The Karelian language is a variety closely related to Finnish, with which it is not necessarily mutually intelligible. It belongs to the Finno-Ugric languages, and is distinguished from standard Finnish by some important extensions to the phonology and the lack of influence from modern 19th and 20th century Finnish. There is no standard Karelian language, but each writer writes in their own dialectal form. The script is the Latin alphabet as used for Finnish with letters added. Karelia - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... Geographical distribution of Samoyedic, Finnic, Ugric and Yukaghir languages The Uralic languages form a language family of about 30 languages spoken by approximately 20 million people. ... Approximate geographical distribution of areas where indigenous Finno-Ugric languages are spoken. ... Approximate geographical distribution of areas where indigenous Finno-Ugric languages are spoken. ... ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. ... Approximate geographical distribution of areas where indigenous Finno-Ugric languages are spoken. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... A standard language (also standard dialect or standardized dialect) is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status. ...

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. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... East Karelia and West Karelia with borders of 1939 and 1940/1947. ... The Karelian Isthmus is the narrow stretch of land between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia. ... Finnish Karelia, historically also Swedish Karelia or Carelia, is a historical province in eastern Finland. ... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a military conflict that took place between 1939 and 1945. ... Savonia, Savolax or Savo, is a historical province in the south of Finland. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ... The Realm of Sweden or Svenska väldet is a term that historically was used to comprise all the territories under the control of the Swedish monarchs. ... The Ingrian flag Map of Karelia giving an idea of where Ingria lies. ... The Russian Orthodox Church (Русская Православная церковь) is that body of Christians who are united under the Patriarch of Moscow, who in turn is in communion with the other patriarchs of the Eastern Orthodox Church. ... The Region of South Karelia is a region (maakunta / landskap) of Finland. ... Finland is divided into 20 regions (maakunta/landskap in Finnish/Swedish). ...

Karelian is spoken in the Russian Republic of Karelia, and also by some 5,000 speakers in Finland. The Republic of Karelia (Russian: ) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ...

The Karelian variety has three main branches:

• Karelian Proper
  • North Karelian
  • South Karelian
• Olonets Karelian (or Livvi)
• Lude

The Ludic language or dialect (Luudi, Lyydi, or lüüdi in their own tongue) is sometimes classified as a dialect of Veps. Olonets-Karelian (East Karelian, Livvi) is the variety of Karelian language spoken by Olonets-Karelians, traditionally inhabiting the area of the Olonka River. ... Olonets-Karelian (East Karelian, Livvi) is the variety of Karelian language spoken by Olonets-Karelians, traditionally inhabiting the area of the Olonka River. ... Ludic or Ludian is a Baltic Finnic language in the Uralic language family. ... Ludic or Ludian is a Baltic Finnic language in the Uralic language family. ... Veps language, spoken by Vepses, belongs to the Baltic-Finnic group of the Finno-Ugric languages. ...

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 because Stalin started persecuting Karelians as "undesirables". Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი; see Other names section) (December 21, 1879[1] – March 5, 1953) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and leader of the Soviet Union. ... The Great Purge is the name given to campaigns of repression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s which included a purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. ... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი; see Other names section) (December 21, 1879[1] – March 5, 1953) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and leader of the Soviet Union. ...

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. A standard language (also standard dialect or standardized dialect) is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... The Republic of Karelia (Russian: ) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... An official language is a language that is given a unique legal status in a country, state, or other territory. ... Combatants Finland Soviet Union Commanders Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Kliment Voroshilov, later Semyon Timoshenko Strength 180,000 450,000 Casualties 22,830 dead 43,600 wounded 1,000 captured 127,000+ dead or missing 265,000 wounded 3,100 captured, 2000+ tanks The Winter War (also known as the Soviet... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The 1980s decade refers to the years from 1980 to 1989, inclusive. ... Poster showing Mikhail Gorbachev Perestroika ▶ (help· info) (Перестро́йка) is the Russian word (which passed into English) for the economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. ... The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive, the last decade of the 20th Century. ...

Language or dialect?

Earlier, by some Finnish linguists, Karelian may be classified as a dialect of Finnish. Today, however, the variety spoken in East Karelia is usually seen as a proper language. The phonological and lexical differences often disallow mutual intelligibility in exact terms. [3] The following is a list of linguists, those who study linguistics. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ...

The dialects spoken in the South Karelian Region of Finland, where many World War II refugees were re-settled, are considered to be part of the South Eastern dialects of the Finnish language. The dialect spoken in the Karelian Isthmus before World War II and the Ingrian language are also seen as part of this dialect group, in Finland sometimes denoted as Karelian dialect. [4] The Region of South Karelia is a region (maakunta / landskap) of Finland. ... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a military conflict that took place between 1939 and 1945. ... Finnish ( (help· info)) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92%) and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. ... The Karelian Isthmus is the narrow stretch of land between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia. ... The Ingrian flag Map of Karelia giving an idea of where Ingria lies. ...

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, or, in linguistical terms, English w.r.t. to the Scots language. A state is an organized political community occupying a definite territory, having an organized government, and possessing internal and external sovereignty. ... ... Swedish ( (help· info)) is a North Germanic language (also called Scandinavian languages) spoken predominantly in Sweden and in part of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands, by more than nine million people. ... Scots or Lallans (Eng: Lowlands), sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from the Gaelic language of the Highlands, is a West Germanic language used in Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland, and border areas of the Republic of Ireland, where it is known in official circles as Ulster Scots or...

Script

The modern script is based on the Finnish alphabet and is written with Finnish orthography. However, some features of the Karelian language and thus orthography are different from Finnish: The Finnish alphabet is as follows: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S (Š), T, U, V W, X, Y, Z (Ž), Å, Ä, Ö The main features of the Finnish alphabet that make it different from other Latin-based alphabets are: The...

• The Karelian system of fricatives and affricates 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/.

Karelian actually uses /z/ as a voiced alveolar fricative. (In Finnish, z is a foreign spelling for /ts/.) The plosives /b/, /d/ and /g/ may be voiced. (Most Finnish speakers refuse to differentiate these from /p/, /t/, and /k/.) Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... The voiced alveolar fricatives are a type of consonantal sound. ...

The letters č, š and ž, or "hat"-letters, are postalveolar, i.e. pronounced like háčeks. They are replaceable with the digraphs ch, sh and zh — even so that ruočči becomes ruochchi. 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 kiža, kucu, čoma, liedžu and seiččemän are kisa, kutsu, soma, lietsu and seitsemän in standard Finnish. č Å¡ ž A háček (ˇ, pronounced ), also known as a caron, is a diacritic placed over certain letters to indicate palatalization or iotation in the orthography of Baltic languages and some Slavic languages, whereas some Finno-Lappic languages use it to mark postalveolar fricatives (sh, zh, ch). ...

External links

• The Peoples of the Red Book: THE KARELIANS
• Karjalaine lehüt - Karelian page
• Oma Mua, a Karelian newspaper
• Karjalan kirjakielestä (in Finnish)
• Ethnologue on Karelian