Finnic minorities of Ingria: The current sociolinguistic situation and its background

The chapter discusses Finnic languages spoken in Ingria (Votic, Ingrian and Ingrian Finnish), gives a detailed overview of the current language situation, and analyses the processes that have caused a language and identity shift. There are many common features in the history of these languages, and they greatly influenced each other through intensive language contacts. Nonetheless, the current situation shows individual characteristics for each language. The paper addresses the following issues for each of the three languages: the dialectal structure and historical language contacts; contemporary language situation (the number and geographical distribution of the speakers, their age, gender, mobility, contacts with other languages and attitudes towards the native language); historical background of the present situation; and prospects for the near future and recent language maintenance and revitalization efforts