Karelian

• Main Author: Sarhimaa, Anneli
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressOxford 2022
• Subjects: karelia*; karelian; karelians; North-West Russia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198767664.003.0016; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/47094965/oso-9780198767664-chapter-16.pdf

Abstract Karelian is spoken as an autochthonous minority language in north-west Russia and in Finland. The current chapter outlines the milestones of the history of Karelians, with the focus on the millennial political developments that have defined the fate of their language, including its documentation and cultivation, which have been heavily influenced by Finnish and Russian nationalism. The background part of the chapter also provides a brief summary of what is known about the consequences of the long-standing and intensive contacts of Karelian with Finnish and Russian, and gives an overview of the present-day patterns of Karelian-Russian and Karelian-Finnish bilingualism. The major part of the chapter describes the main distinctive features of Karelian phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. The chapter ends with a glossed text example.