Kas Otto Wilhelm Masing vestles karjalaste ja/või vepslastega?
Has Otto Wilhelm Masing had a talk with Karelians and/or Wepses?

Summary/Abstract: Otto Wilhelm Masing wrote in 1821 to Johann Heinrich Rosenplänter, that in a tavern he had met with Karelians from Olonets province. Masing presented in his letter two three-word sentences and six particular words by the old spelling system: hüwa ’good’, koer ’dog’, kolen ’(I) die’, kuma ’godfather; good mate’, minna ’I’, mursja ’bride’ (in fact ’young married woman’ and other meanings), om ’is’, penni ’dog’, surm ’death’, täempä ’today’, waat ’here’, waits ’knife’. It is possible that Masing has noticed at least some Vepsian words but very scantily. This proofs lack of apocope (also in Lydic) and the words ?kolen, om, täempä (cf. Vepsian ťämbäi) and mursja (Vepsian muŕźäin ~ muŕźei). The other lexemes (except kuma) are neutral in the language diagnostical sense. Masing did it more than two years earlier that the Finnish linguist Andreas Johan Sjögren, who had mentioned the Vepses for first time in 1824. Chronologically Masing was the second person, which has recorded some Vepsian material. The first recording (charms) come from the second quarter of the 17th century. After Myznikov, they are not in Vepsian but a commune predecessor [!] language of Olonetsian, Lydic and Vepsian. Masing as first has compared the Vepsian (after him Carelian) words with a related language – South Estonian literary language (and Võru dialect).

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