Votic

Votic, also known as Votes or Votian, is a Finnic language of the Uralic language family. It was traditionally spoken by the Votic people in Ingria, a coastal region along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Finland, now part of northwestern Russia (primarily in Leningrad Oblast) and nearby areas.

Linguistically, Votic is part of the Finnic group within the Baltic Finnic subgroup of the Uralic language family. It is closely related to other Finnic languages such as Estonian and Livonian, sharing features common to the Baltic Finnic branch. Like other Finnic languages, Votic has a rich system of morphology and agglutination, and it historically exhibited vowel harmony and flexible word order.

The number of native speakers declined sharply during the 20th century due to assimilation pressures, migration, and Soviet-era language policies. By the early 21st century only a handful of elderly speakers remained, and the language is generally regarded as severely endangered or nearly extinct. Community efforts and scholarly documentation have aimed to preserve Votic, including field linguistics, grammars, dictionaries, and occasional revival activities in Russia and nearby regions.

There is no widely used standard written form, and orthographic conventions have varied in documentation. Votic has left a limited but important record in linguistic literature, with some recordings and texts contributing to the broader understanding of Baltic Finnic languages. Today, the Votic community is small, and the language survives primarily in linguistic archives and among aging speakers, with ongoing concerns about its survival.