Karelian (Karjalan kieli)

Karelian is a Finno-Ugric language spoken by about 118,000 people mainly
in the Russian Republic of Karelia, and also in Finland. Karelian is official
considered a dialect of Finnish in Karelia, though there are moves to have it
recognised as a second language. East Karelian dialects have little mutual
intelligibility with Finnish.

The earliest known example of written Karelian, and of writing in any Finnic
language, is a birch bark letter found at Novgorod in 1957 which dates from the
early 13th century. It was written in the Cyrillic alphabet and the language
is thought to be an archaic form of Olonets Karelian, which is also known as
East Karelian or Liwi and is spoken along the Olonka River in the Republic of
Karelia.

A number of Cyrillic-based spelling systems were developed during the Soviet
period, though none of them took off due to Stalin’s suppression and outlawing
of Karelian. Today Karelian is written with a version of the Finnish alphabet,
which was revised in 2007.

Karelian alphabet (2007 version)

Karelian pronunciation

Notes

• c=[k] before a, o or u, and [s] before e, i, y, ä and ö
• Letters in blue are only used in names and loanwords

Information about Karelian pronunciation compiled by Wolfram Siegel

Sample text in Karelian

Kai rahvas roittahes vällinny da taza-arvozinnu omas arvos da oigevuksis.
Jogahizele heis on annettu mieli da omatundo da heil vältämättäh
pidäy olla keskenäh, kui vellil.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with
reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)