| Karelian Proper | |
| Familycolor: | Uralic |
| Fam2: | Finnic |
| Fam3: | Northern Finnic |
| Fam4: | Karelian |
| Script: | Latin (Karelian alphabet) |
| Dia2: | South Karelian |
| Dia1: | North Karelian |
| Nativename: | Karelian: Varšinaiskarjala |
| States: | Russia and Finland |
| Region: | White Karelia and parts of Olonets Karelia |
| Minority: |  Finland[1] |
| Iso3: | krl |
| Map: | 2.2a-Karelian-and-Ludic traditional.png |
| Mapcaption: | Karelian Proper consists of 1a, 1b and 1e |
Karelian Proper is a supradialect of the Karelian language, which is a Finnic language. Karelian Proper is one of two/three Karelian dialects, along with Livvi-Karelian[3] and Ludic. Karelian Proper is a direct descendent of the, compared to Livvi-Karelian and Ludian supradialects which were formed through interactions between the Old Karelian and the Old Veps languages.[4] Karelian Proper is situated in all of White Karelia and Central Karelia (parts of Olonets Karelia).
Karelian Proper is divided into two main dialects, which are Northern Karelian and South Karelian.[5] The terms North and South Karelian are often avoided to avoid conflict with the Regions of Finland; North Karelia and South Karelia. Karelian Proper and most of its dialects are mostly mutually intelligible with the Finnish language, however Karelian Proper is not entirely mutually intelligible with Livvi-Karelian.[6]
White Sea Karelian (North Karelian) is the second most spoken dialect of Karelian Proper, spoken in the northernmost parts of the Republic of Karelia and in Kuhmo, Finland. Within the Republic of Karelia it is mainly spoken in Kalevala, Kostomuksha and Loukhi. Within Finland, it is spoken in Suomussalmi.[7] White Sea Karelian is the most mutually intelligible dialect of Karelian Proper to Finnish Language speakers.
Example:[8]
South Karelian is the most spoken of the two dialects of Karelian Proper, and it is spoken in Central Karelia and Tver Oblast. South Karelian is spoken in,, Repola, Rukajärvi,,, Porajärvi, Ilomantsi,, Suojärvi, Tver Oblast (Likhoslavl), Tihvinä, Valday, and Impilahti.
Example:[9]
| [10] | Front-harmonic | Neutral | Back-harmonic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front+neutral | Front+front | Neutral+front | Neutral+back | Back+neutral | Back+back | |||
| Open to close | äi | äy | ai | au | ||||
| Mid to close | öi | öy | ey | ei | eu | oi | ou | |
| Close | yi | iy | iu | ui | ||||
| Close to mid | yö | ie | uo | |||||
| Close to open | yä | iä | ua | |||||
| Front-harmonic | Neutral | Back-harmonic | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front+neutral | Front | Neutral+front | Neutral+back | Back+neutral | Back | |||
| Close-mid-close | Karelian: yöy | Karelian: iey | Karelian: iei | Karelian: ieu | Karelian: uoi | Karelian: uou | ||
| Close-open-close | Karelian: yäi | Karelian: yäy | Karelian: iäy | Karelian: uai | Karelian: uau | |||
/b, d, ɡ, z, ʒ/ are consonants found in loanwords in Karelian Proper alongside; /dʲ lʲ nʲ rʲ sʲ tʲ/ (/zʲ/ as palatalized consonants in loanwords only in Karelian Proper. In South Karelian (Tver Karelian), /dʲ lʲ nʲ rʲ sʲ tʲ zʲ/ also exist as palatalized consonants.
| Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Postalv./Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Affricate | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
Grammatical cases of Karelian Proper is extremely similar to the Finnish language and to other related Baltic-Finnic languages. These are the grammatical cases for food:[11]
| case | singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| nom. | |||
| acc. | |||
| gen. | |||
| par. | |||
| ess. | |||
| tra. | |||
| ine. | |||
| abe. | |||
| ela. | |||
| adessive-allative | |||
| abl. | |||
| com. | |||
| prol. | |||
| approx. |
Until the 1930s, no Karelian language nor dialect had an official alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet was sometimes used until then. From 1930 to 1931 a new alphabet was developed and all Karelian languages adopted the Latin alphabet.
| Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | B | Č | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | Š | Z | Ž | T | U | V | Y | Ä | Ö | ʼ | |
| Minuscule Forms (also called lowercase or small letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | č | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | š | z | ž | t | u | v | y | ä | ö | ʼ | |
| Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital letters) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | B | C | Č | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | Š | Z | Ž | T | U | V | Y | Ä | Ö | ʼ | |
| Minuscule Forms (also called lowercase or small letters) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | c | č | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | š | z | ž | t | u | v | y | ä | ö | ʼ | |
| Letter | Letter name[13] | IPA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Karelian: aa | /ɑ/ | |
| B | Karelian: bee | /b/ | |
| C | Karelian: cee | /ts/ | |
| Č | Karelian: čee | /tʃ/ | |
| D | Karelian: dee | /d/ | |
| E | Karelian: ee | /e/ | |
| F | Karelian: ef | /f/ | |
| G | Karelian: gee | /ɡ/ | |
| H | Karelian: hoo | /h/ | |
| I | Karelian: ii | /i/ | |
| J | Karelian: jii | /j/ | |
| K | Karelian: koo | /k/ | |
| L | Karelian: el | /l/ | |
| M | Karelian: em | /m/ | |
| N | Karelian: en | /n/ | |
| O | Karelian: oo | /o/ | |
| P | Karelian: pee | /p/ | |
| R | Karelian: er | /r/ | |
| S | Karelian: es | /s/ | |
| Š | Karelian: šee | /ʃ/ | |
| Z | Karelian: zee | /z/ | |
| Ž | Karelian: žee | /ʒ/ | |
| T | Karelian: tee | /t/ | |
| U | Karelian: uu | /u/ | |
| V | Karelian: vee | /v/ | |
| Y | Karelian: yy | /y/ | |
| Ä | Karelian: ää | /æ/ | |
| Ö | Karelian: öö | /ø/ | |
| ʼ | Karelian: pehmennyšmerkki | /ʲ/ |