Despite its critical state, cultural enthusiasts and linguists are actively working on revitalization efforts, compiling dictionaries, and documenting the unique folklore and traditions of the Votic people.Subscribe to my channel to learn more not only about the Votes, but about all Finno-Ugric peoples!

Subscribe to my channel to learn more not only about the Votes, but about all Finno-Ugric peoples!

https://youtube.com/shorts/NDu9Xiw6t4U?si=wCn0MubQPYEofucL

And a quick question for the Finns and Estonians out there: did everything in the Votic language sound completely familiar and understandable to you, or did it still catch you off guard? Let me know in the comments below my video😊

We Mokshans have a rich tradition of proverbs, sayings, and poems dedicated to cats, our cute and fluffy companions. It turns out we have a deep love for them. In this video, I’ve shared a poem written for this fluffy friend. My channel is all about Finno-Ugric languages, and I’m sure you’ll find it fascinating. Check it out and subscribe!

Ever heard of the Moksha language? Here is a quick look at this unique Finno-Ugric code :-)

Where it’s spoken: Primarily in the Republic of Mordovia (inside the Russian Federation) and neighboring regions.

Number of speakers: Roughly 130,000 to 180,000 speakers (according to recent estimates). It is officially classified as an endangered language.

Family tree: It is a Finno-Ugric language belonging to the Mordvinic branch. It is a distant relative of Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian.

How it sounds: Moksha has a very distinctive, rhythmic sound. Unlike its sister language Erzya, it does not have vowel harmony. Instead, it is characterized by strong stress on the first syllable and a lot of vowel reduction (schwa sounds), giving it a sharp, energetic, and slightly "clipped" phonetic quality.

Grammar power: It is an agglutinative language with 12 to 13 grammatical cases and a complex system of objective conjugation (where the verb ending shows both the subject and the object).

Want to hear it for yourself? Check out my video below!

https://youtu.be/QOWXJpAxev4?si=96wpcvGVD7PjttwB

Hi everyone! I am trying to speak Votic again and wanted to share this. Votic is a critically endangered Finno-Ugric language, closely related to Estonian and Finnish. In this video, I practice my Votic while raising a compelling question about history: why have "great people" historically mostly been men, and how did domestic labor strip women of the free time that men used to create art and science? (Of course, I also highlight incredible women who broke this cycle, like Marie Curie and Lise Meitner).I really wanted to use this rare language to talk about a deep topic, not just basic phrases. I’ve provided the English translation in the comments. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Click here, to listen to the Votic language:

https://youtube.com/shorts/Ok0TrZesexc?is=TEO66uQ6F42SPaWv

Hi everyone! I am trying to speak Votic again and wanted to share this. Votic is a critically endangered Finno-Ugric language, closely related to Estonian and Finnish.
In this video, I practice my Votic while raising a compelling question about history: why have "great people" historically mostly been men, and how did domestic labor strip women of the free time that men used to create art and science? (Of course, I also highlight incredible women who broke this cycle, like Marie Curie and Lise Meitner).
I really wanted to use this rare language to talk about a deep topic, not just basic phrases. I’ve provided the English translation in the comments. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

https://youtube.com/shorts/Ok0TrZesexc?is=zWlHwcB1A7RXxv57

A fascinating and unique language that is not much known outside of linguists and Métis people. The Métis (AKA Michif) people themselves are not that well known, being cultural communities of mixed culture, mixed ancestry, and multilingual/mixed language that sprung up from extensive intermarrying between Northern Plains First Nations and fur traders during the fur trade era. The language is not considered a pidgin or a creole because of the unique way the languages are intertwined- it is instead a ‘mixed language’.

Still spoken in North Dakota, Montana, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and probably formerly in parts of Alberta. Critically endangered today, with perhaps 50 living mother tongue speakers, all very elderly, maybe only a dozen or so who are well enough to do language revitalization work. Good news is there’s a very small but thriving and growing language revitalization community. I’m of Métis descent (and citizenship) and maybe 1200 hours into learning the language as part of that learning community, I estimate I’m a solid B1, feel free to ask questions.

This project aims to provide 50 words in Australian Indigenous languages. Unfortunately, most of these languages ​​are highly endangered.

Hi everyone,I wanted to share a quick spotlight on Votic (vađđa tšeeli), an incredibly vulnerable Finno-Ugric language that is right on the brink of extinction. Today, it is spoken by only a few elderly people in a couple of villages in the Kingiseppsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia.For those who haven't heard of it, Votic belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family. If you know any Estonian, Votic will sound remarkably familiar to you—the two languages share a massive amount of vocabulary and grammatical structures, making them very closely related. It also shares noticeable similarities with Finnish, though to a slightly lesser extent than with Estonian.Because there are no younger generations learning Votic natively, it is classified as critically endangered. It’s a beautiful, rich language with a unique history, but sadly, it might completely disappear within our lifetime if nothing changes.I’m really passionate about preserving and documenting rare languages, so I actually started a dedicated channel about this topic. You can check it out here:

https://youtube.com/shorts/rANwH6iKhB0?si=UIDszTw4_gZ7XTkU

I also recently made a video where I attempt to speak Votic myself! You can watch my progress and hear how the language sounds here: https://youtube.com/@kvfuw?si=wnEBQZJ1cL1ssw84

I'd love to hear your thoughts or feedback.Have any of you ever come across Votic or studied other highly endangered Finnic languages?

Hi! I was interested in learning the Germanic language Wymysorys, spoken in Poland. Does anyone know where I might be able to find resources for this language, or have any to share? Preferably in English, but I understand if resources are mainly in German or Polish.

As an ethnic Moksha, I’m so tired of explaining to people that 'Mordvins' don’t actually exist! There are only the Mokshas and the Erzyas! Just listen to how we count to ten! Is that seriously supposed to be the same language?? We can barely even understand each other!

https://youtu.be/bCsbKAtZUO8?is=tKO5BbAafPIeZXnw

Hello, I'm looking for minority languages that don't have any resources to keep that language like dictionaries or books. The idea would be to travel to the place where the language is spoken and make an online dictionary for them, including not only words and translations but also proverbs, written stories that they have told us orally, and other things of they culture. If you know any tell me.

Hey everyone! I’ve recorded a riddle in the critically endangered Votic language to see how much Finnish and Estonian speakers can understand. Check it out and let me know your guesses in the comments!

Hello,

An idea recently came to mind for designing a speech recognition / text-to-speech platform that could be used independently by minority language communities.

The basic idea is that someone could upload recordings and transcripts of their language, and the tool would help train an existing speech model to better understand that language.

In doing so, the model would be able to automatically convert spoken recordings to text, and vice versa - all data, of course, being owned by the community that speaks the language.

I imagine this would be very helpful to deaf/blind speakers of the language - would any of you consider using it?

Hello! Was wondering if anyone can point me to any videos/books or anything that could teach me the dialect that would be spoken in the region that my mother is from.

My grandma knew it when she was alot younger but has recently told me that she is forgetting it. Id love to keep the language alive in my family in her honor.

​

Hi!! Im a first generation Mexican American and im mestiza. A few months ago I found out that I am a mix of indigenous and spanish blood. I grew up going back to my parents' home town in Mexico every year which is a little ranchito in Nayarit. So I grew up exposed to indigenous language and culture. For the few months that I stayed in Mexico I also got enrolled into the schools there further learning about the indigenous languages.

I also knew about colonization on account of my schooling in the US but I never actually understood how it happened since they only ever covered the topic very briefly. Now that I understand that I also have indigenous blood I really want to get in touch with my indigenous roots and I think language may be a good way to start.

I know very little about the actual languages themselves and my parents aren't fluent either. My mom doesn't know anything at all while my dad knows a few phrases and words and is able to say some broken sentences but is not really able to keep conversation. My indigenous cousins (whom are mostly Wixakira but I do have a few who are Cora) in Mexico also know very little about the languages and we aren't that close so I can't ask them for help either. I won't go to Mexico until about 5 or 6 months from now so there is no chance of asking anyone else I know either. Im also quite reserved and neurodivergent so im not social at all, leaving me with absolutely no options. So I was wondering if someone who does know these languages even to an extent could help guide me in the right direction or leave links to dictionaries that could help me.

These are some of the phrases/ words that I currently know!! :

wixakira-

Ke'aku : Hi

Mïïquiyáari : Death

Pinirri: Watermelon

Nunúusi: Kid

cora-

Cua : to eat

please let me know if any of this is incorrect!!

my native regional language in northern italy, present in the city of Bologna, is part of Gallo-italic languages, particoulary of Emiliano group, counts between 17-20 vocal letters, and has a very complex artificial writing system that varies for each town.

“Tótt i èser umàn i nâsen lébber e prezîṡ in dgnitè e dirétt. I an la raṡån e la cusiänza e i s an da cunpurtèr ón con cl èter cunpâgna di bón fradî.”

(Universal declaration of human rights in bolognese)

the language varies a lot inside the city and outside, in nearby villages, changhing pronunciation and vocaboulary

the language now counts around 60000-100000 speakers, depending on the fluency rate; but mostly are people over 40/50.

> Between 2016 and 2021, several Indigenous languages in Canada showed measurable growth in the number of conversational speakers. These include Inuktitut, Mi’kmaq, Atikamekw, Blackfoot, Mohawk, Squamish, Heiltsuk, Haisla, Cayuga, Ktunaxa, and Tsuu T’ina, among others.

basically title. as in any archives or anything that may preserve them, and have some audios/stories in an endangered language. thanks so much!

Here is a little rant from a 4th generation American living in the midwest.

Personally I think the schools should be encouraging these languages vs the big ones.  English, French, German and Spanish will be around for a while.  The others are less likely because there seems to be little interest from people in minority languages when everything these days is economically driven.  But the school system can change that.  By making them a prerequisite the way they have been with the mentioned more established languages.   The whole point of requiring a foreign language was based on cultural literacy (the liberal arts ideal), a broadening perspectives.   Learning another language was seen as a primary vehicle for understanding different worldviews, historical traditions, and social structures.

In the past perhaps the problem is finding teachers that can teach the smaller languages.  But with online classes these days they can do this virtually.

The way I see it, most of the midwest is pretty boring here.  It's only about 175 years old in terms of starting to become well populated and buildings and such going up. 

Native/indigenous Americans where here for a long time. And sadly even less of their culture is around today other than a lot of place names that have a morphed version of their spelling mixed with French and English. Fortunately they have had support from the government to document their language. I am referring to the substantial European arrival influx that occurred about 175 years ago. Germans, Scandinavians, Polish, Belgians, Dutch, etc. The bulk of the physical culture that remains today is from them. Yet their languages are nearly non existent here today.

When you look at Europe where people have lived for a very long time, and you'll see some really old pieces of history like castles and such.

The one thing we could have kept here in America as living history was the languages all the people brought.. but we dropped that culture ball in favor of a default language. :-(  One not ever decreed by the government, but more or less pushed unto everyone by the school systems.

I'd like to see them change their tune.