Work

Where did the language of the northeastern Estonian Poluverniki come from?

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This study examines the linguistic origins of the historical community of Poluverniki in northeastern Estonia. Members of this group were typically bilingual and spoke a distinctive blend of dialectal Russian and Estonian. The prevailing scholarly view — based largely on non‑linguistic evidence — holds that the Poluverniki descended from a Votic‑like Southern Finnic population that was later linguistically assimilated by neighboring Russian dialects. Drawing mainly on phonological data, we challenge this view by demonstrating that the Finnic elements in their vernacular(s) point to Northern rather than Southern Finnic roots. Furthermore, we show that their Russian variety does not fully align with the neighboring Central Russian dialects, suggesting that the Poluverniki’s Russian is, at least in part, of a different origin from the contemporary vernaculars spoken along the coast of Lake Peipus and in the Gdov area.

Source: Linguistica Uralica

DOI: 10.3176/lu.2026.2.02

Authors: Petar Kehayov, Karl Pajusalu

Institution: University of Tartu

Language: English

Topic: Linguistics and language evolution

Subfield: Language and Linguistics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funders: Eesti Teaduste Akadeemia, Eesti Teadusagentuur

Awards: G1419100943, From East to West: Typological shift in Estonian and the Southern Finnic languages against the background of Uralic