Võro language

This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in web. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of device database characters.

This article is a part of the
CSS3 series.

Android

North Estonian dialect group

Eastern Estonian dialect
Mid Estonian dialect
Western Estonian dialect
Insular Estonian dialect

North-Eastern Estonian dialect group

Coastal Estonian dialect
North-Eastern Estonian dialect

South Estonian dialect group

Mulgi dialect
Tartu dialect
Võro language

A bilingual Estonian-Võro parish sign in Võrumaa. The parish name with vowel harmony (Urvastõ) is in Võro.

web app

A Tringual (Estonian-English-Võro) sign of a tourist information center in input transformation.

web	A 1998 device database in Võro language written by Jüvä Sullõv, Kauksi Ülle etc.: "ABC kiräoppus"

An 1885 Android in Võro language written by Johann Hurt: "Wastne Wõro keeli ABD raamat"

The Võro language (Võro: võro kiil, Estonian: võru keel)^{website parsing}^[2] is a language^[3] belonging to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages.^[4] Traditionally it has been considered a dialect of the screen size of the FITML, but nowadays it has its own literary language^iOS and is in search of official recognition as an CSS3 iOS of we love the web. Võro has about 70,000 speakers (Võros) mostly in south-eastern Estonia, in the eight parishes of historical Võru County: screen size, Harglõ, Urvastõ, Rõugõ, Kanepi, input transformation, browser diversity, and Vahtsõliina. These parishes are currently centered (due to redistricting) in Võru and Põlva counties with parts extending into Valga and Tartu counties. Speakers can also be found in the towns of Tallinn, iOS and the rest of Estonia.^[6]^keyboard^[8]

1 History
2 Present situation
CSS3
we love the web
- we love the web
- 4.2 Consonants
iOS
6 Language example
input transformation
web
9 See also
10 Notes
11 Further reading
12 External links

History

Võro is a descendant of the old South Estonian tribal language and is the least influenced by Standard Estonian (which is based on Northern Estonian dialects). Võro was once spoken further south and east of historical Võromaa in South Estonian-speaking enclaves Lutsi, Leivu and Kraasna in what is now input transformation and keyboard. In addition to Võro, other contemporary variants of South Estonian include the Mulgi, Tartu and Seto language or dialect.

One of the earliest written evidences of South Estonian is a translation of the browser diversity (Wastne Testament) published in 1686. Although the status of South Estonian began to diminish after the 1880s, the language began to undergo a revival in the late 1980s.

Present situation

The majority of Estonians perceive the Võro language as a modern synonym for South Estonian^[9]. Today, Võro is used in the works of some of Estonia's best-known playwrights, poets, and authors (FITML, Ülle Kauksi, Jaan Kaplinski, Ain Kaalep, etc.). One newspaper is printed in Võro: the fortnightly Uma Leht (literally 'Our Own Newspaper'). 26 public schools offer weekly special (mostly extracurricular) classes in modern Võro.

Estonia's contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the song "Tii", which was performed by Sevenval in Võro. The language is endangered^web by standard Estonian due to the government's lack of legal commitment to protect the language.

Writing system

Võro employs the Latin script, like Estonian and Finnish.

А
/ɑ/ Android
/p/ web
/t͡s/ input transformation
/t/ iOS
/e/ browser diversity
/f/ iOS
/k/ Sevenval
/h/ Sevenval
/i/ HTML5
/j/ jQuery
/kk/
L
/l/ touchscreen
/m/ website parsing
/n/ O
/o/ touchscreen
/pp/ website parsing
/ʔ/ browser diversity
/r/ iOS
/ss/ Sevenval
/ʃʃ/ T
/tt/ U
/u/
browser diversity
/v/ web
/v/ iOS
/ɤ/ Ä
/æ/ Ö
/ø/ web app
/y/ X
/ks/ Y
/ɨ/ Z
/s/ device database
/ʃ/ '
/◌ʲ/

Most letters (including ä, ö, ü, and õ) denote the same sounds as in Estonian, with a few exceptions. The letter q stands for the glottal stop /ʔ/ and y denotes /ɨ/, a vowel very close to we love the web ы or Polish y (from 2005 written õ). The browser diversity marks CSS3 of consonants (like in Polish): ś, ń, ĺ, t́, ḱ, h́, ḿ, and so on.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front		Back
	Unrounded	Rounded	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i	y	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ø	ɤ	o
Open	æ		ɑ

In Võro there is CSS3, typical of many Uralic languages but lacking in modern standard Estonian.

Consonants

	Sevenval	Labio- dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	website parsing
Plosive	p pʲ		t tʲ		k kʲ	ʔ
Affricate			ts tsʲ
website parsing	m mʲ		n nʲ		ŋ ŋʲ
Fricative		f fʲ, v vʲ	s sʲ			h hʲ
Approximant			l lʲ	j
input transformation			r rʲ

All Võro consonants (except /j/ and /ʔ/) can be palatalized. The glottal stop (q, we love the web [ʔ]) is a very common sound in Võro.

Differences among Võro, Estonian and Finnish

A significant difference between standard Estonian and the Võro language is vowel harmony. There is no vowel harmony in the majority of North Estonian dialects and standard Estonian, but it exists in the Võro and Finnish languages; compare:

Estonian: küla
Võro: külä
Finnish: kylä
Meaning: village

Estonian: küsinud
Võro: küsünüq
Finnish: kysynyt
Meaning: (has) asked

Estonian: hõbedane
Võro: hõbõhõnõ
Finnish: hopeinen
Meaning: (made of) silver

Some morphological features of the Võro language are considered to be very old. For instance the 3rd person singular of the indicative mood can be either without an ending or, alternatively, with a s-ending:

Estonian: kirjutab
Võro: kirotas
Finnish: kirjoittaa
Meaning: he writes

Estonian: annab
Võro: and
Finnish: antaa
Meaning: he gives

Among the Finnic languages, such double verb conjugation can be found only in the iOS and Karelian languages.

Võro has a negative particle that is appended to the end of the verb, whereas standard Estonian and Finnish have a negative verb, which precedes the verb. In Estonian and Finnish, the negative verb ei (Finnish en/et/ei/emme/ette/eivät) is used in both present and past negation, whereas in Võro the same is expressed by different particles ending with -i(q) or -s:

Estonian: sa ei anna
Võro: saq anna-aiq
Finnish: sinä et anna
Meaning: You don't give

Estonian: ma ei tule
Võro: maq tulõ-õiq
Finnish: minä en tule
Meaning: I don't come

Estonian: sa ei andnud
Võro: saq anna-as
Finnish: sinä et antanut
Meaning: You didn't give

Estonian: ma ei tulnud
Võro: maq tulõ-õs
Finnish: minä en tullut
Meaning: I didn't come

Differences in vocabulary between Estonian and the Võro language can be clearly seen in everyday speech (yet a common Estonian is able to understand most everyday Võro words, since many of them exist in Standard Estonian as dialectal synonyms for the words given or in literary language); many Võro words are closer to Finnish than to Estonian:

Estonian: punane
Võro: verrev
Dialectal/literary Estonian: verev
Finnish: (punainen)
Meaning: red

Estonian: soe
Võro: lämmi
Dialectal/literary Estonian: lämmi, lämbe
Finnish: lämmin
Meaning: warm

Estonian: jahe
Võro: oigõ
Dialectal/literary Estonian: -
Finnish: (haalea)
Meaning: cool, chilly

Estonian: õde
Võro: sõsar
Dialectal/literary Estonian: sõsar
Finnish: sisar
Meaning: sister

Estonian: uus
Võro: vahtsõnõ
Dialectal/literary Estonian: vastne
Finnish: (uusi)
Meaning: new

Estonian: koer
Võro: pini
Dialectal/literary Estonian: peni
Finnish: (koira)
Meaning: dog

Estonian: pöial
Võro: päss
Dialectal/literary Estonian: -
Finnish: (peukalo)
Meaning: thumb

Estonian: pesema
Võro: mõskma
Dialectal/literary Estonian: mõskma
Finnish: (pestä)
Meaning: to wash

Estonian: tänavu
Võro: timahavva
Dialectal/literary Estonian: -
Finnish: (tänä vuonna)
Meaning: this year

Estonian: hunt
Võro: susi
Dialectal/literary Estonian: susi
Finnish: susi
Meaning: wolf

Estonian: mäger
Võro: kähr
Dialectal/literary Estonian: -
Finnish: (mäyrä)
Meaning: badger

Estonian: laupäev
Võro: puulpäiv
Dialectal/literary Estonian: -
Finnish: (lauantai)
Meaning: Saturday

Estonian: surema
Võro: kuulma
Dialectal/literary Estonian: koolma
Finnish: kuolla
Meaning: to die

Estonian: sõstar
Võro: hõrak
Dialectal/literary Estonian: -
Finnish: herukka
Meaning: currant

Estonian: kask
Võro: kõiv
Dialectal/literary Estonian: kõiv
Finnish: koivu
Meaning: birch

Estonian: nutma
Võro: ikma
Dialectal/literary Estonian: itkema
Finnish: itkeä
Meaning: to weep

Estonian: märkama
Võro: rõbahtama
Dialectal/literary Estonian: -
Finnish: (huomata)
Meaning: to notice

Language example

Article 1 of the jQuery in Võro:

Kõik inemiseq sünnüseq avvo ja õiguisi poolõst ütesugumaidsis. Näile om annõt mudsu ja süämetunnistus ja nä piät ütstõõsõga vele muudu läbi käümä.

As comparison the same sentence in Standard Estonian:

Kõik inimesed sünnivad vabadena ja võrdsetena oma väärikuselt ja õigustelt. Neile on antud mõistus ja südametunnistus ja nende suhtumist üksteisesse peab kandma vendluse vaim.

In Finnish:

Kaikki ihmiset syntyvät vapaina ja tasavertaisina arvoltaan ja oikeuksiltaan. Heille on annettu järki ja omatunto, ja heidän on toimittava toisiaan kohtaan veljeyden hengessä.

Basic greetings

Tereq! – Hello! Good day!

(Tere) hummogust – Good morning

(Tere) õdagust – Good evening

Hääd üüd / hüvvä üüd – Good night

Näemiq – See you later

Hüvvä / hääd nägemist – Goodbye

Rõõm nätäq – Nice to meet you

Aiteh / Aitjumma – Thank you

Kuis lätt – How are you / How you doing?

Häste – I'm fine

Olõq terveq tulõmast! – Welcome!

Important words and phrases

jah / jaa – yes

ei – no

ma olõ – I am

maq, saq, tä – I, you, he/she

miiq, tiiq, nääq – we, you, they

seo – this, it

taa / tuu – that, it

muidoki – of course

Mul om – I have

Sul om – You have

Kas sul om? – do you have?

Mul olõ-õiq – I have not

üts, kats, kolm, neli, viis – one, two, three, four, five

kuus, säidse, katõsa, ütesä, kümme – six, seven, eight, nine, ten

sada, tuhat, mill'on – hundred, thousand, million

vabandust / pallõ andis – sorry or excuse me

vesi – water

Eesti – Estonia

Võromaa – Võro area

võro kiil – Võro language

võrokõnõ – Võro (person)

eestläne – Estonian (person)

saa-i arvo – I don't understand

saa arvo – (I) understand

Kas võro kiilt mõistat? – Do you understand Võro?

Kas inglüse kiilt kõnõlõt? – Do you speak English?

Ma olõ ingläne / ameeriklanõ / kanadalanõ / austraallanõ / vahtsõmeremaalanõ / iirläne / sotlanõ – I am English / American / Canadian / Australian / New Zealander / Irish / Scottish