Ingrian

Ingrian Ingermaniska
Type	Fusional
Alignment
Head direction
Tonal	No
Declensions	No
Conjugations	No
Genders
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect
Meta-information
Progress	1%
Statistics Nouns 3% Verbs 1% Adjectives 0% Syntax 0% Words of 1500
Creator	[[User:|]]

Ingrian (natively Ingermaniska [iŋɣermɑniskɑ]) is a nearly extinct Germanic language spoken natively by approximately only 200 of the Ingrian Germanics in scattered areas between the Northern Dvina River and Pechora River. It is a predominantly fusional language which has various polysynthetic tendencies. It originated from Proto-Northwest-Germanic-speaking or Proto-Germanic-speaking Swedes who arrived and settled in northern Estonia in the 2nd century BC. From there the language had spread throughout all of the Ingrian region by Late Antiquity and into northwestern Russia and southern Finland by the Early Middle Ages, peaking in the 12th century then entering gradual decline ever since. This language and its entire Germanic branch were entirely forgotten until archaeological evidence was first found northwest of Lake Onega during the 1930's and surviving speakers were first found in 1989 west of Ukhta, Russia.

Classification and Dialects

Ingrian is the only surviving language of the Ingric branch of Germanic language. There are three branches of this family, the North, West, and East Ingric languages, of which Ingrian is a member of the Western Branch. This language family was formerly spoken in a range stretching from the Gulf of Finland in the west to the Pechora River in the east to Karelia in the North but has greatly declined in the past millenium. During this time, Ingrian was spoken around the Gulf of Finland within the Ingrian Empire, which existed from the 6th century until the 14th century and whose geographic location was roughly the same as the range of the Ingric languages. However, after the empire collapsed and the language family entered decline, the language shifted eastward and scattered transforming into the range in which it is spoken today. In its present range Ingrian has two regional dialects known as the Dvina and Tsilma Dialects.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio-velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ŋ
Plosive	p b	t d			k kʷ		ʔ*
Fricative	ɸ	θ	s		x ɣ	xʷ ɣʷ	h*
Approximant				j		w
Trill			r
Lateral app.			l

/ʔ/ is sometimes inserted between unseparated vowels.

/h/ is an allophone of /x/ in word-initial position unless followed immediately by another consonant.

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
High	i iː				u uː
Near-high
High-mid	e eː
Mid			ə
Low-mid	ɛː ɛːː				ɔː ɔːː
Near-low
Low					ɑ ɑː

Writing System

Letter	a	á	b	d	e	é	ee	f	g	h	i	í
Sound	ɑ	ɑː	b	d	e, ə	eː, ɛː	ɛːː	ɸ	ɣ	x, h	i	iː
Letter	j	k	l	m	n	ó	oo	p	r	s	t	u
Sound	j	k	l	m	n	oː	oːː	p	r	s	t	u
Letter	ú	v	w	þ	hw	kw	gw
Sound	uː	v	w	θ	xʷ	kʷ	ɣʷ

Lexicon

God-

one- aina

two- twai

three- þriji

four- fedwór

five- fimfe

six- seihs

seven-

eight-

nine-

ten-

letter- bókstaba

name- namoo

mother- módér

father- fadér

brother- bróþér

sister- swestér

daughter- duhtér

son- sunu

thing- þinga

clod- klúta

animal- deu

dog- hunda

cat- kattu

wolf- wulfa

fox- fuhsa

lamb- lamba

sheep- sképa

cow- kú

calf-

Example text

That dog is mine.

Þat hunda ist mína.

That dog is yours.

Þat hunda ist þína.