Udmurt

Udmurt (Votyak) is spoken by approx. 70 % of the 750.000 Udmurt as mother tongue (according to the 1989 census). The Udmurt are living mainly in their own Autonomous Republic in the European part of Russia (Vjatka-Kama-Region), where they constitute less than one third of the population. Udmurt belongs to the Permic branch of theFinno-Ugric Languages, which form together with Samojed languages the Uralic language family. In former times Turkic languages (Chuvash and Tatar) had a strong influence on the grammar of Udmurt, whereas the younger Russian influence is restricted to the lexicon. Nevertheless the grammar is typical Finno-Ugric and shows a lot of common features with the nearly related more archaic Komi language. The monograph is based on the Literary language and will contain chapters on phonology, morphology and syntax. Emphasis will be given to morphology, with special attention to the verbal inflectional system and the functions of these categories. The sketch includes a short Udmurt text with interlinear translation.