Eastern Finnish dialects are chiefly vested in the
Savonians (the
Savonian dialects) and the
Karelians (the
southeast Finnish dialects). One of the Finnish language spoken group, the
North Karelian, represents the East Finnish dialects, however this distinction is not established in any case. Other dialects, such as the North Finnish dialects, are considered as East or West Finnish dialects.
, one of the earliest and most significant works of
Finnish literature, was written in East Finnish and East Finnish features were used extensively in the
Finnish language
Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Finnic languages, Finnic language of the Uralic languages, Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official langu ...
standardization.
There is less influence from
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
n and
Finland-Swedish
Finland Swedish or Fenno-Swedish (; ) is a Variety (linguistics), variety of the Swedish language and a closely related group of Swedish dialects spoken in Finland by the Swedish-speaking population of Finland, Swedish-speaking population, common ...
culture and language. The language is distinguished by vowel-
diphthong
A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...
shifts with respect to the standard language, and the use of
palatalization. Epenthetic vowels are added after /l/, /h/ and sometimes /n/ in stressed syllable coda preceding a consonant (e.g. – ), but this feature is not distinguishing, being also found commonly in most Western Finnish dialects.
Subdivisions
*
Savo Finnish (the Savonian dialects) . There are major differences between different Savo dialects. For example, North Savo has different personal pronouns from South Savo.
*
Karelian Finnish (the southeast Finnish dialects)
*Some dialects of the
Karelian language spoken within the former borders (
1920 peace) are sometimes classified as "border Karelian dialects" (''Raja-Karjalan murteet'')
References
{{Finnish dialects
Ingria
Savonia (historical province)
Finnish dialects
Karelian language