  votic or votian (vaÄÄa ceeli or maaceeli&nbsp;â also written vaÄÄa tÅ¡eeli, maatÅ¡eeli) is the language spoken by the votes of ingria, belonging to the finnic branch of the uralic languages. votic is spoken only in krakolye and luzhitsy, two villages in kingiseppsky district, and is close to extinction (language death). in 1989 there were 62&nbsp;speakers left, the youngest born in 1938. in its 24 december 2005 issue, the economist wrote that there are only approximately 20&nbsp;speakers left.  ==history== votic is one of numerous finnic varieties known from ingria, and generally considered the oldest of these. votic shares some similarities with and has acquired loanwords from the adjacent ingrian language, but also has deep-reaching similarities with estonian to the west, which is considered its closest relative. some linguists including tiit-rein viitso and paul alvreviitso, tiit-rein: finnic affinity. congressus nonus internationalis fenno-ugristarum i: orationes plenariae & orationes publicae. (tartu 2000) have claimed that votic evolved specifically from northeastern dialects of ancient estonian.paul ariste: eesti rahva etnilisest ajaloost. lÃ¤Ã¤nemere keelte kujunemine ja vanem arenemisjÃ¤rk. artikkeli kokoelma. eesti riiklik kirjastus, 1956 votic regardless exhibits several features that indicate its distinction from estonian (both innovations such as the palatalisation of velar consonants and a more developed system of cases, and retentions such as vowel harmony). according to estonian linguist paul ariste, votic was distinct from other finnic languages, such as finnish and estonian, as early as the 6th century ce and has evolved independently ever since. thumb|300px|a map of votic and neighbouring ingrian-finnish and izhorian villages 1848â2007. in the 19th century votic was already declining in favour of [[
Endangered_Uralic_languages Finnic_languages Ingria Languages_of_Russia Languages_with_ISO_639-2_code Votes