Seto dialect
Dialect of South Estonian
Seto (seto kiil; Estonian: setu keel) is a dialect of South Estonian spoken by 25,080 people. It is sometimes identified as a variety under Võro, or the two are described as Võro-Seto. Setos (setokõsõq) mostly inhabit the area near Estonia's southeastern border with Russia in Setomaa, and are primarily Eastern Orthodox, while Võros (võrokõsõq) are traditionally Lutherans and live in historical Võru County.
01Phonology
Vowels
- Vowel length is also distinctive.
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | ||
| Plosive | p | pʲ | t | tʲ | k | kʲ | ʔ | ||
| Affricate | t͡s | t͡sʲ | |||||||
| Fricative | v | vʲ | s | sʲ | h | hʲ | |||
| Nasal | m | mʲ | n | nʲ | |||||
| Approximant | l | lʲ | j | ||||||
| Rhotic | r | rʲ | |||||||
- Stop, affricate and fricative sounds can also be heard as voiced [b, bʲ, d, dʲ, ɡ, ɡʲ, d͡z, d͡zʲ] and [z, zʲ], when between vowels or within voiced consonants. They also may be written as such ⟨b, b’, d, d’, g, g’, ds, ds’, z, z’⟩.
- Other sounds /f, x/ appear only in loanwords.
02Language sample
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
- Seto: Kõik inemiseq sünnüseq vapost ja ütesugumaidsist uma avvo ja õiguisi poolõst. Näile om annõt mudsu ja süämetun'stus ja nä piät ütstõõsõga vele muudu läbi kjauma.
- Võro: Kõik inemiseq sünnüseq vapos ja ütesugumaidsis uma avvo ja õiguisi poolõst. Näile om annõt mudsu ja süämetunnistus ja nä piät ütstõõsõga vele muudu läbi käümä.
- Estonian: Kõik inimesed sünnivad vabadena ja võrdsetena oma väärikuselt ja õigustelt. Neile on antud mõistus ja südametunnistus ja nende suhtumist üksteisesse peab kandma vendluse vaim.
- Finnish: Kaikki ihmiset syntyvät vapaina ja tasavertaisina arvoltaan ja oikeuksiltaan. Heille on annettu järki ja omatunto, ja heidän on toimittava toisiaan kohtaan veljeyden hengessä.
- English: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Seto dialect”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- South Estonian today.PNG by Sulev Iva, CC BY-SA 4.0
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