| Ludic | |
| Nativename: | lyydin kiel', l'yyd'ikiel' |
| States: | Russia (Republic of Karelia) |
| Region: | Near northwestern shore of Lake Onega |
| Speakers: | 300 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Uralic |
| Fam2: | Finnic |
| Fam3: | Northern Finnic |
| Iso3: | lud |
| Glotto: | ludi1246 |
| Glottorefname: | Ludian |
| Script: | Latin (Karelian alphabet) |
| Map: | 2.2a-Karelian-and-Ludic traditional.png |
| Mapcaption: | Distribution of Karelian and Ludic at the beginning of the 20th century |
| Map2: | Lang Status 40-SE.svg |
| Minority: | Republic of Karelia[1] |
Ludic, or Ludian, or Ludic Karelian (Luudi, Lyydi or lüüdi), is a Finnic language in the Uralic language family or a Karelian dialect. It is transitional between the Olonets Karelian language and the Veps language. It is spoken by 300 Karelians in the Republic of Karelia in Russia, near the southwestern shore of Lake Onega, including a few children.[2]
In the Finnish research tradition, Ludic has been considered a transitional dialect area between Karelian and Veps,[3] while in the Russian research tradition it is, on ethnographic grounds, normally considered a dialect of Karelian. A status as an independent language has been proposed in recent times. Ludic is characterised by a specific mixture of Karelian-like traits (such as the diphthongisation of the Proto-Finnic non-open long vowels: e.g. *pää > piä 'head', *soo > suo 'swamp', contrast Veps pä, so) and Veps-like traits (such as an almost complete loss of consonant gradation). Like Veps, Ludic has also partially lost vowel harmony.
Ludic comprises three main dialect groups:
The strongest Karelian resemblance is found in Northern Ludic, while the Kuďäŕv dialect shares the most features with Veps.
| Front | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | ||
| Close | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /y/ | pronounced as /u/ | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /ø/ | pronounced as /o/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /æ/ | pronounced as /ɑ/ | |||
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | plain | pal. | ||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /p/ | (pronounced as /pʲ/) | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /tʲ/ | pronounced as /k/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /b/ | (pronounced as /bʲ/) | pronounced as /d/ | pronounced as /dʲ/ | pronounced as /ɡ/ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /t͡s/ | pronounced as /t͡ʃ/ | ||||||
| voiced | pronounced as /d͡ʒ/ | ||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | (pronounced as /f/) | (pronounced as /fʲ/) | pronounced as /s/ | pronounced as /sʲ/ | pronounced as /ʃ/ | (pronounced as /x/) | pronounced as /h/ | |
| voiced | pronounced as /v/ | (pronounced as /vʲ/) | pronounced as /z/ | pronounced as /zʲ/ | pronounced as /ʒ/ | ||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /m/ | (pronounced as /mʲ/) | pronounced as /n/ | pronounced as /nʲ/ | |||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /l/ | pronounced as /lʲ/ | pronounced as /j/ | ||||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /r/ | pronounced as /rʲ/ | |||||||
Ludic is written using the unified Karelian alphabet, but in some publications the letter Ü is used instead of Y, as in Veps.
| 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 | Y (Ü) | Ä | Ö | ʼ | |
| 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 | y (ü) | ä | ö | ʼ | |