On Kurovitsy (Kukkõsi / Kukkuzi) linguistic variety

The paper proposes a description of the mixed Votic-Ingrian idiom of Kukkuzi in its current state. This idiom belongs to mixed languages, with its morphology inherited from Votic and its lexicon, from the Lower Luga Ingrian. Inter alia, the idiolects of the most conservative Kukkuzi speakers have retained the genitive with a zero ending, the Elative in ‑ss(A), the Translative in ‑ss(I), the 3Sg Present in -b; the Votic grade alternations k/g and s/z are partially preserved as well. From the historical phonetics’ perspective, the Kukkuzi idiom has both Common Ingrian (e.g., the retained initial h‑, lack of the sound change k>č), and Votic (e.g., the sound changes ks>hs, ps>hs, st>ss) features. Though there are numerous Kukkuzi-Common Ingrian lexical isoglosses (maitU ‘milk’, paitA ‘shirt’, veitsI ‘knife’, iltA ‘evening’, tiitä ‘know:Inf’, muissa ‘remember:Inf’), a significant number оf Kukkuzi-Lower Luga Ingrian lexical isoglosses also can be found; e.g., lautA ‘table’, aukkU ‘hole’, pankI ‘bucket’, valo ‘manure’, uhs ‘door’, rättI ‘headscarf’, lustI ‘beautiful’, kitsI ‘nanny goat’. As a rule, Kukkuzi and Lower Luga Ingrian features, absent in Soikkola Ingrian, are typical of Votic. Other Kukkuzi-Votic-Lower Luga Ingrian isoglosses are 1) the sound changes nh>n, rh>r, 2) loss of the intervocalic h in non-first syllables, 3) lack of the sound change ir>er, 4) the Terminative in ‑ssa, 5) the Comitative in ‑ka, 6) the Comparative in ‑p, 7) the Partitive singular in nouns in *‑eδa with the consonant ‑t/‑d, and 8) lack of the Oblique Plural affix ‑loi‑. In some cases, the distribution of variants by idioms is quite complex, reflecting the mutual influences of languages and dialects in the Lower Luga region. A unique feature of Kukkuzi idiom is the Present Impersonal in ‑ttAZ/‑ttÄZ. There are several stages in the genesis of the Kukkuzi idiom. At the first stage, the formation of the Lower Luga Ingrian dialect took place under a strong influence of the Votic language. The second stage, marked by contacts between Lower Luga Ingrian and the undocumented Kukkuzi Votic, brought relexefication that led to the emergence of the mixed Kukkuzi idiom. The third stage, continuing at the present time, shows a gradual loss of Kukkuzi morphology or “remorphologization” where the idiolects of “innovative” speakers almost do not differ from the southern dialects of the Lower Luga Ingrian.