Karelian language

Karelian is a special language spoken mainly by the Karelian people in the Republic of Karelia in Russia. It is very close to Finnish, and some experts once thought it was just a type of Finnish. But today, most people say it is its own language. In Russia, about 9,000 people speak Karelian as their first language, and around 14,000 more can still speak it. In Finland, about 11,000 people speak Karelian, and around 30,000 know some of it.

Karelian has two main groups of dialects. One group is called Karelian Proper, with Northern and South Karelian parts. The other group is Olonets Karelian, also known as Livvi Karelian. There is also a language called Ludic, which some people think is part of Karelian and others think is a separate language. Because there is no one “standard” way to write Karelian, writers use their own local dialect when they write. They all use a special alphabet based on Latin letters, although in the past they sometimes used Cyrillic letters.

Long ago, there is evidence that a form of Karelian was also spoken by a group of people called the Bjarmians in the 15th century.
Kartvelian languages Karelian Proper language South Karelian dialects Finnic language Karelian people Republic of Karelia Finnish Finland supradialects Karelian Proper Northern Karelian South Karelian Tver enclave dialects Olonets Karelian Livvi-Karelian Ludic language standard Latin Karelian alphabet Cyrillic script Bjarmians

Classification

Karelian is a Finnic language from the Uralic language family. It is closely related to Finnish. It comes from a language spoken near Lake Ladoga long ago. Some experts thought Karelian was a dialect of Finnish, but it is now its own language. The Finnic group also includes Estonian and a few other languages spoken around the Baltic Sea.

Usage

Karelian is a language that is in danger of disappearing. Most of the people who speak it are older than 65, and very few children under 15 speak it. Many people in the Republic of Karelia do not understand or speak Karelian at all.

Geographic distribution

Karelian is mainly spoken in the Republic of Karelia in Russia. There are also communities in the Tver region, especially in Tver Oblast. In Finland, older generations used to speak Karelian, and some people still know the language today.

Official status

In the Republic of Karelia, Karelian is an official minority language. In Tver Oblast, Karelians can use their language in schools and media. In Finland, Karelian is recognized as a national minority language.

Supradialects and dialects

Karelian has two main forms: Karelian Proper and Olonets Karelian. These forms have many dialects.

• Karelian
  • Karelian Proper
    • North Karelian
    • South Karelian
      • Tver Karelian
  • Olonets Karelian or Livvi

The Ludic language is sometimes considered part of Karelian but is also seen as its own language because it is closely related to Veps.

Phonology

Karelian, like Finnish, has 8 main vowel sounds. When you think about how long these vowels can be, there are 11 different vowel sounds. Only the sounds /i/, /y/, and /u/ can be long.

Karelian also has many combinations of two vowel sounds called diphthongs. North Karelian and Olonets Karelian have 21 of them. There are also some three-vowel combinations called triphthongs.

The language has 20 main consonant sounds, with a few extra sounds from words borrowed from other languages. Some of these consonants can have a softer pronunciation. There is also a special sound /ŋ/ (like the "ng" in "sing") that appears before certain other consonants.

Writing system

Alphabet

Main article: Karelian alphabet

Karelian is written today with a Latin alphabet that has 29 letters. It adds the letters Č, Š, Ž, Ä, Ö and ' to the regular Latin alphabet and does not use Q, W, or X. This same alphabet is used for all types of Karelian. In the past, before the 20th century, Karelian was sometimes written with the Cyrillic alphabet. During a short time from 1938 to 1940, Karelian written with Cyrillic letters was used officially in the area called the Karelian ASSR.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Orthography

Karelian spelling is similar to Finnish spelling, but there are some differences:

• Karelian has many more sounds made with "s" like sounds than Finnish.
• Some sounds can be soft or strong.
• Karelian keeps special soft sounds, shown with an apostrophe (for example, d'uuri).
• The letter 'ü' can sometimes be used instead of 'y'.
• The letter 'c' stands for a specific sound, though 'ts' is also used. 'c' is more common in words borrowed from Russian.

Karelian has different ways to say sounds with /c/ and /č/ that Finnish does not have.

Karelian uses the sound /z/ in a way that Finnish does not. The sounds /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ can also change their sound.

The sounds made with č, š, and ž are natural in Karelian but not in Finnish.

History

Prehistory

Karelian is a language that shares roots with other Finnic languages. It began from a common language called Proto-Finnic, which came from an even older language called Proto-Uralic. The direct ancestor of Karelian was spoken around the 9th century near Lake Ladoga and is called Old Karelian.

Karelian belongs to the Eastern Finnic group of languages. Around the 6th century, an Eastern dialect arrived near Lake Ladoga and mixed with a Northern dialect that came later. These two dialects combined to form Old Karelian.

Medieval period

By the end of the 13th century, speakers of Old Karelian had reached eastern Finland, mixing with people from western Finland. In 1323, Karelia was split between Sweden and Novgorod by the Treaty of Nöteborg, beginning to separate the language into different dialects. In Sweden-controlled areas, Old Karelian evolved into Finnish dialects such as Savonian dialects and Southeastern dialects.

The oldest known document in any Finnic language is the Birch bark letter no. 292, dating to the early 13th century. It was found in Novgorod and is thought to be in an early form of the language spoken in Olonets Karelia. Another manuscript from the 14th century includes some Karelian words and their translations.

In areas ruled by Novgorod, the language evolved into Karelian. In 1617, after the Treaty of Stolbovo, some Karelian speakers moved to the Tver and Valday regions.

19th century

During the 1800s, a few books were written in Karelian using the Cyrillic script. These included prayer books and a translation of the gospel of St. Matthew.

Soviet period

In 1921, leaders in Soviet Karelia debated whether Finnish or Karelian should be the official language alongside Russian. Many Finnish-speaking leaders preferred Finnish, seeing Karelian as a dialect of Finnish. Finnish became the official "local" language.

Efforts began to promote Finnish in schools and publications across Soviet Karelia. Meanwhile, a separate literary form of Karelian using the Latin alphabet was created for the Tver Karelian community in the early 1930s.

Political changes in the late 1930s led to Finnish being banned and replaced by a new form of Karelian written in Cyrillic script. This version included many Russian words, making it hard for Karelian speakers to understand.

After World War II, Finnish was restored as an official language in Soviet Karelia. In the 1980s, new ways to write Karelian using the Latin alphabet were introduced.

Recent events

Since the 1990s, groups have worked to keep the Karelian language alive in both Karelia and Finland.

In 2007, a standard way to write all Karelian dialects was created, and Tver Karelian adopted it in 2017. In 2008, Joensuu University started Finland's first professorship in Karelian to help save the language. Soon after, Finland's first Karelian language learning group for young children was started in Nurmes.

Media in Karelian

Some newspapers and magazines are written in Karelian. For example, Oma Mua is published in Olonets Karelian, and Vienan Karjala is in North Karelian. There is also a monthly journal called Karielan Šana for the Tver Karelian dialect.

In Finland, the Finnish Broadcasting Company shares news and radio programs in Karelian. This helps keep the language alive.

Examples of Karelian supradialects

North Karelian (White Sea Karelian)

Here is a story from an old Karelian book:

Old people used to say that swans come from humans. Swans are always found in pairs. If one swan is hurt, the other will cry for a long time. Swans were considered sacred birds. No one ever tried to harm them because it was seen as wrong. Swans visit in the spring and leave in the autumn for warmer places. They fly in big groups. When they leave, it was a sign that winter was coming.

Olonets Karelian

Sample 1

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

All people are born free and equal in worth and rights. They are given reason and conscience and should treat each other like brothers.

Sample 2

Here is a sample from a Karelian exercise book. Notice the older way of writing:

Tver Karelian

Here is a story from a Karelian book:

Puasinkoi is a small Karelian village in the Tver region. There are forty homes. The village is next to a river. The river flows slowly, which is why it is called Tihvinitša. The land around is very lovely. My father told me: long ago, hundreds of years back, Karelians from the north came there. They cut down the forest and made this village. Even today, some houses in the village were built from trees from the old forest.