Udmurt language

Udmurt
Удмурт кыл Udmurt kıl
Spoken in	Russia
Region	Udmurtia
Ethnicity	Udmurts.
Native speakers	480,000  (2002 census)
Language family	Uralic Permic Udmurt
Official status
Official language in	Udmurtia
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-2	udm
ISO 639-3	udm

Udmurt (удмурт кыл, udmurt kyl) is a Uralic language, part of the Permic subgroup, spoken by the Udmurt natives of the Russian constituent republic of Udmurtia, where it is coofficial with Russian. It is written in the Cyrillic script with five additional characters. Together with Komi and Komi-Permyak languages, it constitutes the Permic grouping. Among outsiders, it has traditionally been referred to by its Russian exonym, Votyak. Udmurt has borrowed vocabulary from the neighboring languages Tatar and Russian.

Ethnologue estimates 550,000 mother tongue speakers (77%) out of an ethnic population of 750,000 in the former USSR (1989 census). The Udmurt language is entirely based upon the Russian Cyrillic alphabet, with the addition of four more alphabets (Ӝ/ӝ, Ӟ/ӟ, Ӥ/ӥ, and Ӵ/ӵ).

Alphabet

The Udmurt alphabet is based on the Russian Cyrillic alphabet:

Udmurt alphabet

Uppercase	Lowercase	Transliteration	IPA	Letter name
A	a	a	[ɑ]	а
Б	б	b	[b]	бэ
В	в	v	[v]	вэ
Г	г	g	[g]	гэ
Д	д	d	[d]; palatal [dʲ] when followed by я, е, и, ё, ю or ь	дэ
Е	е	e	[je]; [ʲe] when preceded by д, т, з, с, л, or н	е
Ë	ë	ë	[jo]; [ʲo] when preceded by д, т, з, с, л, or н	ё
Ж	ж	ž	[ʒ]	жэ
Ӝ	ӝ	dž	[dʒ]	ӝэ
З	з	z	[z]; palatal [ʑ] when followed by я, е, и, ё, ю or ь	зэ
Ӟ	ӟ	dʑ	[dʲʑ]	ӟe
И	и	i	[i]; [ʲi] when preceded by д, т, з, с, л, or н	и
Ӥ	ӥ	ï	[i]	точкаен и, точкаосын и ("dotted i")
Й	й	j	[j]	вакчи и ("short i")
К	к	k	[k]	ка
Л	л	l	[ɫ]; palatal [lʲ] when followed by я, е, и, ё, ю or ь	эл
М	м	m	[m]	эм
Н	н	n	[n]; palatal [nʲ] when followed by я, е, и, ё, ю or ь	эн
О	о	o	[o]	o
Ӧ	ӧ	ö	[ʌ] ~ [ə]	ӧ
П	п	p	[p]	пэ
Р	р	r	[r]	эр
С	с	s	[s]; palatal [ɕ] when followed by я, е, и, ё, ю or ь	эс
Т	т	t	[t]; palatal [tʲ] when followed by я, е, и, ё, ю or ь	тэ
У	у	u	[u]	у
Ф1	ф	f	[f]	эф
Х1	х	x	[x]	ха
Ц1	ц	c	[t͡s]	цэ
Ч	ч	č	[t͡ɕ]	чэ
Ӵ	ӵ	tʲč	[t͡ʃ]	ӵэ
Ш	ш	š	[ʃ]	ша
Щ1	щ	šč	[ɕ], [ɕː]	ща
Ъ2	ъ		–	чурыт пус ("hard sign")
Ы	ы	y	[ɨ] ~ [ɯ]	ы
Ь	ь	'	[ʲ]	небыт пус ("soft sign")
Э	э	è	[e]	э
Ю	ю	ju	[ju]; [ʲu] when preceded by д, т, з, с, л, or н	ю
Я	я	ja	[jɑ]; [ʲa] when preceded by д, т, з, с, л, or н	я

• ¹ Only used in Russian loanwords and names.
• ² Silent, but required to distinguish palatalized consonants (/dʲ tʲ zʲ sʲ lʲ n/) from unpalatalized consonants followed by /j/ if followed by a vowel; for example, /zʲo/ and /zjo/ are written -зё- and -зъё-, respectively.

Phonology

The language does not distinguish between long and short vowels and does not have vowel harmony.

		Labial	Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Palatal		Velar
			plain	lat.			plain	lat.
Plosive	voiceless	p	t						k
	voiced	b	d						ɡ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s		t͡ʃ	t͡ɕ
	voiced		d͡z		d͡ʒ	d͡ʑ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s		ʃ	ɕ			x
	voiced	v	z		ʒ	ʑ
Nasal		m	n				ɲ		ŋ
Approximant				l			j	ʎ
Trill			r

		Front	Central	Back
				Unrounded	Round
Close		i	ɨ~ɯ		u
Mid		e	ə	ʌ	o
Open		a

Grammar

Main article: Udmurt grammar

Udmurt language textbook, 1898 (in Russian)

Udmurt is an agglutinating language. It uses affixes to express possession, to specify mode, time, and so on.

Lexicon

Based on the style, about 10 to 30 percent of the Udmurt lexicon consists of loanwords. Many loanwords are from the Tatar language, which has also strongly influenced Udmurt phonology and syntax. Words related to technology, science and politics have been borrowed from Russian.

A bilingual sign proclaiming "welcome" in Russian (upper) and Udmurt (lower). This picture was taken in Izhevsk, the capital of Udmurtia.

Bibliography

• Kel'makov, Valentin; Sara Hännikäinen (2008) (in Finnish). Udmurtin kielioppia ja harjoituksia (2nd ed.). Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura. ISBN 978-952-5150-34-6. 
• Moreau, Jean-Luc (2009). Parlons Oudmourte. Paris: L'Harmattan. ISBN 2-296-07951-2. 

External links

• Udmurtology: Udmurt Language, History and Culture(Russian)
• Literature
• The First Udmurt Forum(Russian)
• Udmurt State University (has Udmurt Language Program for English speakers)
• Udmurt language, alphabet and pronunciation
• Uralistica – the world of finno-ugric and samoyed peoples
• Vladimir Napolskikh. Review of Eberhard Winkler, Udmurt, München 2001 (Languages of the World. Materials 212)