From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Karelian 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.
Karelian is spoken in the Historical province Karelia, Finland and in Republic of Karelia, Russia.
The Karelian variety has two main types (or dialects): Karelian Proper (North and South Karelian) and Olonets Karelian (or Livvi) (spoken by Olonets Karelians, by the name of Olonka river)(East Karelian), reflecting the fact that East of Finland where Karelians to the early 20th century had remained relatively uninfluented by the influx of Russians (following the founding of Saint Petersburg in 1703). There is also or Ludic (luudi, Lyydi lüüdi, in their own tongue) dialect, sometimes classified as a dialect of Veps.
The Karelian language is by Finns usually considered a dialect of Finnish, as it is perceived to differ only slightly from standard-Finnish. Others, for instance many foreign linguists and some people in Estonia and Russia, consider the Karelian variety a language of its own (although almost extinct), similarly to how the dialects of Ingria by Finns often are considered dialects of Finnish-proper, but in Estonia often are considered languages of their own; and also similarly to Meänkieli.
As it could also be argued Karelian should be considered separate from Finnish because of its geo-political 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.
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[1], 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.
External links:
