Karelian language

Karelian
karjala
Spoken in
Region	Republic of Karelia  Tver Oblast
Total speakers	118,000
Language family	Uralic Finno Ugric Finno-Lappic Baltic Finnic Karelian
Writing system	Latin alphabet (Karelian variant)
Official status
Official language in	recognised as minority language in: Finland Republic of Karelia[1]
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	krl
ISO 639-3	krl
Linguasphere
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Karelian is a language closely related to Finnish, with which it is not necessarily mutually intelligible. Karelian is spoken mainly in Republic of Karelia, Russia. Dialects spoken in Finnish Karelia (North Karelia and South Karelia) are not considered Karelian but Savonian dialects or Southeastern dialects of Finnish.

Karelian belongs to the Finno-Ugric languages, and is distinguished from Finnish by some important extensions to the phonology and the lack of influence from modern 19th and 20th century Finnish. It cannot merely be classified as a Finnish dialect with Russian influences, because it has original innovations and it may differ considerably from Finnish. There is no standard Karelian language, although the Republic of Karelia's authorities have recently begun to attempt standardization.^[2] Each writer writes in Karelian according to his own dialectal form. The script is the Latin alphabet as used for Finnish with letters added.

In this article, Karelian denotes dialects from Russian Karelia, sometimes known in older Finnish literature as Raja-Karjalan murteet ("Border Karelian dialects"). 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.^[3] Today, these dialects are concentrated to the towns of the South Karelian region of Finland, where many refugees ended up.

Finnish and Karelian were suppressed and outlawed during Stalin's Great Purges. Karelian was considered a dialect of Finnish and thus wasn't written as is before the Soviet times. The Soviets created several Cyrillic standardizations, which all failed, in the end due to Stalin's persecution of Karelians as "undesirables".

Classification

Karelian language belongs to the Baltic-Finnic branch of the Uralic languages and it is closely related to Finnish ^[4]. Finnish and Karelian have common ancestry in the Proto-Karelian language spoken in the coast of Lake Ladoga in the Iron Age and Karelian forms a dialect continuum with the Eastern dialects of Finnish.^[5] Earlier some Finnish linguists classified Karelian as a dialect of Finnish, sometimes known in older Finnish literature as Raja-Karjalan murteet ('Border Karelian dialects'), but today, however, Karelian is seen as a proper language. Besides Karelian and Finnish, the Baltic-Finnic subgroup also includes Estonian and other minority languages spoken around the Baltic Sea.

Geographic distribution

Map of Karelian dialects

Karelian is spoken by about 100,000 people mainly in the Republic of Karelia, Russia but notable Karelian-speaking communities can also be found in Tver region northwest of Moscow. Karelian is also spoken in Finland where Karelian-speakers are estimated to be around 5,000, most of whom belong to the older generations.^[6] Due to post-WWII mobility and internal migration, Karelians now live scattered throughout Finland, and Karelian is no longer spoken as a local community language.^[7]

Official status

In the Republic of Karelia Karelian has official status as a minority language^[1] and since the late 1990s there have been moves to pass special language legislation, which would give Karelian an official status on par with Russian^[8]. In Tver Oblast Karelians have a national-cultural autonomy which guarantees the use of Karelian language in schools and mass media.^[9] In Finland Karelian has official status as a non-regional national minority language within the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.^[10]

Dialects

Karelian language has three main branches which can be considered as dialects or separate languages: Karelian Proper which comprises North Karelian and South Karelian (including the Tver enclave dialects), Olonets Karelian, and Lude. These branches constitute a continuum of dialects, the ultimate ends of which are no longer mutually intelligible.^[7] Branches can be further divided into individual dialects:^[11]

Writing system

Alphabet

The modern unified Karelian alphabet is a Latin-based alphabet consisting 28 characters. Alphabet extends the Basic modern Latin alphabet with letters Č, Š, Ž, Ä and Ö and excludes letters C, Q, W and X.^[13] Unified alphabet is used to write all Karelian variants except Tver Karelian.

Orthography

Karelian language is written with Finnish orthography. However, some features of the Karelian language and thus orthography are different from Finnish:

• The Karelian system of sibilants is extensive; in Finnish, there is only one: /s/.
• Phonemic voicing occurs.
• Karelian retains palatalization, usually denoted with an apostrophe (e.g. d'uuri)
• The letter 'ü' may replace 'y' in some texts.
• The letter 'c' denotes /ts/, although 'ts' is used also. 'c' is more likely in Russian loan words.

Notice that 'c' and 'č' have length levels, which is not found in standard Finnish. For example, in Kalevala, Lönnrot's orthography metsä : metsän hides the fact that the pronunciation of the original material is actually /mettšä : metšän/, with palatalization of the affricate. The exact details depend on the dialect, though. See Yleiskielen ts:n murrevastineet.

Karelian actually uses /z/ as a voiced alveolar fricative. (In Finnish, z is a foreign spelling for /ts/.) The plosives /b/, /d/ and /ɡ/ may be voiced. (In most Finnish dialects, they are not differentiated from the unvoiced /p/, /t/, and /k/. Furthermore, in Karelian, voiced consonants occur also in native words, not just in loans as in standard Finnish.)

The sounds represented by č, š and ž are native to Karelian, but not Finland Finnish. Finnish speakers do not distinguish /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ from /s/, nor /tʃ/ from /ts/ (medial) or /s/ (initial). For example, the native Karelian words kiza, kuču, šoma, liedžu and seičemen are kisa, kutsu, soma, lietsu and seitsemän in standard Finnish.

History

Modern history

In 2008, Joensuu University launched Finland’s first Karelian language professorship, in order to save the language.^[14] Year later Finland’s first Karelian language nest (pre-school immersion group) was established in Town of Nurmes.^[15]

Language examples

North Karelian

A sample from the book Luemma vienankarjalaksi:

Vanhat ihmiset sanottih, jotta joučen on ihmisestä tullun. Jouččenet aina ollah parittain. Kun yksi ammuttanneh, ni toini pitälti itköy toistah. Vain joučen oli pyhä lintu. Sitä ei nikonsa ruohittu ampuo, siitä tulou riähkä. Jouččenet tullah meilä kevyällä ta syksyllä tuas lähetäh jälelläh suvipuoleh. Hyö lennetäh suurissa parviloissa. Silloin kun hyö lähettih, ni se oli merkki, jotta talvi on lässä.^[16]

(Translation: Old people used to say that the swan is born of the man. Swans are always in pairs. When one is shot, other cries after another a long time. Swan is a sacred bird. Nobody ever dared to shoot them — it was a sin. Swans come to us in the spring and in the autumn they once again leave back to the south. They fly in large flocks. When they left, it was a sign that the winter is near.)

Olonets Karelian

Sample 1

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Kai rahvas roittahes vällinny da taza-arvozinnu omas arvos da oigevuksis. Jogahizele heis on annettu mieli da omatundo da heil vältämättäh pidäy olla keskenäh, kui vellil.^[17]

(English version: 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.^[18])

Sample 2

A sample from the book Karjalan kielen harjoituskogomus III–IV luokku Livvin murdehel. Note the older alphabet:

Olonets Karelian[19]		Standard Finnish		English translation
Karjalas on čoma luondo. Korgiet koivut,		Karjalassa on kaunis luonto. Korkeat koivut,		Nature is beautiful in Karelia. Tall birches,
vihandat kuuzet da pedäjät čomendetah meččiä.		vihannat kuuset ja petäjät koristavat metsiä.		green spruces and Scots pines decorate the forest.
Joga kohtaine on täüzi muarjua da siendü.		Joka paikka on täynnä marjaa ja sientä.		Every place is full of berries and mushrooms.
Kehtua vai kerätä! Järvet da jovetgi ollah kalakkahat:		Kehtaa vain kerätä! Järvet ja joetkin ovat kalaisat:		If only one picked them! The lakes and rivers, too, are full of fish:
ongo haugii, lahnua, säüniä, matikkua, kuhua, siigua.		on haukia, lahnoja, säyneitä, madetta, kuhaa, siikaa.		there is pike, carp bream, ide, burbot, zander, whitefish.
Ota ongiruagu da juokse järvele!		Ota onkivapa ja juokse järvelle!		Take a fishing rod and run to the lake!

Tver Karelian

A sample from the book Armaš šana:

Puasinkoi on pieni karielan külä Tverin mualla. Šielä on nel’l’äkümmendä taluo. Šeizov külä joven rannalla. Jogi virduav hil’l’ah, žentän händä šanotah Tihvinča. Ümbäri on ülen šoma mua. – Tuatto šaneli: ammuin, monda šadua vuotta ennen, šinne tuldih Pohjois-Karielašta karielan rahvaš. Hüö leikkattih mečän i šeizatettih tämän külän. I nüt vielä küläššä šeizotah kojit, kumbazet on luaittu vanhašta mečäštä.^[20]

(Translation: Puasinkoi is a small Karelian village in the Tver region. There are forty houses. The village lies by a river. The river flows slowly — that’s why it’s called Tihvinitša. The surrounding region is very beautiful. — (My) father told (me): once, many hundreds of years ago, Karelians from North-Karelia came there. They cut down the forest and founded this village. And even now, there are houses in the village, which have been built from the trees of the old forest.)

See also

• Birch bark letter no. 292
• Karelia
• Karelian alphabet
• Karelians
• Ludic language
• Olonets Karelian
• Republic of Karelia

External links

• The Peoples of the Red Book: THE KARELIANS
• Karjalaine lehüt - Karelian page
• Karjalan kirjakielestä (in Finnish)
• Livgiläižet (in Russian)
• Ethnologue on Karelian
• Karelian language on Omniglot
• Karjalan kirjaimet (in Karelian)
• Karjalan kielioppi (in Karelian)
• Грамматика карельского языка
• A short Karelian Conversation
• Karelian-Russian-Finnish dictionary
• Karelian-Finnish dictionary (Note: č is categorized under tš)
• Karelian-Vepsian-Finnish-Võro dictionary
• Karjalan kielen harjoituskogomus (PDF/in Karelian)

References