Online Encyclopedia
Karelian language
The Karelian language is a variety closely related to Finnish. It belongs to the Finno-Ugric languages, and is chiefly distinguished from standard Finnish by the lack of influence from modern 19th and 20th century Finnish. The Karelian language does not have a standard written form.
In this article, Karelian denotes dialects from Russian Karelia. In Finnish usage, however, Karelian mostly denotes the dialects of the 420,000 refugees from the Karelian isthmus and other parts of Finnish Karelia that were re-settled in what remains of Finland after World War II. These dialects were influenced by massive immigration, chiefly from Savonia, following the 17th century expansion of the Lutheran Swedish realm extending as far as to Ingria. Thus the linguistic border between (Orthodox) Russian Karelia and (Lutheran) Finnish Karelia was probably more pronounced than that between Finnish Karelia and Savonia. [1] Today, these dialects are concentrated to the towns of the South Karelian region of Finland, where many refugees ended up.
| Karelian (Karjala) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Russia and Finland |
| Region: | Karelia |
| Total speakers: | 118,000 |
| Ranking: | Not in top 100 |
| Genetic classification: |
Uralic languages Finno-Ugric languages Finno-Lappic Baltic Finnic Karelian |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | Republic of Karelia |
| Regulated by: | - |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | - |
| ISO 639-2 | fiu |
| SIL | KRL |
Karelian is spoken in the Russian Republic of Karelia, and also by some 5,000 speakers in Finland.
The Karelian variety has two main branches:
- Karelian Proper
- North Karelian
- South Karelian
- Olonets Karelian (or Livvi )
There is also a Ludic language or dialect (Luudi, Lyydi, or lüüdi in their own tongue), sometimes classified as a dialect of Veps.
Finnish and Karelian were suppressed and outlawed during Stalin's Great Purges.
Attempts to standardize Karelian with a Cyrillic alphabet were unsuccessful, and today the Karelian republic (of the Russian federation) consider Karelian a dialect of Finnish. Finnish, and not Karelian, was the second official language of Karelia from the Winter War 1940 up until the 1980s[2], when perestroika began. Since the late 1990s there have been moves to pass special language legislation, which would give Karelian an official status. Finnish has also again been proposed as a second official language for the republic, but the proposal has never taken wind.
Language or dialect
As it could also be argued Karelian should be considered separate from Finnish because of its geopolitical location within the boundaries of another state, a conclusion might be, that Karelian has a similar relation to Finnish, as has Finland-Swedish to Scandinavian Swedish.