Karelian language
Karelian (North Karelian and Livvi-Karelian: karjala, karjalan kieli; Ludian: kard'al, kard'alan kiel'; Tver Karelian: kariela, karielan kieli) is a Finnic language spoken mainly in the Russian Republic of Karelia. Linguistically, Karelian is closely related to the Finnish dialects spoken in eastern Finland, and some Finnish linguists have even classified Karelian as a dialect of Finnish, though in the modern day it is widely considered a separate language. Karelian is not to be confused with the Southeastern dialects of Finnish, sometimes referred to as karjalaismurteet ("Karelian dialects") in Finland. In the Russian 2020–2021 census, around 9,000 people spoke Karelian natively, but around 14,000 said to be able to speak the language.
| Karelian | |
|---|---|
| karjala, karjalan kieli kard'al, kard'alan kiel' kariela, karielan kieli | |
| Native to | Russia, Finland |
| Region | Republic of Karelia, Tver Oblast (Tver Karelia) |
| Ethnicity | Karelians |
Native speakers | 8,753 (Russia) (2020) 11,000 (Finland) |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin (Karelian alphabet) Cyrillic (in the past, 1820–1940, before the Latin script was oficially adopted in 1989) | |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | krl |
| ISO 639-3 | krl |
| Glottolog | kare1335 |
| ELP | Karelian |
Distribution of Karelian and Ludic at the beginning of the 20th century | |
There is no single standard Karelian language. Each writer writes in Karelian according to their own dialectal form. Three main written standards have been developed, for North Karelian, Olonets Karelian (also known as Livvi Karelian) and Tver Karelian. Ludic Karelian also appears in writing. All variants are written with the Latin-based Karelian alphabet, though the Cyrillic script has been used in the past.