Northern Karelian (also called: White Sea Karelian, Viena Karelian and North Karelian) () is one of the two dialects of

Karelian Proper 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 and Ludic. Karelian Proper is a direct descendent of the Old Karelian ...

. Northern Karelian is spoken in

White Karelia White Karelia (; North Karelian and or simply ''Viena''; ) is a historical region in Northern Europe, comprising the northernmost part of Karelia, and of the Republic of Karelia in Russia. It is bordered by the White Sea to the east, Murmansk O ...

, and is spoken by some in , and

Kuhmo Kuhmo (known as ''Kuhmoniemi'' until 1937) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and a municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland and is located at the south-eastern corner of the Kainuu regions of Finland, region. The municipali ...

in Finland. Northern Karelian is the most mutually intelligible Karelian dialect to

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 ...

speakers. Northern Karelian differs from South Karelian due to its inclusion of the voiceless consonants p, t, k, s and š. It also differs due to its more common usage of the š h/seeletter more than in Karelian dialects.

Location

Northern Karelian is spoken in the northernmost parts of the

Republic of Karelia The Republic of Karelia, or simply Karelia or Karjala (; ) is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia situated in the Northwest Russia, northwest of the country. The republic is a part of the Northwestern Federal District, and covers an area of ...

, which is called White Karelia and in , and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Specifically it is spoken in the parishes of , , Kiestinki, Kontokki, , Paanajärvi, ,

Suomussalmi Suomussalmi () is a municipality in Finland located in the Kainuu region about northeast of Kajaani, the capital of Kainuu and south of Kuusamo. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population ...

, Uhtua, , and Vuokkiniemi.

Examples

The following example is from Petroskoi in 1995: Southern, Northern and Livvi dialects compared:

References

{{Reflist Karelian language Languages of Russia Languages of Finland Indigenous languages of European Russia Indigenous languages of Europe