This month we are focused on the White Sea Karelia, where the Karelian language is spoken by the Karelian people. It is spoken in Finland and the Karelian Republic in Russia, where it is considered a dialect of Finnish. While there is push-back on this idea, it is considered a Finno-Ugric language. There are two dialects of Karelian, Olonets — also known as Eastern Karelian, and Karelian Proper — which includes the northern and southern. However, the Ludic language is also sometimes considered a dialect of Karelian.
There is no standard dialect of the language so each person and writer uses their dialect. The first written example of the language was discovered in the 1950s and was on birch bark from the 13th century. Since then there have been examples of Russian poetry that have been translated into Karelian. The language is not taught in schools but any published work has the language using the Cyrillic alphabet. Starting in 1930, the language started to be written in a modified Latin alphabet.
The Karelian language is endangered. It is not spoken or used by the majority, with about 45% of speakers over the age of 65 and only 1% under the age of 15. It is an official minority language in the Russian region with efforts to include it with legislation, which would put it at the same level as the Russian language. While in Finland, it is a non-regional national minority language. In total, there are about 20,000 – 25,000 native speakers, including all dialects.
All that being said, there are efforts and accomplishments in the revitalizing the language. Starting in the 1990s, the Union of Karelian people begun organizing projects to increase the popularity of the language in both Karelia, Russia as well as Finland. In 2007, a standard alphabet was adopted for the language across all dialects. Just a year later, Joensuu University launched its first professorship in the language in effort to save the language. In 2009, the first Karelian language nest was created. It is a pre-school immersion group in Nurmes.
Listen to the language here:
For more information: