Votian/Indefinite Imperative

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Indefinite voice

The indefinite voice describes an action without giving any information about it's agent. Hence an indefinite imperative like jute̮лtagō could be translated approximately as: "Somebody should say!". The person or persons, whom we want to say something, is indefinite. We don't care too much, who exactly would do it. It is important for us, that it would be said and no more.

Mood	Negation verb	Main verb ending
Imperative	elko'on	-ttako'on

The -ttako'on suffix is composed of an indefinite voice marker -tta and a third person's singular imperative ending -ko'on.

• Dialectal alternatives of the morpheme -ko'on were described in the lesson of Votian imperative.
• Dialectal alternatives of the negation verb elko'on were described in the lesson about negative imperative e.g. elkō e̮лtagō vs. älkō e̮лtagō ('Let (anyone) be (like that)!').

Morphophonology

The first t is geminated after a short vowel only, elsewhere the suffix is degeminated e.g. ve̮te̮ttagō ('Let (it) be taken!') vs. jute̮лtagō ('Let (it) be said!').

The vowel a alternates with ä according to vowel harmony rules e.g. levvettägō ('Let (it) be found!').

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. levvettägō ( vs. levvä - the 2. person's singular imperative), ve̮te̮ttagō ( vs. ve̮ta - the 2. person's singular imperative).

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) e.g. ve̮te̮ttagō ('Let (it) be taken!') vs. ve̮ttagō ('Let him take!').

Other Finnic dialects

• Standard Finnish : lue-ttakoon ('Let (it) be read!') / älköön lue-ttakoon ('Let (it) be not read!')
• Standard Estonian : loe-ttagu ('Let (it) be read!') / ärgu loe-ttagu ('Let (it) be not read!')
• Räpina South Estonian dialects : loe-ttaGo ('Let (it) be read!') / ärkko loe-ttaGo ('Let (it) be not read!')

See also

• Grammar of Votian dialects (syllabus)

Educational level: this is a non-formal education resource.

Type classification: this is a lesson resource.

Completion status: Deliberately incomplete for educational purposes.

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