Karelian language
| Karelian (karjala) | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Russia ( Republic of Karelia , Tver Oblast ) | |
| speaker | approx. 30,000 | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Official status | ||
| Recognized minority / regional language in |
 Karelia , Russia
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
krl |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
krl |
|
The Karelian language ( Karelian karjalan kieli ) is spoken by around 30,000 people (VZ 2010) in Russia , mainly in the Republic of Karelia and in Tver Oblast . The Karelian language belongs to the Baltic Finnish branch of the Finno-Ugric languages and is divided into three main dialects:
- actual Karelian
- Olonetzisch and
- Ludisch
with which it forms an almost fluid transition from the eastern dialects of Finnish to Wepsi .
This breakdown into the various dialects has prevented the creation of a uniform Karelian written language until today . For this reason there is no Karelian literature in the narrower sense. The Karelian literature is essentially limited to religious translations. The Kalevala , which is of Karelian origin, was therefore only compiled from oral traditions by Elias Lönnrot .
Karelian proper differs from Finnish mainly in pronunciation due to the greater frequency of palatals and fricatives (cf. seven - Finnish seitsemän , Karelian šeiččemen ) and has numerous loanwords from Russian . Depending on the dialect, Karelian has two to four tenses , otherwise Karelian does not differ significantly from the other Baltic Finnish languages.
Web links
- The Karelian language in Russia: An Overview of a Language in Context Working Papers in European Language Diversity 12
- The Karelian language in Finland: An Overview of a Language in Context Working Papers in European Language Diversity 3