On the genesis of markers of Veps dialectal areas

DOI:10.30842/alp2306573716304

Zaytseva N. G. K genezisu markerov vepsskikh dialektnykh arealov. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 2020. XVI(3): 95–117.

This article, based on the Linguistic Atlas of the Veps Language (St. Petersburg, 2019), discusses examples of phonetic, grammatical, and lexical linguistic markers of the Veps dialectal areas. Some of them represent Balto-Finnic heritage, others are Veps innovations that arose in the center of the Veps dialect continuum, and yet others are contact-induced changes emerging under the influence of neighboring languages that are both genetically related and unrelated to Veps. Each Veps dialectal area can be characterized by different combinations of these linguistic features. The most significant factors that have shaped the modern dialectal map are landscape-geographical factors associated with migration routes. Administrative borders also contributed to the administrative disunity of the Veps territories.

Materials of the Linguistic Atlas of the Veps Language (150 linguistic maps) open a view to the formation of the Veps dialect map in general and to the picture of the historical Veps territory.

Phonetic maps do not allow a clear outline of the differences in the common Balto-Finnic heritage preservation. For example, the North Veps dialect retained the original long vowels (which may reflect Karelian influence as well) while losing any traces of vowel harmony. The South Veps dialect does not display traces of the primary long vowels and only shows weak signs of vowel harmony.

The Balto-Finnic system of nominal inflection is preserved in all Veps dialects. Its subsequent development and linguistic contacts have slightly affected their nominal forms, mostly in terms of their use and syntactic functions.

In the domain of verbal inflection, one can observe retained components of the Baltic-Finnish heritage, modern Veps innovations, as well as contact-induced changes under the influence of the Karelian (predominantly in the Northern Veps dialect).

Lexical maps show certain Balto-Finnic lexemes that have only survived at the outskirts of the East Veps area, thus demonstrating conservation of ethno-defining features on border territories. It is also there that most of the substratum words are registered.

Keywords

Veps language, linguistic geography, dialect area, linguistic markers

About the author

Zaitseva N. G.

zng@ro.ru

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Keywords

Veps language, linguistic geography, dialect area, linguistic markers