Votian/Imperfect Tense of Indefinite Voice

Indefinite voice
The indefinite voice describes an action without giving any information about it's agent. Hence an imperfect tense indefinite expression like püvvettī could be translated approximately as: "Somebody cought!". We don't bother ourselves clarifying, who was it.


 * The -ttu ending is actually an indefinite voice past tense participle suffix.
 * The -ttiin suffix was composed of an indefinite voice marker -tta, an imperfect tense marker -i  and 3. person's singular hen.

Morphophonology
The final -n was pronounced as a prolongation of the preceding vowel e.g. tek+tiin > tehtī ('Somebody did').
 * In Votian like dialects of Estonia the long vowels without primary stress have been shortened (influenced by Mid Estonian dialect) e.g. pes+tiin > pesti ('Somebody washed.').

The first t is geminated after a short vowel only, elsewhere the suffix is degeminated e.g. ve̮te̮ttī ('Somebody took') vs. jute̮лtī ('Somebody said!') or sȫtī ('Somebody did eat!').

Indefinite voice suffixes take a consonant stem if available.
 * Therefore verbal stem is always in the weak grade in front of any indefinite voice marker (except present tense indefinite voice)
 * лuget̮tī ('Somebody (did) read.') X лuke̮assa ('Somebody reads.')
 * vs. magattī ('Somebody slept.') X makā ('Sleep!' - singular imperative).

In front of any indefinite voice marker (except present tense indefinite voice) the stem-vowel a alternates with e̮  and ä alternates with e e.g.  tširjota+ttiin  > tširjote̮ttī ('Somebody wrote').

Dialectal alternatives

 * Dialectal alternatives of the negation verb epi were described in the lesson about present tense negation e.g. ep e̮лtu vs. ei e̮lDu ('Nobody was.').


 * Dialectal alternatives of the -ttu suffix are better described in the lesson about Votian participles.
 * The Eastern Votic -ttuk suffix is composed of an indefinite voice past tense participle suffix -ttu and a metanalytic negation marker -k borrowed from the present tense negation, where it is a  present tense marker.
 * The final -k is pronounced as -G only in Eastern Votic dialect e.g. ep e̮лtuG ('Nobody is') . All the other dialects both in Ingria and Estonia have lost the phoneme *k in the end of words e.g. ep e̮лtu.


 * Alutaguse dialects
 * 1) The suffix -ttiin has became
 * 2) -tti (after a syllable of primary or secondary stress) e.g. luke+ttiin > luetti ('Somebody (did) read' ), kuivata+ttiin > kuivaDetti ('Somebody dried' )
 * 3) -t̆ti (after an unstressed syllable) e.g. aja+ttiin > ajat̆ti ('Somebody chased' ) - Jõhvi dialect
 * 4) -ti (after a voiceless consonant) e.g. las+ttiin > lasti ('Somebody shot' )
 * 5) -t̆i or -Di (after a voiced consonant or a vowel with primary stress) e.g. tuo+ttiin > tuoDi ('Somebody brought' ), men+ttiin > menDi ('Somebody went' )
 * Alutaguse runic songs have preserved a more archaic suffix *-tta+i+hen >  -tiie, -diie, -die, -tie  :
 * üteldie, räägitie, valetie ('Somebody said, told, poured')

=== Other Finnic dialects ===


 * Standard Finnish : lue-ttiin ('Somebody read.') / ei lue-ttu ('Nobody read.')
 * Vesjegonski Karelian dialects : lugie--tti̮h ('Somebody read.') / ei lugie-ttu ('Nobody read.')
 * Central Vepsian dialects : luge-tihe ('Somebody read.') /   ī luge-tud ('They did not read.')
 * Hevaha Ingrian dialects : lue-ttīn ('Somebody read.') / ei lue-ttu ('Nobody read.')
 * Standard Estonian : loe-ti ('Somebody read.') / ei loe-tud ('Nobody read.')
 * Räpina South Estonian dialects : loe-tte ('Somebody read.') / es loe-tta&#x0294; ~ loe-tta ̮as̀ ('Nobody read.')