The Ingrian language is a highly endangered language spoken in Ingria, Russia. Ingrian is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, along with, among others, Finnish and Estonian. Ingrian is an agglutinative language and exhibits both vowel harmony and consonant gradation.
In the late 1930s, a written standard of the Ingrian language (referred to as kirjakeeli, "book language") was developed by the Ingrian linguist . Following the Soviet Union's 1937 politics regarding minority languages, the Ingrian written language has been forbidden and Ingrian remains unstandardised ever since. This article describes the grammar of kirjakeeli with references to (modern) dialectal nuances.
Many words in Ingrian display consonant gradation, a grammatical process where the final consonant of a root may change in some inflected forms. Gradated words have two forms, called the strong grade and the weak grade. Follows a list of consonant gradations present in Ingrian, with examples:
| Strong | Weak | Example | Translation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| . | . | ||||
| k | ∅ | jalka | jalan | "foot, leg" | |
| nk | ng | kenkä | kengän | "shoe" | |
| t | ∅ | vahti | vahin | "guard" | |
| lt | ll | ilta | illan | "evening" | |
| rt | rr | merta | merran | "basket" | |
| nt | nn | ranta | rannan | "shore" | |
| st | ss | riista | riissan | "thing" | |
| p | v | apu | avun | "help" | |
| mp | mm | kumpa | kumman | "which" | |
| pp | p | leppä | lepän | "alder" | |
| uut, yyt oot, ööt | uuvv, yyvv oovv, öövv | suuto | suuvvon | "court" | |
| Vut | Vvv | rauta | ravvan | "iron" | |
| Vuk | Vvv | leuka | levvan | "jaw, chin" | |
| Vit | Vij | maito | maijon | "milk" | |
| Vik | Vj | poika | pojan | "boy, son" | |
| eik, iik | eij, iij | reikä | reijän | "hole" | |
In nominals and verbs alike, consonant gemination is an active process where a consonant following a light, uneven syllable, if followed by an (underlyingly) open syllable with a long vowel or a diphthong, is geminated. This process can be seen in the following examples:
sana ("word") → kaks sannaa ("two words")
käkö ("cuckoo") → kaks käkköä ("two cuckoos")This gemination should not be confused with consonant gradation: Both can occur in one word. For instance, pittää ("to keep") has both consonant gradation and gemination:
pittää ("to keep"); miä piän ("I keep"); höö pitävät ("they keep")Consonant gemination does not affect consonants that start an uneven syllable:
literatura ("literature"); literaturaa ("into the literature")Some (recent) loanwords aren't affected by gemination either:
inženera ("engineer"); kaks inženeraa ("two engineers")In the Soikkola dialect, there is a phonological distinction between primary geminates (those that were originally present in Proto-Finnic) and secondary geminates (those formed as a result of gemination). Primary geminates are realised as long, while secondary geminates are short. In the other dialects of Ingrian, both types of geminates are equally long.[1]
In contrast with consonant gemination, nouns that do not have an even number of syllables or do not have a penultimate light syllable, experience vowel elongation in the inessive and adessive endings, where the final vowel becomes long:
paikka ("area") → paikaas ("in the area"), koira ("dog") → koiraal ("on the dog")
orava ("squirrel") → oravaal ("on the squirrel"), Soikkola ("Soikinsky Peninsula") → Soikkolaas ("on the Soikinsky Peninsula")If the noun has consonant gradation, the weak grade determines the vowel length of the inflectional ending:
poika ("boy") → pojal ("on the boy")In the Soikkola dialect, this rule also holds true for the elative, ablative and translative cases:
paikka ("area") → paigaast ("from the area")
orraava ("squirrel") → oravaalt ("off the squirrel")
soomi ("Finnish") → soomeeks ("in Finnish")
The Ingrian language does not distinguish gender in nouns, nor is there a definiteness distinction. Nouns can be declined for both case and number.
Ingrian nouns have thirteen noun cases. Unlike some plural pronouns, nouns don't have the accusative case and its function is taken over by either the genitive in the singular or the nominative in the plural.
| Case | Suffix | English | Example | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nominative (nominativa) | -∅ | - | talo | a house | |
| genitive (genitiva) | -n | of/'s | talon | a house's | |
| partitive (partitiva) | -(t)a / -(t)ä | a bit of | talloa | a bit of a house | |
| illative (illativa) | -V | into | talloo | into a house | |
| inessive (inessiva) | -s | inside | talos | inside a house | |
| elative (elativa) | -st | out of | talost | out of a house | |
| allative (allativa) | -lle | onto | talolle | onto a house | |
| adessive (adessiva) | -l | on top of | talol | on top of a house | |
| ablative (ablativa) | -lt | out of | talolt | out of a house | |
| translative (translativa) | -ks | into (being) | taloks | into (being) a house | |
| essive (essiiva) | -nna / -nnä | as | talonna | as a house | |
| exessive (eksessiva) | -nt | out of (being) | talont | out of (being) a house | |
| comitative (komitativa) | -nka / -nkä | with | talonka | with a house |
Some of the endings differ among dialects. In the Soikkola dialect, for instance, the essive ending is -Vn rather than -nna, yielding talloon. On the other hand, many cases in the Ala-Laukaa dialect contain a final vowel: talossa, talosta, talolla, talolta, talokse, talonta.
The nominative case is used primarily to mark the subject of a verb:
Kana kaakattaa ("The chicken cackles")
Kana muni munan ("The chicken laid an egg")Furthermore, it can be used as a form of address:
Mama, miä tahon söövvä ("Mum, I want to eat")
As mentioned above, the accusative isn't morphologically distinct from the genitive in the singular and the nominative in the plural. The accusative case is used to mark a direct object of an affirmative telic verb:
Poika sööp lihan ("The boy will eat the meat")
Tyttö näki koirat ("The girl saw the dogs")The accusative is identical to the nominative when a direct object of an impersonal verb or a verb in the imperative mood:
Söö liha! ("Eat the meat!")
Söövvää liha ("The meat is eaten")
The partitive is used in a number of functions. First of all, it is used to mark a direct object of an affirmative atelic verb or any negative verb:
Poika sööp lihhaa ("The boy is eating the meat")
Tyttö näki koiria ("The girl was seeing the dogs")
Elä söö lihhaa! ("Do not eat the meat!")
Ämmä ei nää koiraa ("Grandma doesn't see the dog")Secondly, the partitive case is used with numerals (other than yks, "one") and determiners to designate amounts of an object:
Miul on kaks silmää ("I have two eyes")
Miä näin paljo koiria ("I saw a lot of dogs")The partitive can be used to designate indefinite amounts:
Miul on rahhaa ("I have money")The partitive is used in comparative constructions to mark the object of comparison:
Miä oon paremp häntä ("I am better than him")Finally, the partitive is used as an indirect object of some postpositions:
Tämä ono podarka miun lapsia vart. ("This is a present for my children")
The genitive is used primarily to mark a possession by the inflected noun:
Miä näin pojan koiran. ("I saw the boy's dog.")
Lapsiin pere on suur. ("The children's family is big.")Furthermore, it is used as an indirect object of many prepositions and postpositions:
Talon al ei oo mittä. ("Under the house there isn't anything.")
Möö elämmä talon sises. ("We live inside the house.")
The illative is primarily used to describe a direction into something:
Miä mänin talloo. ("I went into the house.")
Miä tokuin merree. ("I fell into the sea.")It is also used to mark the designation of an object:
Tämä poika tööhö ei kelpaa. ("This boy isn't fit for work.")Furthermore, the illative is used to indicate a cause:
Miun emä kooli lässyy. ("My mother died of a sickness.")Finally, the illative is used to denote a timespan during which something didn't happen:
En miä joont kahtee päivää. ("I haven't had a drink in two days.")
The inessive is primarily used to describe a location inside something:
Miä oon talos. ("I am inside the house.")
Miä ujun meres. ("I am swimming in the sea.")It is also used to describe a duration during which something has happened:
Ei stroitettu Rim yhes päivääs. ("Rome wasn't built in one day.")
The elative is primarily used to describe a movement out of something:
Miä tulin talost. ("I came out of the house.")
Miä hyppäisin merest. ("I jumped out of the sea.")It is furthermore used to describe the subject of some kind of information:
Miä luen lehmilöist. ("I am reading about cows.")
Miä kirjutan meijen maast. ("I am writing about our country.")The elative is used to denote a domain to which an object belongs:
Miä oon paremp kaikist lapsist. ("I am the best of all the children.")
Kaikest miun perreest, miä suvvaan vaa miun emmää. ("Out of all my family, I only love my mother")Finally, the elative is used to denote a material from which something is made:
Miä tein pöksyt täst kankaast. ("I made trousers from this fabric.")
Laps teki samoljotan paperist. ("The child made an airplane from paper.")
The allative is primarily used to describe motion onto something:
Miä hyppäisin kannelle. ("I jumped onto the table.")
Kolja pani koiran stoolille. ("Kolja put the dog on the chair.")It is furthermore used in a dative function to mark an indirect object:
Miä annoin hänelle omenan. ("I gave him an apple.")
Mitä hää siulle saoi? ("What did he say to you?")
The adessive is primarily used to describe a location on top of something:
Miä issun kanneel. ("I am sitting on the table.")
Koljan koira ležžii stooliil. ("Kolja's dog is lying on the chair.")It is also commonly used in a construction with the verb olla ("to be") to denote a possession:
Miul ono kirja. ("I have a book.")
Lapseel ovat pöksyt. ("The child has trousers.")In the Soikkola dialect, the adessive is used instead of the comitative to denote an instrument of an action:
Miä kirjutan krandoššiil. ("I am writing with a pencil.")
Miä kuuntelen korviil. ("I am listening with [my] ears.")Finally, the adessive is used to denote a location in time:
Ööl suet jahtiijaat. ("At night, the wolves hunt.")
Kesäl ilma ono lämmää. ("In summer, the weather is warm.")
The primary function of the ablative is to describe a motion off of something:
Miä hyppäisin kanelt. ("I jumped off the table.")
Kolja nosti koiran stolilt. ("Kolja picked the dog up from the table.")It is furthermore used to mark a source of an action:
Miä sain hänelt omenan. ("I got an apple from him.")
Mitä hää siult kuuli? ("What did he hear from you?")
The primary function of the translative is to describe one's change of state towards being something:
Miä tahon noissa siun ystäväks. ("I want to become your friend.")
I konna muuttui käppiäks tytöks. ("And the frog turned into a beautiful lass.")It is also used to denote that an action was or will be done by a specific point in time:
Hää noisen sinnua unohtamaa voovven lopuks. ("He will forget you by the end of the year.")
Pittää meille ostaa podarkoja hänen nimipäiväks. ("We need to buy birthday presents for her birthday.")Finally, the translative is used in many fixed impressions:
Miä läkkään ižoraks. ("I speak Ingrian")
Tämä poika näyttiijää oikiin käppiäks. ("This boy is (seems) very pretty.")
The primary function of the essive is to describe one's current state of being:
Miun isä tekköö töötä kalastajanna. ("My father works as a fisherman.")
Miun emä ompelianna jaksaa laatia siun pöksylöjä. ("As a tailor, my mother can fix your trousers.")It is also used to denote the point of time when an action occurs:
Pyhännä möö määmmä kirkkoo. ("On sunday we will go to church.")
Nimipäivännä miä sain paljo podarkoja. ("On my birthday I received a lot of presents.")
The exessive is a rare case, and is practically not used outside of the literary language. It's used only to describe a change of state out of being something:
Miä tulin pois ompeliant. ("I stopped being a tailor.")
A stem is the part of a word that can be changed by adding inflectional endings, and in most nominals corresponds to the nominative singular.
Ingrian has several paradigms that involve a vowel that all endings are added onto. When pluralised, however, this vowel might change:
| stem vowel | English | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -a | chicken | kana | kanan | kannaa | kannaa | kanat | kannoin | kanoja | kannoi | Followed by nominals ending in -a when following a syllable with a, e or i and recent loanwords. | |
| -a | dog | koira | koiran | koiraa | koiraa | koirat | koiriin | koiria | koirii | Followed by native nominals ending in -a when following a syllable with o or u. | |
| -ä | summer | kesä | kesän | kessää | kessää | kesät | kessiin | kessiä | kessii | ||
| -a/-ä | parent | vanhemp (<*vanhempa) | vanhemman | vanhempaa | vanhempaa | vanhemmat | vanhempiin | vanhempia | vanhempii | Followed by nominals with historically an underlying final -a or -ä that underwent full vowel reduction. | |
| -e | leaf | lehti (<*lešte) | lehen | lehtiä | lehtee | lehet | lehtilöin | lehtilöjä | lehtilöihe | Followed by nominals where (pre-)Proto-Finnic *-e regularly changed to -i. | |
| -i | guard | vahti | vahin | vahtia | vahtii | vahit | vahtiloin | vahtiloja | vahtiloihe | Followed by relatively recent borrowings, from after the Proto-Finnic period, ending in -i. | |
| -o/-ö, -u/-y | birch | koivu | koivun | koivua | koivuu | koivut | koivuin, koivuloin | koivuja, koivuloja | koivuihe, koivuloihe | ||
| -VV | earth | maa | maan | maata | maaha | maat | maijen | maita | maihe | Followed by nouns ending in long vowels and diphthongs. The illative takes on the final vowel, unless it's i, in which case the ending is -e. |
Other nouns have their endings attached on a consonant base.
The largest group of these are nouns ending (underlyingly) in a -i, which resemble e-stems like lehti. The only difference between this paradigm and that of e-stems is the partitive singular, where the ending is added onto the consonant and is -ta (-tä), rather than -a (-ä).
The final consonant of these nouns must be either h, l, m, n, r, s or t:
| English | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tongue | keeli | keelen | keeltä | keelee | keelet | keeliin | keeliä | keelii | |
| big | suur (<*suuri) | suuren | suurta | suuree | suuret | suuriin | suuria | suurii |
| English | . | . | . | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| knife | veitsi | veitsen | veistä | In a cluster -Cs, the partitive singular stem is -s. | |
| child | laps | lapsen | lasta | ||
| water | vesi | veen | vettä | Word-final *-ti regularly became -si. | |
| five | viis | viijen | viittä | ||
| snow | lumi | lumen | lunta | m assimilates to the following t. | |
| one | yks | yhen | yhtä | In the nominative singular and in the plural, *-kt became -ks, while in the singular and nominative plural it became -ht (~ -h) |
| English | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | päivyt | päivyen | päivyttä | päivyesse | päivyet | päivyein | päivyeitä | päivyeisse | |
| beer | olut | olluen | olutta | olluesse | olluet | olluein | ollueita | ollueisse |
Another large group of nouns in Ingrian end in the consonant -s. These, again, come in various inflection types:
| stem consonant(s) | English | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -nt- | third | kolmas | kolmannen | kolmatta | kolmantee | kolmannet | kolmansiin | kolmansia | kolmansii | Before -i, the stem consonants change to -ns-. In the partitive singular, the stem extends to -tt-. | |
| -h- | man | mees | meehen | meestä | meehee | meehet | meehiin | meehiä | meehii | ||
| -∅- | column | patsas | patsaan | patsasta | patsaasse | patsaat | patsain | patsaita | patsaisse | In the Soikkola dialect, the stem consonant -h- is retained (for instance, the genitive singular is patsahan) | |
| -ks- | treason | petos | petoksen | petosta | petoksee | petokset | petoksiin | petoksia | petoksii | ||
| -ks- | law | oikehus | oikehuen | oikehutta | oikehuee | oikehuet | oikehuksiin | oikehuksia | oikehuksii | The stem consonants only appears in the plural; In the singular, the stem-final -s is elided, while in the partitive, the stem extends to -tt-. |
Ingrian adjectives are inflected identically to nouns, and agree in number to the modified noun. In all cases but the comitative, the case of the adjectives also agree with the case of the noun. A noun in the comitative is modified by an adjective in the genitive:
| Ingrian | English | |
|---|---|---|
| suur poika | "a big boy" | |
| suuren pojan | "of the big boy" | |
| kaks suurta poikaa | "two big boys" | |
| suuren pojanka | "with the big boy" | |
| suuret pojat | "big boys" |
The comparative degree of Ingrian adjectives is generally formed by adding the suffix -mp to the adjective:
| Positive degree | English | Comparative degree | English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| korkia | "high" | korkiamp | "higher" | |
| noori (noore-) | "young" | nooremp | "younger" |
| Positive degree | English | Comparative degree | English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| vanha | "old" | vanhemp | "older" | |
| pitkä (pitä-) | "long" | pitemp | "longer" |
| Ingrian | English | |
|---|---|---|
| suuremp poika | "the bigger boy" | |
| suuremman pojan | "of the bigger boy" |
Unlike Finnish and Estonian, Ingrian doesn't have a superlative degree morphologically distinct from the comparative. Instead, a form of the indefinite pronoun kaik ("all") is used together with the comparative:
| Ingrian | English | |
|---|---|---|
| kaikkia suuremp poika | "the biggest boy" (literally: "the boy bigger than all") | |
| kaikkiin suuremp poika | "the biggest boy" (literally: "the boy biggest of all") | |
| kaikkiis suuremp poika | "the biggest boy" (literally: "the boy biggest among all") |
| Ingrian | English | |
|---|---|---|
| samoi suur poika | "the biggest boy" (literally: "the most big boy") | |
| samoi suuremp poika | "the biggest boy" (literally: "the most biggest boy") |
Ingrian pronouns are inflected similarly to their referent nouns. A major difference is the existence of the accusative (plural) in personal and some demonstrative pronouns, which is absent in all nouns and adjectives.
Unlike in Finnish, personal pronouns can be used to refer to both animate and inanimate nouns alike. Follows a table of personal pronouns:
| 3rd person | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
| Nominative | miä ("I") | möö ("we") | siä ("you") | töö ("you") | hää ("he, she, it") | höö ("they") | |
| Accusative | miun | meijet | siun | teijet | hänen | heijet | |
| Genitive | miun | meijen | siun | teijen | hänen | heijen | |
| Partitive | minnua | meitä | sinnua | teitä | häntä | heitä | |
| Illative | miuhu | meihe | siuhu | teihe | hännee | heihe | |
| Inessive | mius | meis | sius | seis | hänes | heis | |
| Essive | miunna | meinnä | siunna | teinnä | hänennä | heinnä | |
| Comitative | miunka | meijenkä | siunka | teijenkä | hänenkä | heijenkä | |
As seen above, Ingrian does not have grammatical gender, so the pronoun hää can be used for both male, female and inanimate referents alike. However, inanimate nouns are often referred to using the demonstrative pronoun se ("this") instead.
Some variation occurs among different dialects of Ingrian in regards to the personal pronouns. First of all, dialects with mid vowel raising exhibit the plural pronouns myy, tyy and hyy for möö, töö and höö respectively.[3] Furthermore, in the Ala-Laukaa dialect, the third person singular pronoun hän is found instead of hää. Similar forms have been found also in the now-extinct Hevaha and Ylä-Laukaa dialects.
Since verbs in Ingrian conjugate according to grammatical person and number, subject personal pronouns may be omitted in Ingrian.
Ingrian demonstratives can be used both as pronouns and as determiners in a determiner phrase. There are three sets of demonstratives: proximal (near to the speaker), distal (far from the speaker) and neutral, which is used to refer to an object without specifying its relative location is space, and is often used in anaphoras:
| Neutral | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
| Nominative | tämä ("this") | nämät ("these") | too ("that") | noo ("those") | se ("this, that") | neet ("these, those") | |
| Accusative | tämän | nämät | toon | noo | sen | neet | |
| Genitive | tämän | näijen | toon | noijen | senen | niijen | |
| Partitive | tätä | näitä | toota | noota | sitä | niitä | |
| Illative | tähä | näihe | tooho | noohe | siihe | niihe | |
| Inessive | täs | näis | toos | noos | siin | niis | |
| Elative | täst | näist | toost | noost | siint | niist | |
| Allative | tälle | näille | toolle | noolle | sille | niille | |
| Adessive | täl | näil | tool | nool | sil | niil | |
| Ablative | tält | näilt | toolt | noolt | silt | niilt | |
| Translative | täks | näiks | tooks | nooks | siks | niiks | |
| Essive | tämännä | näinnä | toonna | noonna | senennä | niinnä | |
The genitive and accusative singular of the neutral demonstrative pronoun are often used interchangeably, counter to the prescriptive usage described in Junus (1936). Furthermore, for most speakers of the modern Soikkola dialect, the functions of the distal demonstrative have been taken over by the neutral pronoun (se/neet).
Ingrian interrogatives are divided into one that has an animate referent (ken, "who?") and one that has an inanimate referent (mikä, "what?"). Originally, the latter is a combination of the pronoun *mi- and the interrogative clitic -kä, but its inflected forms are still formed on the basis of the free pronoun:
| Animate | Inanimate | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ken | mikä | |
| Genitive | kenen | minen | |
| Partitive | ketä | mitä | |
| Illative | kehe | mihe | |
| Inessive | kes | mis | |
| Essive | kenennä | minennä |
The interrogatives also have plural forms of the nominative, ket and mit respectively. Other case forms are used in the singular and plural alike. Like in Finnish and Estonian, but also English, the interrogatives are also used as relative pronouns:
Mikä ono? ("What is it?")
En tiije, mikä ono. ("I don't know, what it is.")
Ingrian verbs inflect for three persons, two numbers, and feature a separate impersonal form.
| Number | Person | Suffix | Example | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| first | -n | (miä) etsin | I search for | ||
| second | -t | (siä) etsit | you search for | ||
| third | -V | (hää) etsii | he/she/it searches for | ||
| first | -mma / -mmä | (möö) etsimmä | we search for | ||
| second | -tta / -ttä | (töö) etsittä | you search for | ||
| third | -Vt -vat / -vät | (höö) etsiit etsivät | they search for | ||
| impersonal | -taa / -tää | etsitää | one searches | ||
Ingrian verbs inflect for four moods: indicative, conditional, imperative and potential.[4] Of these, the potential is very rare.
The indicative mood is the only one to feature a past tense separate from the present tense and not formed by means of modal verbs.
| Mood | Suffix | Example | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indicative | -∅ | (hää) tahtoo | he/she/it wants | |
| indicative | -i | (hää) tahtoi | he/she/it wanted | |
| conditional | -is(i) | (hää) tahtois | he/she/it would have wanted | |
| potential | -ne | (hää) tahtonoo | he/she/it may want |
| Mood | Suffix | Example | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indicative | -taa/-tää | tahotaa | one wants | |
| indicative | -ttii | tahottii | one wanted | |
| conditional | -ttais/-ttäis | tahottais | one would have wanted | |
| potential | -ttanoo/-ttänöö | tahottannoo | one may want |
männä - män- ("to go") → männää, mäntii etc.
kuulla - kuul- ("to hear") → kuullaa, kuultii etc.
purra - pur- ("to bite") → purraa, purtii etc.
pessä - pes- ("to wash") → pessää, pestii etc.
nähä - näh- ("to see") → nähhää, nähtii etc.
The imperative paradigm is also highly irregular compared to the other three moods, and occurs only in the second and third person, as well as the impersonal:
| Number | Person | Suffix | Example | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| second | -∅ | (siä) taho | want! | ||
| third | -koo / -köö | (hää) tahtokoo | he/she/it must want | ||
| second | -kaa / -kää | (töö) tahtokaa | want! | ||
| third | -koot -kööt | (höö) tahtokoot | they must want | ||
| impersonal | -ttakoo / -ttäköö | tahottakkoo | one must want | ||
The indicative mood is used to describe actions that either have happened, are happening at the moment, or will inevitably happen:
Miä käyn ulitsaa mööt ("I am walking along the road")
Miä ujuin joes ("I was swimming in the river")The present forms of the indicatives can always be used to describe a future action:
Hoomeen, miä mään škouluu ("Tomorrow, I am going to go to school")
The conditional mood is used to describe actions which would have happened if a certain condition were met; At the same time, it is used to describe that condition:
Jos miä olisin suur, mänisin škouluu ("If I were big, I would go to school")When the condition refers to the future, or is a general remark that is true regardless of time, the indicative is used instead:
Jos oon suur, mään škouluu ("If I am (ever) big, I will go to school")
Jos katsoa, voip nähä ("If one looks, he will be able to see")
The imperative mood is used to give commands, either directly (to one's collocutor), or by expressing a wish about a third person:
Anna sitä miulle! ("Give that to me!")
Emä olkoo terve! ("May mother be healthy!")In the first person, there is no imperative, and instead other constructions are used with a similar effect:
Anna miä laulan ("Let me sing")
Laa möö määmmä kottii ("Let us go home")
The potential mood is used to describe actions that are likely, but uncertain to happen:
Miä kirjuttanen kirjan ("I will probably write a letter")The potential forms of the verb olla ("to be") are irregular, and are used as a separate future tense instead:
Miä leenen suur ("I will be big")The potential forms are frequently followed by the clitics -k and -kse.[5]
Like nominals, verbs can be divided into a number of inflectional classes, according to which they are inflected, each class associated with a particular form of the stem.
| stem vowel | English | . | . | . | Notes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -o/-ö -u/-y | to look | katsoa | katson | katsoo | katsoin | katsoi | katsoisin | katsois | ||
| -a/-ä | to sow | kylvää | kylvän | kylvää | kylvin | kylvi | kylväisin | kylväis | ||
| -a/-ä | to plough | kyntää | kynnän | kyntää | kynsin | kynsi | kyntäisin | kyntäis | Followed by verbs whose stem ends on -nta- (-ntä-), -lta- (-ltä-), -rta- (-rtä-), or -Vta- (-Vtä-) | |
| -a | to pay | maksaa | maksan | maksaa | maksoin | maskoi | maksaisin | maksais | Followed by bisyllabic verbs whose first stem vowel is either -a-, -e- or -i- | |
| -e | to lower | laskia | lasen | laskoo | lasin | laski | laskisin | laskis | In the infinitive, the historical combination *-ea (*-eä) regularly becomes -ia (-iä). In the third person singular present, the historical combination *-ee regularly becomes -oo/-öö. | |
| -i | to believe | sallia | sallin | sallii | sallin | salli | sallisin | sallis | ||
| -Vi | to rain | vihmoja | vihmoin | vihmoi | vihmoin | vihmoi | vihmoisin | vihmois | Note that the -i- intervocalically becomes -j-: *vihmoi+a > vihmoja | |
| -VV | to marry | naija | nain | naip | nain | nai | naisin | nais | Followed by monosyllabic verbs ending in an unrounded vowel. Unlike in other inflections, the infinitive ending is -ja (-jä) instead of -a (-ä) and the third person singular present ending is -p. | |
| -VV | to eat | söövvä | söön | sööp | söin | söi | söisin | söis | Followed by monosyllabic verbs ending in a rounded vowel. Unlike in other inflections, the infinitive ending is -vva (-vvä) instead of -a (-ä) and the third person singular present ending is -p. | |
Most consonant stem types are inflected in much the same way as laskia, but exhibit an intrusive consonant in moods other than the infinitive:
| stem consonant(s) | English | . | . | . | Notes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -s-/-r- | to wash | pessä | pesen | pessöö | pesin | pesi | pesisin | pesis | The infinitive ending goes back to an original *-stak / *-rdak, which then regularly developed into -ssa and -rra, respectively. | |
| -l- | to fly around | lennellä | lentelen | lentelöö | lentelin | lenteli | lentelisin | lenteliis | Formally identical to the preceding type, with the exception that the syllable preceding the stem consonant may gradate. | |
| -ts- | to choose | valita | valitsen | valitsoo | valitsin | valitsi | valitsisin | valitsiis | ||
| -ks- | to run | joossa | jooksen | jooksoo | jooksin | jooksi | jooksisin | jooksiis | ||
| -n- | to flee | paeta | pakenen | pakenoo | pakenin | pakeni | pakenisin | pakeniis | ||
| stem consonant(s) | English | . | . | . | Notes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -∅- | to borrow | lainata | lainaan | lainajaa | lainaisin | lainais | lainajaisin | lainajais | The vowel preceding the stem consonant is duplicated after it, resulting in a long vowel in the present indicative. If the preceding vowel is -i-, the imperfect forms keep only one -i- (e.g. hävitä - hävisin - hävijäisin). | |
| -∅- | to be ashamed | hävetä | häppiin | häpijää | häpisin | häpis | häpijäisin | häpijäis | Note how the vowel preceding the stem consonant changes from -e- to -i-. | |
| stem consonant(s) | English | . | . | . | Notes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -∅- | to descend | laskiissa | laskiin | laskiijaa | laskiisin | laskiis | laskiijaisin | laskiijais | Note how unlike the lainata-type conjugations, this verb features a long vowel throughout the paradigm | |
| -∅- | to throw up | oksentaissa | oksentaan | oksentaijaa | oksentaisin | oksentais | oksentaijaisin | oksentaijais | Formally identical to the preceding type, with the exception that the verb contains a diphthong instead of a long vowel before the stem consonant. | |
| -∅- | to separate | erahussa | erahun | erahuu | erahuin | erahui | erahuisin | erahuis | ||
There are a handful of verbs in Ingrian that do not follow the above mentioned patterns. These will be discussed here in detail.
The most irregular verb in Ingrian is the copulative verb olla ("to be"). Overall, it mostly follows the pattern of l-final consonant stems (like lennellä), but features a completely irregular present indicative, imperative, and potential paradigms (as mentioned above, the potential is used to mark the future tense of this verb):
| Number | Person | Indicative | Imperative | Potential | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| first | oon | - | leenen | ||
| second | oot | oo! | leenet | ||
| third | ono on | olkoo! | leenöö lee | ||
| first | oomma | - | leenemmä | ||
| second | ootta | olkaa! | leenettä | ||
| third | ovat | olkoot! | leenööt | ||
| impersonal | ollaa | oltakoo! | oltanöö | ||
The verbs tulla ("to come"), männä ("to go") and panna ("to put") also mostly follows the l-final stems in conjugation, except in the indicative and the second-person singular imperative:
| Number | Person | tulla | männä | panna | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| first | töön / tyen | mään | paan | |||
| third | tulloo | männöö | pannoo | |||
| first | töömmä / tyemmä | määmmä | paamma | |||
| third | tulloot tulevat | männööt mänevät | pannoot panevat | |||
| impersonal | tullaa | männää | pannaa | |||
| imperative | töö! / tye | mää! | paa! | |||
| Number | Person | nähä | tehä | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| first | nään / näen | teen | ||
| third | näkköö | tekköö | ||
| first | näämmä / näemmä | teemmä | ||
| third | näkkööt näkevät | tekkööt tekevät | ||
| impersonal | nähhää | tehhää | ||
| imperative | nää! | tee! | ||
| 4th infinitive | näkömiin | tekömiin | ||
| active participle | näkövä | tekövä | ||
| Mood | Person | seissa | haissa | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indicative | seison | haison | ||
| seisoo | haisoo | |||
| . | seissaa | haissaa | ||
| indicative | seisoin | haisoin | ||
| seisoi | haisoi | |||
| . | seistii | haistii | ||
| conditional | seisoisin | haisoisin | ||
| seisois | haisois | |||
| . | seistais | haistais | ||
| 4th infinitive | seisomiin | haisomiin | ||
| seisova | haisova | |||
| seissava | haissava | |||
| Mood | Person | tiitää | siitää | tuntaa | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| indicative | tiijen | siijen | tunnen | ||
| tiitää | siitää | tuntaa | |||
| . | tiijetää | siijetää | tunnetaa | ||
| indicative | tiisin | siisin | tunsin | ||
| tiisi | siisi | tunsi | |||
| . | tiijettii | siijettii | tunnettii | ||
| conditional | tiitäisin | siitäisin | tuntaisin | ||
| tiitäis | siitäis | tuntais | |||
| . | tiijettäis | siijettäis | tunnettais | ||
| 4th infinitive | tiitämiin | siitämiin | tuntamiin | ||
| tiitävä | siitävä | tuntava | |||
| tiijettävä | siijettävä | tunnettava | |||
| Mood | Person | sannoa | lähtiä | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indicative | saon | lähen | ||
| sannoo | lähtöö | |||
| . | saotaa | lähetää | ||
| indicative | saoin | läksin | ||
| saoi | läksi | |||
| . | saottii | lähettii | ||
| conditional | sanoisin | lähtisin | ||
| sanois | lähtis | |||
| . | saottais | lähettäis | ||
| 4th infinitive | sanomiin | lähtömiin | ||
| sanova | lähtevä | |||
| saottava | lähettävä | |||
Ingrian verbs possess four different infinitive forms, each of which may be inflected in various cases:
| Number | Case | Ending | Example | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | nominative | -(t)a/-(t)ä | tahtoa | to want | |
| 2nd | inessive | -(t)es | tahtojees | when wanting | |
| instructive | -(t)en | tahtoen | by wanting | ||
| 3rd | illative | -maa/-mää | tahtomaa | with the intention of wanting | |
| inessive | -mas/-mäs | tahtomaas | in the act of wanting | ||
| elative | -mast/-mäst | tahtomast | from just having been wanting | ||
| abessive | -mata/-mätä | tahtomata | without wanting | ||
| 4th | nominative | -miin | tahtomiin | the act of wanting |
Every Ingrian verb has four distinct participles:
| Tense | Voice | Ending | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| present | -va/-vä | tahtova | that wants | |
| -ttava/-ttävä | tahottava | that is wanted | ||
| past | -nt -nut/-nyt | tahtont tahtonut | that wanted | |
| -ttu/-tty | tahottu | that was wanted |
männä - män- ("to go") → mänt, männyt
kuulla - kuul- ("to hear") → kuult, kuullut
purra - pur- ("to bite") → purt, purrut
pessä - pes- ("to wash") → pest, pessyt
nähä - näh- ("to see") → näht, nähnyt
In verbs whose stems end in -n, -l, -r, -s, -h the initial -t- of the passive participles is also lost:
männä - män- ("to go") → mänty, mäntävä
kuulla - kuul- ("to hear") → kuultu, kuultava
purra - pur- ("to bite") → purtu, purtava
pessä - pes- ("to wash") → pesty, pestävä
nähä - näh- ("to see") → nähty, nähtävä
The negative in Ingrian is expressed with the negative verb ei, which is conjugated irregularly:
| Number | Person | Indicative | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|
| first | en | - | |
| second | et | elä | |
| third | ei | elköö | |
| first | emmä | - | |
| second | että | elkää | |
| third | evät | elkööt |
The negative verb is used with various forms of the main verb, called connegatives, to express the negation of that main verb. These connegatives vary by mood, but not by person:
| Mood | Ending | Example | Translation | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| indicative | -∅ | (hää) ei taho | he/she/it doesn't want | identical in form to the second-person singular imperative | |
| indicative | -nt -nut/-nyt | (hää) ei tahtont (hää) ei tahtonut | he/she/it didn't want | identical in form to the past active participle | |
| conditional | -is | (hää) ei tahtois | he/she/it wouldn't have wanted | identical in form to the third-singular conditional | |
| potential | -ne | (hää) ei tahtone | he/she/it may not want |
| Mood | Ending | Example | Translation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2sg imperative | -∅ | elä taho! | do not want! | identical in form to the second-person singular imperative |
| non-2sg imperative | -ko/-kö | elköö tahtoko | he/she/it must not want |
| Mood | Ending | Example | Translation | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| indicative | -ta/-tä | ei tahota | it is not wanted | ||
| indicative | -ttu/-tty | ei tahottu | it was not wanted | identical in form to the past passive participle | |
| conditional | -ttais/-ttäis | ei tahottais | it would not have been wanted | identical in form to the impersonal conditional | |
| potential | -ttane/-ttäne | ei tahottane | it may not be wanted | ||
| imperative | -ttako/-ttäkö | ei tahottako | it must not be wanted |
Miä en taho siin en olla ("I do not want to not be here")
Miä en maha en suutia enkä laatia[6] ("I can neither judge nor decree")Note that in Ingrian, double negatives are obligatory:
Kenkää sitä ei tiije ("Nobody knows that")
Miä mittää en teht ("I did nothing / I did not do anything")
Ingrian adverbs are most commonly derived from adjectives by adding the suffix -st:
| Ingrian | English | Ingrian | English | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hyvä | "good" | → | hyväst | "well" | |
| kerkiä | "easy" | → | kerkiäst | "easily" | |
| rauhalliin | "peaceful" | → | rauhallisest | "peacefully" |
Other frequent methods of forming adverbs include using the illative or adding the suffixes -in, -staa, -ttee and others.
Comparative adverbs are very rare, and are exclusively formed from comparative adjectives:
tihti ("frequent"), tihimp ("more frequent") → tihtii ("frequently"), tihimpää ("more frequently")
Ingrian features morphologically distinct cardinal and ordinal numbers:
| Number | Cardinal | Ordinal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | nolli | - | |
| 1 | yks | ensimäin | |
| 2 | kaks | toin | |
| 3 | kolt | kolmas | |
| 4 | neljä | neljäs | |
| 5 | viis | viijes | |
| 6 | kuus | kuuvves | |
| 7 | seitsen | seitsemäs | |
| 8 | kaheksan | kaheksas | |
| 9 | yheksän | yheksäs | |
| 10 | kymmen | kymmenäs | |
| 100 | sata | sattais | |
| 1000 | tuhatta | tuhattais |
3 kolt → 13 kolttoist
3-s kolmas → 13-s kolttoist kymmenäsTerms for tens are formed by adding the single cardinal numeral to -kymment ("of teen") and -kymmenäs ("tenth") for the cardinal and ordinal numbers, respectively:
3 kolt → 30 koltkymment
3-s kolmas → 30-s koltkymmenäsOther terms from 21-99 are formed by simply stacking the single numerals onto the number for a multiple of tens:
20 kakskymment → 21 kakskymment yks
20-s kakskymmenäs → 21-s kakskymmenäs ensimäinAn alternative way of forming these numerals is also attested, where the above method of 11-19 is used:
20 kakskymment → 21 ykskolmatta
20-s kakskymmenäs → 21 ykskolmatta kymmenäs
The object of cardinal numbers other than yks (1) is always put in the partitive singular:
yks koira ("one dog")
kaks koiraa ("two dogs")
sata koiraa ("a hundred dogs")
sata yks koiraa ("a hundred and one dogs")When the cardinal number is inflected, the object noun is inflected to the same case, but stays singular:
Miä möin kolmenkymmenän sian ("I sold thirty pigs")
Sil kolmeel lehmääl ono sama karva ("Those three cows have the same colour")For some plural-only nouns, direct enumeration is not possible, and a measure word has to be used:
Miul ono kaks parria ackoja. ("I have two pairs of glasses.")
In Ingrian, questions are formed either by using an interrogative word, or by adding the interrogative clitic -k (or its variants -ka / -kä and -ko / -kö) to the first word (or, in the case of nouns, phrase) in a sentence:
Mitä siä sööt? ("What are you eating?")
Suvvaatk siä siun vanhempia? ("Do you love your parents?")
The most frequent interrogative pronouns include ken ("who"), mikä ("what"), kuka ("which (of many)"), kumpa ("which one").
The most frequent interrogative determiners include millain ("what kind"), kumpa ("which") and monta ("how many").
Ingrian interrogative adverbs include kuin ("how"), miks ("why") and kons ("when").
Interrogatives are usually put at the beginning of a sentence.
The deliberative mood, denoting indirect questions, is expressed by adding either the particle -kse or, as with direct questions, -k, to the indicative or the potential:
Miä en tiije, leenöökse rookaa pulmiis. ("I don't know, whether there will be food at the wedding.")
Pittää sannoa, tahommak möö söövvä. ("We have to say, whether we want to eat.")
Tehnenkse miä sitä? ("Shall I do it?")