The Ingrian language (also called Izhorian) is a Finnic language spoken by the (mainly orthodox) Izhorians of Ingria. It has approximately 500 speakers left, most of whom are aging. It should not be confused with the Southeastern dialects of the Finnish language that became the majority language of Ingria in the 17th century with the influx of Lutheran Finnish immigrants (whose descendants, Ingrian Finns, are often referred to as Ingerians). The immigration of Lutheran Finns was promoted by Swedish authorities (who gained the area in 1617 from Russia), as the local population was (and remained) orthodox.
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“This is of the loon—I do not mean its laugh, but its looning,—is a long-drawn call, as it were, sometimes singularly human to my ear,—hoo-hoo-ooooo, like the hallooing of a man on a very high key, having thrown his voice into his head. I have heard a sound exactly like it when breathing heavily through my own nostrils, half awake at ten at night, suggesting my affinity to the loon; as if its language were but a dialect of my own, after all.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)