The I. Infinitive form of the Baltic-Finnish contract verbs in the Veps language

The paper provides a historical analysis of the I. Infinitive's form of the Vepsian verbs with the -fa-affix, which is attached to the word's short vowel stem in the modern Veps (taba-ta, ope-ta, kai-ta). The analysis has shown that the short vowel stem of the infinitive is a result of phonetic changes that have occurred with the attachment of the infinitive's indicator: the vowel stem has converted to the consonant stem. Further vowel combinations, which were formed because of it, had been contracted and the final consonant of the consonant stem had been lost. It can be seen on the infinitive's indicator -ta, which has merged with the final stem's vowel: avaita ‘to open' *avait + ta + k > *avaitѵlak. The paper also speaks of different types of historical vowel stems, which have been formed as a result of different verb suffixes' attachment to the derivation stem. It touches upon the morphological changes at the junction of the stem and the infinitive's indicator, which had led to the short vowel stem's formation. Other cases of similar formations were revealed by analogy.