Pomor dialects are a group of

Northern Russian dialects The northern Russian dialects make up one of the main groups of the Russian dialects. Territory * The territory of the ''primary formation'' (e.g. that consist of "Old" Russia of the 16th century before Eastern conquests by Ivan IV) is fully ...

spoken by the

Pomor Pomors or Pomory ( rus, помо́ры, p=pɐˈmorɨ, ''seasiders'') are an ethnographic group descended from Russian settlers, primarily from Veliky Novgorod, living on the White Sea coasts and the territory whose southern border lies on a ...

s of the former

Arkhangelsk Governorate Arkhangelsk Governorate (russian: link=no, Архангельская губерния, ''Arkhangelskaya guberniya'') was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and Russian SFSR, which existed from 1796 until 1929. ...

and northern parts of the

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 ...

and

Vologda Vologda ( rus, Вологда, p=ˈvoləɡdə) is a city and the administrative center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the river Vologda within the watershed of the Northern Dvina. Population: The city serves as a major transport hu ...

Governorates A governorate is an administrative division of a state. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states or provinces, the term ''governorate'' is often used in translation from ...

. They are heavily influenced by the

Old Novgorod dialect Old Novgorod dialect (russian: древненовгородский диалект, translit=drevnenovgorodskij dialekt; also translated as Old Novgorodian or Ancient Novgorod dialect) is a term introduced by Andrey Zaliznyak to describe the dia ...

and contain a substantial number of both archaisms and borrowings from Uralic and

Scandinavian languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...

. The Novgorod dialect spoken in Medieval Russia was the predecessor to the Pomor dialects. The Uralic people of Bjarmia changed from their own dialects to Pomor in a five-century-long process, enriching it with some Uralic vocabulary. The Pomor people were involved in trade with

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

, so they borrowed some vocabulary from the

North Germanic languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also ...

too. During the Soviet period, the Pomors were compelled to shift to standard Russian. Pomor is now a dying form of speech and only a few thousand speakers remain. There is no education in Pomor, so the only way to learn it is by self study. Most parents teach their children standard Russian and not Pomor. Pomor is almost extinct in Karelia and the

Kola Peninsula sjd, Куэлнэгк нёа̄ррк , image_name= Kola peninsula.png , image_caption= Kola Peninsula as a part of Murmansk Oblast , image_size= 300px , image_alt= , map_image= Murmansk in Russia.svg , map_caption = Location of Murmansk Oblas ...

, with the remaining speakers living the

Arkhangelsk Region Arkhangelsk Oblast (russian: Арха́нгельская о́бласть, ''Arkhangelskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It includes the Arctic archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, as well as the Solovet ...

. But there has been fresh interest in Pomor and there are revival efforts. The study of the Pomor dialects was undertaken by Ivan Merkuryev (1924-2001), a professor of

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and author of several books including ''Живая речь кольских поморов'' ("The Living Speech of the Kola Pomors"). The Pomor dialects are widely used in literary works by Boris Shergin and Stepan Pisakhov. They also influenced the poetic language of Nikolai Klyuev. Pomor dialects are spoken in the animated films of Leonid Nosyrev, many of which are adaptations of stories by Shergin and Pisakhov. One example is '' Laughter and Grief by the White Sea'' (1987).

References

External links

Leonid Nosyrev filmography at animator.ru
Russian dialects Pomors {{Russian dialects