Võro language area - Võromaa (Võro county) in its historical boundaries between Tartu and Seto areas, Russia (Vinnemaa) and Latvia (Läti)

The Võro language (võro kiil´), like Estonian, Hungarian, and Finnish, is a Finno-Ugric language. It belongs to the Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. Võro is an autochthonous regional language of Estonia (in search of more recognition). Võro language has about 70,000 speakers (Võros) mostly in south-eastern Estonia, in the eight parishes of historical Võromaa: Karula, Harglõ, Urvastõ, Rõugõ, Kanepi, Põlva, Räpinä, and Vahtsõliina. These parishes are currently centered (due to redistricting) in Võru and Põlva counties with parts extending into Valga and Tartu counties. Many Võro language speakers can also be found in Tallinn, Tartu and the rest of Estonia. A regional language is a language spoken in a part of a country - it may be a small area, a federal state or province, or a wider area. ... ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... SIL International is a non-profit, faith-based, scientific organization with the main purpose to study, develop and document lesser-known languages for the purpose of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting world literacy and aiding minority language development. ... This list of languages is alphabetical by English name. ... Võro area File links The following pages link to this file: Võro language ... Võro area File links The following pages link to this file: Võro language ... Geographical distribution of Finno-Ugric (Finno-Permic in blue, Ugric in green). ... Finnic (Fennic, sometimes Baltic Finnic) may refer to Finnish-similar languages spoken close to the Gulf of Finland, i. ... A regional language is a language spoken in a part of a country - it may be a small area, a federal state or province, or a wider area. ... Võros (võrokõsõq) are an autochthonous linguistic minority in south-eastern Estonia. ...

History

Võro is a descendant of the old South-Estonian tribal language and is the least influenced by North-Estonian. The Võro language was also once spoken further south and east of historical Võromaa in what is now Latvia and Russia. In addition to Võro, other contemporary South-Estonian languages include the Mulgi, Tartu and Seto. By some linguists, as well as the Ethnologue, Võro and other South Estonian languages are still called dialects of Estonian. The Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages primarily to provide the speakers with native language biblical texts. ...

One of the earliest written evidences of South Estonian is a translation of the New Testament (Wastne Testament) published in in 1686. Although the status of South Estonian began to diminish after the 1880s, the language began to undergo a revival in the late 1980s. The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus. ... Events The League of Augsburg is founded. ... Events and Trends Technology Development and commercial production of electric lighting Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered automobile by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach First commercial production and sales of phonographs and phonograph recordings. ... Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ...

Present situation

Today, Võro is used in the works of some of Estonia's most well known playwrights, poets, and authors. Võro is taught once a week in 26 schools. The only Võro language newspaper, Uma Leht, comes out twice a month. Uma Leht is the only newspaper in the Võro language which is spoken in South Estonia. ...

Võro language is seriously endangered by Estonian and by the lack of the government's legal commitment to protect the language.

Orthography

Võro (like Estonian and Finnish) employs the Roman script. Most letters (also ä, ö, ü, and õ) denote the same sounds as in Estonian. Exceptions: q stands for glottal stop, y denotes a vowel very close to Russian ы (not Finnish y!), ´ marks palatalization of consonants (like in Polish): ś, ń, l´, t´, k´, h´ etc. The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world. ... The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ...

In Võro all consonants (except j and q) can be palatalized. The glottal stop (q) is a very common sound in Võro. There is also the vowel harmony like in Finnish and Hungarian. In linguistics, a language is said to possess vowel harmony (also metaphony) when it has a phonological rule that requires all vowels in a word to belong to a single class. ...

See also

• Võro tongue-twisters

List of tongue-twisters in English Rhymes and poems Sarah, Sarah, sits in her Chevrolet. ...

External links

Võro language edition of Wikipedia

• Võro-Estonian dictionary (Võro Institute) (http://www.folklore.ee/Synaraamat/)
• Võro Institute (http://www.wi.ee)
• Võro language newspaper "Uma Leht" (http://www.umaleht.ee)
• Audio example of Võro language (http://haldjas.folklore.ee/tagused/nr2/muina.htm)
• "Estonian dialects and layers" on http://www.estonica.org (http://www.estonica.org/eng/lugu.html?menyy_id=61&kateg=38&alam=44&leht=3)
• Homepage of computer programs in Võro (http://math.ut.ee/~vlaan/vtk/vtk.html)
• English-Võro dictionary of computer terms (http://math.ut.ee/~vlaan/ivps/ivps.html)
• Eurominority (in English) (http://www.eurominority.org/version/eng/minority-detail.asp?id_alpha=22&id_minorites=ee-voro)
• Eurominority (in Võro) (http://www.eurominority.org/version/vor/minority-detail.asp?id_alpha=22&id_minorites=ee-voro)
• Uralic languages (Salminen 2003) (http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/fu.html)
• Online games in Võro language (http://www.flyordie.com/mangoq.html)