Votic Language - Dialects

Dialects

Votic language had four dialects of which the western dialect is still spoken today. The dialects were:

• Western, the areas around the mouth of the Luga River
• Eastern, in villages around Koporye
• Kukkuzi, a mix of Izhoran and Votic, spoken in the village of Kukkuzi
• Kreevin, areas around the city of Bauska, Latvia

In 1848 it was estimated that of a total of 5,298 speakers of Votic, 3,453 (65%) spoke the western dialect, 1,695 (35%) spoke the eastern and 150 (3%) spoke a dialect of Kukkuzi. Kreevin had 12-15 speakers in 1810, the last records of Kreevin speakers are from 1846. The Kreevin dialect was spoken in an enclave in Latvia by descendants of Votic prisoners of war who were brought to the Bauska area of Latvia in the 15th century by the Teutonic order. The last known speaker of the eastern dialect died in 1960, in the village of Itchäpäivä (Itsipino). Some linguists have claimed that the Kukkuzi dialect is actually a dialect of the Izhoran language.