Livvi or Olonets) do not allow for gradation in clusters beginning on nasals. Thus, the Olonets Karelian equivalent of Finnish vanhemmat (cf. vanhempi 'older') is vahnembat. The Karelian phoneme inventory also includes the affricate (represented in the orthography as č), which may be found geminated and is such subject to quantitative gradation: meččä 'forest' → mečäššä 'in (the) forest'. Votic Votic has two quantities for consonants and vowels, which basically match up with the Finnish counterparts. The Votic phoneme inventory includes a set of fully voiced stops, which Paul Ariste (A Grammar of the Votic Language) describes as being the same as in Russian. Thus, in addition to quantitative alternations between and , Votic also has a system of qualitative alternations in which the distinguishing feature is voicing, and so the voiceless stops are known to alternate with . As in Estonian, Karelian, and Eastern dialects of Finnish, the weak grade *ð of in inherited vocabulary has been lost or assimilated to adjacent sounds in Votic; the weak grade *β of has similarly become , or assimilated to in the cluster . However, the weak grade of survives, as before a back vowel or before a front vowel. A noticeable feature of Votic is that gradation has been extended to several consonant clusters that were not originally affected. As in Finnish, this includes the clusters and with a voicing-neutral first member, but also further clusters, even several ones introduced only in Russian loans. {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin:auto;" |+ Voicing alternations in Votic gradation |- ! Gradation !! Example !! Translation !! Notes |- | s → z || isä → izässä || 'father' → 'father (elat.)' |- | rs → rz || karsia → karzid || 'to trim' → 'you trim' |- | hs → hz || lahsi → lahzõd || 'child' → 'children' |- | tš → dž || retši → redžed || 'sleigh' → 'sleighs' |- | ntš → ndž || tšentšä → tšendžäd || 'shoe' → 'shoes' |- | ltš → ldž || jältši → jäldžed || 'footprint' → 'footprints' |- | k → g || luku → lugud || 'number' → 'numbers' || From Proto-Finnic *k → *ɣ. |- | hk → hg || tuhka → tuhgassa || 'ash' → 'ash (elat.)' |- | ŋk → ŋg || aŋko → aŋgod || 'pitchfork' → 'pitchforks' || Retained intact from Proto-Finnic *ŋk → *ŋg. |- | pk