Livvi-Karelian (Alternate names: ''Liygi'', ''Livvi'', ''Livvikovian'', ''Olonets'', ''Southern Olonetsian'', ''Karelian''; russian: ливвиковский язык) is a dialect of the Karelian language, which is a

Finnic language The Finnic (''Fennic'') or more precisely Balto-Finnic (Balto-Fennic, Baltic Finnic, Baltic Fennic) languages constitute a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by the Baltic Finnic peoples. There are around 7 mi ...

of the Uralic family, spoken by Olonets Karelians (self-appellation , ), traditionally inhabiting the area between Ladoga and Onega lakes, northward of

Svir River The Svir (, Veps: , Karelian/ Finnish: ) is a river in Podporozhsky, Lodeynopolsky, and Volkhovsky districts in the north-east of Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It flows westwards from Lake Onega to Lake Ladoga, thus connecting the two larges ...

. The name "Olonets Karelians" is derived from the territory inhabited, Olonets Krai, named after the town of

Olonets Olonets (russian: Оло́нец; krl, Anus, olo, Anuksenlinnu; fi, Aunus, Aunuksenkaupunki or Aunuksenlinna) is a town and the administrative center of Olonetsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, located on the Olonka River to t ...

, named after the

Olonka River The Olonka (russian: Олонка) is a river in the Republic of Karelia, Russia. It gave the name to the town of Olonets by the river and eventually to the surrounding territory (Olonets Governorate, Olonets Krai, now Olonetsky District Olonetsk ...

History

Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Livvi-Karelian was spoken both in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

and in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, in the easternmost part of

Finnish Karelia Karelia ( fi, Karjala) is a historical province of Finland which Finland partly ceded to the Soviet Union after the Winter War of 1939–40. The Finnish Karelians include the present-day inhabitants of North and South Karelia and the still-sur ...

. After Finland was forced to cede large parts of Karelia to the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

after the war, the Finnish Livvi-Karelian population was resettled in Finland. Today there are still native speakers of Livvi-Karelian living scattered throughout Finland, but all areas in which Livvi-Karelian remain a community language are found in Russia. Speakers of Livvi-Karelian may be found mainly in Olonetsky, Pryazhinsky, Pitkyarantsky, and partly Suoyarvsky districts of the Republic of Karelia. Livvi-Karelian long remained relatively uninfluenced by the Russian language despite the large influx of

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

following the founding of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

in 1703.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

* Consonants may also occur as geminated or long . * Sounds are commonly heard from Russian loanwords. * can have allophones of or . * is heard as when preceding or . * Palatalization may occur among different dialects when consonants are preceding vowels .

References

External links