Votian/Copula and Compound Tenses

== Copula  ==

=== Predicative    ===

'' There is not much data about this matter available. So I've made my own research basing on the data of modern Finnish. ''

Baltic Finnic languages oppose  partial    predicative   to  total predicative
 * Partitive marks a partial    predicative   while  nominative  marks a  total predicative  of a sentence.
 *  tämä naizikko on tōž soikkoлaisī  ('This woman also is a one of Soikkola Ingrians.' i.e. We emphasize, that she belongs to a group of certain quality - is a part of that group. - This is a partial predicative.)
 *  tämä on soikkuлaine̮  ( Liivtšülä dialect 'She is a Soikkola Ingrian.' i.e. We don't emphasize, that she belongs to that group. - This is a total predicative.)
 * See the page of main cases  for further details.

As a copula  they use an  auxiliary verb   e̮ллa / lid́d́ä  (òl-tak / lee-tak).

Pronunciation
ò is pronounced as o only in Kukkuzi dialect. Elsewhere (both in Ingria and Estonia) it is pronounced as e̮.

e̮  substitutes e according to vowel harmony rules (except in  Kukkuzi dialect) e.g.  e̮лe̮issi    (" (if) she was ")

òle may be contracted to ō or ē̮  respectively e.g.  epi òle-k  >  ebō tarvis teit opetta  ('There is no need to teach you.'  Kukkuzi dialect). vs.  mȫ ē̮mma ~ e̮лe̮mma  ('We are').

Short vowels and imperfect  i melt together into a single short vowel.
 * E.g. e̮ + -i- > i: e̮лe̮G ('Be!') > e̮livaD ('They were.').

Short e / e̮ were substituted by i in front of j.
 * E.g. e̮ + -i- > i: e̮лe̮vaD ('being' plural nominative  of  present tense participle) > e̮lija ('the one who is.').

The final -k has been preserved only in Eastern Votic dialect e.g.  lēäG  (" to be " potential-future  infinitive). All the other dialects both in Ingria and Estonia have lost the phoneme *k in the end of words e.g.  lēvvä ~ lid́d́ä .

t component of indefinite voice suffixes is weakened everywhere (except after unstressed vowels) e.g. elko'on òl-ttako'on >  elkō e̮лtagō  ('Nobody should be (like this).'), òl-t'aksen > e̮ллassē̮  ('Somebody would get.').

Potential marker -ne- may be omitted : lēneväD / lēväD, lēneD / lēD etc.

See the chapter of participles  about dialectal and morphophonological alternations of -nut and -nut-et e.g.  emmak òl-nut-et  >  mǖ emmä ollēd nähnēt karrua  ('We had not seen bear.'  Kukkuzi dialect ) vs.  epi òl-nut  >  eb e̮ллut tšettäit kot̀on  ('Nobody was at home'  Itšäpäivä dialect).

=== Compound tenses  ===

Existance of compound tenses  in  Baltic Finnic  languages is rather disputable as the whole grammar of those languages is created under influence of German and Swedish linguistics.

Thus a complex predicate  composed of  copula   verb  e̮ллa / lid́d́ä  (òl-tak / lee-tak) and a  past participle is treated as perfect tense  ( or  pluperfect tense  if the  auxiliary verb  is in  imperfect  ~ German (Plusquamperfekt ): auxiliary verb (haben or) sein in its preterite form + Partizip Perfekt (Partizip II) of the full lexical verb. For example:  Nachdem ich aufgestanden war, ging ich ins Badezimmer.  "After I had got up, I went into the bathroom.").

Votic examples:
 * 1)  omaD antannūD  ("They have given." perfect )
 * 2)  e̮livaD antannūD  ("They had given." pluperfect )


 * Ariste interpretes the future forms of  e̮лe̮ma (~ lid́d́ä )  auxiliary verb  +  past participle  of a main verb as   futurum exactum   e.g.  kui miä lēn tšüzünnü, sis siä anna  ("If I shall ask, then you give me!"),  siллē̮  ke̮ik̄   lēp   ̮ prostittu  ("Everything will be forgiven you!"  indefinite voice ),  leiväd  ̮ lēvät  ̮ senelē лavvaлē̮  pantu  ("Bread will be layed on this table."  indefinite voice ).

In fact the auxiliary verb  e̮ллa / lid́d́ä  (òl-tak / lee-tak) of a  complex predicate  may have any (mood, voice and tense) marker. So we could create a heap of additional compound tenses. Unfortunately it's difficult to find them proper counterparts in Latin grammar.
 * 1) E.g.  eb' e̮лtaiz ne̮istu  ("Nobody would have begun." pluperfect ) - composed of
 * 2)  negation verb  of the third person of singular - epi 
 * 3) auxiliary verb in  conditional  of  indefinite voice  - òl-ttaiksik 
 * 4)  past participle o indefinite voice  of another auxiliary verb  ne̮isa (nòis-tak)  in role of main verb for the previous one - nòis-ttu 
 * 5) missing  ma infinitive  in the role of a full lexical verb should be guessed from context (a  potential-future  expression)
 * 6)  eväd e̮лtaiz e̮лtu tšüzünnüd  ("They would not had asked.") - composed of
 * 7)  negation verb  of the third person of plural - evat 
 * 8) auxiliary verb in  conditional  of  indefinite voice substituting the form of the third person of plural  - òl-ttaiksik 
 * 9)  past participle o indefinite voice  of another auxiliary verb in role of main verb for the previous one - òl-ttu 
 * 10)  past participle o definite voice  of a full lexical verb - küsu-nut 

Moreover, the auxiliary verb  e̮ллa / lid́d́ä  (òl-tak / lee-tak) may compose a  complex predicate  with other  non-finite verb  forms. See the chapters of verbal nouns  and  participles  about it.

We could have  present continuous  here, if the grammar was written by British. For example:
 * 1) -massa  inessive  may express
 * 2)  situation  - e.g.  isä on sȫmäzä    (" Father is eating. " kuza ?),  e̮limma spektaklia vāttamaza    (" We were watching a performance. "),  e̮лtī   tšäümäzä    (" They went wooing. ")
 * 3) -matta  abessive  may express
 * 4)  undone  action - e.g.  ve̮rkko on paratamattaG    (" The net is not repaired. " Eastern Votic dialect),  ope̮n on sȫmättä    (" The horse has not eaten. ")
 * 5) -ttava  adjective participial   modifier  may express
 * 6)  possibility  or acceptance of an action - e.g.  jōma on jōtava    (" The drink would (or might) be drunk. "),  on suvattava    ("is amiable, lovable ")
 * 7) obligation - e.g.  pantava on pajate̮ttava i naite̮ttava on nagre̮ttava    (" People should talk about the one, whom others must find a groom for and people should laugh at the one, whom others must find a bride for. " ~ a proverb)

It seems more practical to analyse those constructions word by word instead of spending ones lifetime creating hypothetical paradigms.

=== Other use cases of e̮ллa / lid́d́ä  (òl-tak / lee-tak) ===

 lee-tak  may express also
 * 1)  obligation  - e.g. Lempola dialect  lieb minū manaχann  ̮ e̮ллa ke̮ik̄   itšä  ("I must be a monk all my lifetime.")
 * 2)   indefinite relative pronouns   - e.g.  siä ku b lie tahod mennä tšäümǟ enellēz nuorikke̮ata  ("You probably want to go wooing."),  Savvokkala dialect  tšel   ̮ lēp tuli   n a r v a s̄    ("Somebody came from Narva.")
 * 3) There are future forms of  e̮лe̮ma   auxiliary verb  +  past participle  of a main verb e.g.  mǖ lēmm tšüzüttü  ('We shall be asked.' passive future).
 * 4) There are future forms of  e̮лe̮ma   auxiliary verb  +  ta infinitive  of a main verb in Votic grammar of Ariste e.g.  sinū tavākā liep  ̮ tauge̮ta  ('One of your habits should die.' future obligation),  lieb  ̮ mennä mettsǟ obahkā  ('We should go to forest to pick mushrooms.' future proposal  Lempola ).

Dialectal alternatives
ò is pronounced as o only in Kukkuzi dialect. Elsewhere (both in Ingria and Estonia) it is pronounced as e̮.

e̮  substitutes e according to vowel harmony rules (except in  Kukkuzi dialect) e.g.  e̮лe̮issi    (" (if) she was ")

òle may be contracted to ō or ē̮  respectively e.g.  epi òle-k  >  ebō tarvis teit opetta  ('There is no need to teach you.'  Kukkuzi dialect). vs.  mȫ ē̮mma ~ e̮лe̮mma  ('We are').

on-vat  may be pronounced as onvaD ~ ovaD ~ omaD.

epi òle-k  may be pronounced as  eb ̮ e̮лe   ~ be̮лe̮ ~ bē̮ .

 epi òl-nut  may be pronounced as  eb ̮ e̮ллu   ~ be̮ллu .


 * Votic of Ingria
 * Eastern Votic dialect
 * A metanalytic morpheme -k has been added to the past participle's singular nominative -nut e.g.  lēn e̮ллuG  ('I'll be.'). The suffix -k is probably borrowed from the present tense negation here, where it was a present tense marker . See the chapter of imperfect tense negation.
 * A metanalytic morpheme -k has been added to the potential-future  negation  ettak lee-ne  >  ettak lee-k  e.g.  ettäg  ̮ lēG  ('You won't be.'). The suffix -k is probably borrowed from the present tense negation here, where it was a present tense marker.
 * A metanalytic morpheme -k has been added to the conditional negation e.g.  ettäg  ̮ e̮лe̮issiG  ('You wouldn't be.'),  ep  ̮ e̮лtaissiG  ('Nobody would be.'  indefinite voice ). The suffix -k is probably borrowed from the present tense negation here, where it was a present tense marker.
 * In Eastern Votic dialect they have (preserved or added) -k in the end of auxiliary verb  of  analytic imperative   las'e-k emmak òle  >  la'-k emmak òle  e.g.  lag   ̮ emmäg   ̮ e̮le̮G  ('Let's not be (like this).'). . The  auxiliary verb  of  analytic imperative   la'  may be originated from the verb  laske̮a (laske-tak) ("let" ~ German lassen ~ Swedish lata ) e.g.  lazze̮ttako urvittama ? (<  laske-ttak-ko  "Dou you let me whisk you ? " Lempola dialect;  Whisking  is a certain Easter ritual.),  laka miä tämǟ ve̮ttan enelē  (<  laske-ka'a  'Let me take this.' Mati dialect),  jutte̮n las vā  (<  las'e-k  'I say: "Let it be!".' Jõgõperä dialect).