# Ludic language

Ludic, Ludian, or Ludic Karelian (Luudi, Lyydi or lüüdi), is a Finnic language in the Uralic language family or a Karelian dialect. It is transitional between the Olonets Karelian language and the Veps language. It is spoken by 300 Karelians in the Republic of Karelia in Russia, near the southwestern shore of Lake Onega, including a few children.

## Classification

In the Finnish research tradition, Ludic has been considered a transitional dialect area between Karelian and Veps, while in the Russian research tradition it is, on ethnographic grounds, normally considered a dialect of Karelian. A status as an independent language has been proposed in recent times. Ludic is characterised by a specific mixture of Karelian-like traits (such as the diphthongisation of the Proto-Finnic non-open long vowels: e.g. *pää > piä 'head', *soo > suo 'swamp', contrast Veps pä, so) and Veps-like traits (such as an almost complete loss of consonant gradation). Like Veps, Ludic has also partially lost vowel harmony.

### Dialects

Ludic comprises three main dialect groups:
* Ludic
** Northern (Lake) Ludic, at the northwestern shores of Lake Onega
** Central (River) Ludic, at settlements along river Shuya and near the city of Petrozavodsk
** Kuďäŕv (Forest) Ludic, in the Mikhaylovskoye rural locality
The strongest Karelian resemblance is found in Northern Ludic, while the Kuďäŕv dialect shares the most features with Veps.

## Phonology
### Vowels

| | Front | Front | Back | Back |
| | unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded |
| Close | i | y | | u |
| Mid | e | ø | | o |
| Open | æ | | ɑ | |
* Vowel length may also be distinctive.

### Consonants

| | | Labial | Labial | Alveolar | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
| | | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
| Plosive | voiceless | p | (pʲ) | t | tʲ | | k | |
| Plosive | voiced | b | (bʲ) | d | dʲ | | ɡ | |
| Affricate | voiceless | | | t͡s | | t͡ʃ | | |
| Affricate | voiced | | | | | d͡ʒ | | |
| Fricative | voiceless | (f) | (fʲ) | s | sʲ | ʃ | (x) | h |
| Fricative | voiced | v | (vʲ) | z | zʲ | ʒ | | |
| Nasal | Nasal | m | (mʲ) | n | nʲ | | | |
| Approximant | Approximant | | | l | lʲ | j | | |
| Rhotic | Rhotic | | | r | rʲ | | | |
* Sounds /f, fʲ, bʲ, pʲ, vʲ, mʲ/ only occur in recent borrowings.
* /h/ can also be heard as a velar [x].
* /n/ is heard as velar [ŋ] when preceding velar consonants.
* /ɡ/ can be lenited as a fricative [ɣ] in intervocalic positions.

## Writing system

Ludic is written using the unified Karelian alphabet, but in some publications the letter Ü is used instead of Y, as in Veps.
Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital letters) :
| A | B | C | Č | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | Š | Z | Ž | T | U | V | Y (Ü) | Ä | Ö | ʼ |
| Minuscule Forms (also called lowercase or small letters) |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | c | č | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | š | z | ž | t | u | v | y (ü) | ä | ö | ʼ |

## Phrases

* Ken sina oled? = Who are you?
* Mi tämä on? = What is this?
* Kudam teiš on Onni? = Which one of you is Onni?
* Mikš sina nagrad? = Why are you laughing?
* Kudam čuas on? = What time is it?
* Konz hyö tuldah kodih? = When are they coming home?
* Häin lähtöu huomei. = He/She leaves tomorrow.