Disappearing Dialect: Attrition and Scattering of Ingrian Finnish

Abstract

Ingrian Finnish is one of the old Southeastern Finnish dialects. It was originally
spoken by 17th century immigrants to Ingria (Finn./nkerinmaa) in the Province of S1. Petersburg, Russia (see Figure I).1 At most, there were about 130,000 speakers of Ingrian Finnish in the mid 1920s. However, after the founding of the Soviet Union there was a great upheaval. Use of Ingrian Finnish was prohibited in the 1930s and Russian became an obligatory language in everyday life including school and in the home. There was also cultural oppression: thousands of Ingrian Finns were transportated to the far east of Russia. During World War" Ingria was a
battlefield between Germany and Russia (siege of Leningrad). Ingrians were moved
to Germany, evacuated to inner Russia, or they emigrated to Finland.