto sinū on savve̮a se̮tkua ("It's enough for you to knead the clay !"), minū be̮лe̮ kuhe̮ mennä (" I have nowhere to go .").
5. Genitive marks a total object of a clause e.g. sōje̮tin vē ("I warmed up the water ").
6. Partitive marks a partial object while nominative or genitive mark a total object of a sentence e.g. tōn süvvä lihā i ve̮ita ("I'll bring (you) some meat and butter to eat." - singular partitive ) vs. tōn lihā i ve̮i ("I'll bring all the meat and butter." - singular genitive ).
   1. See the page of main cases for further details.

Dialectal alternatives

• Votic of Ingria
  • Eastern Votic dialect
    • Short consonants were geminated in front of a long vowel e.g. niz̆zū ("wheat" singular genitive) , tšül̆lǟ ("village" singular genitive).
  • Western
    • Vaipooli
      • Jõgõperä dialect
        • The unstressed final long vowel has not the full length any more e.g. tütterikò ('girl' singular genitive), tämä nōre̮pà poiga nain ('the wife of his younger son'), tähti+iten > tähtijè ("star" plural genitive), tšülä+iten > tšülije ("village" plural genitive).
        • The plural morpheme -iten may be doubled > -d́d́eje ( -d́d́e̮ je̮ depending in vowel harmony ) e.g. pū+iten > pud́d́e̮ je̮ ("tree" plural genitive).

Instructive

	Singular	Plural
Instructive marker	-n	-in

Pronunciation

• The final -n is usually pronounced as a prolongation of the preceding vowel e.g. tšiusa+n > tšiuzā ("despite of (obstacles)"), tšīre+n > tšīrē ("quickly").

• The plural morpheme -in is pronounced as a plural stem with prolonged last vowel e.g. ava+in > avē̮ ("wide open"), pe̮лve̮+in > pe̮лvī ("on (his) knees").

Morphophonology

• Instructive is in a grade opposite to singular nominative, caused by consonant gradation in stems e.g. ke̮ikki > ke̮ikī ("everyone") .

Usage

Instructive is almost out of use and occurs mainly in adverbs. It may indicate:

1. a way how something is done e.g. tēn tȫtä üvī mēlī ('I work with pleasure.'), en ve̮ta vätšizī ("I don't take with force."), лahze̮d ̮ johse̮vat ̮ paĺĺai päi ("Kids are running bareheaded.").
2. a tool , what something is done with e.g. tšäzī tehtī ('It was done by hand.'), tulimma jaлkazī ~ jaлkazē̮ ("We came on foot.").
3. a distributive number , something is done by e.g. kahē̮ko tȫ rōpā seittä ? ("Were there two of you eating out the porridge ? "), mȫ assuzimma tētä mȫ ke̮лmē̮ ("There was three of us walking along the way."), ke̮лmē̮ tšümmenī kopeikō ve̮tti nagлassa ('She took thirty copecks for a pound.'), ke̮лmē̮   vellehsē ~ vellessē ('(It was done) by three brothers '), e̮limma seittsemē naizikō ("We were seven women."), e̮livad ̮ vīzī päivī ("They were there five days each time.").
4. an approximate number e.g. kasenna taлve̮nna eväd ̮ javod ̮ mahza kui ke̮лmī, nellī rubĺī ("This winter flour doesn't cost but about three - four roubles.").

See also

• Grammar of Votian dialects (syllabus)
• Plural
• Plural nominative

References

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