Livvi-Karelian language

Not to be confused with Livonian language.

Livvi-Karelian^[6] (Alternate names: Liygi, Livvi, Livvikovian, Olonets, Southern Olonetsian, Karelian; Russian: ливвиковское наречие, romanized: livvikovskoye narechiye)^[6][7] is a supradialect of Karelian, which is a Finnic language of the Uralic family,^[8] spoken by Olonets Karelians (self-appellation livvi, livgilaizet), traditionally inhabiting the area between Ladoga and Onega lakes, northward of Svir River.

Tatiana Boiko speaks about the Livvi-Karelian dialect of the Karelian language and the VepKar corpus, with subtitles in English. KarRC RAS, 2018.

Livvi-Karelian
Ливви liygi livvin kieli
Native to	Russia, Finland
Region	between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega, northward of Svir River, Karelia
Ethnicity	Olonets Karelians
Native speakers	(14,100–25,000 cited 2000–2010)[1]
Language family	Uralic Finnic Northern Finnic Karelian Livvi-Karelian
Writing system	Latin (Karelian alphabet)
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Finland[2]  Russia:  Republic of Karelia[3]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	olo
Glottolog	livv1243
ELP	Livvi
Distribution of Karelian and Ludic at the beginning of the 20th century[4][5]
Olonetsian is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)

People	Karelians
Language	Karelian; Livvi-Karelian
Country	Karelia

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

History

Dialects of the Karelian language includes Karelian Proper supradialect, Livvi-Karelian supradialect, Ludic supradialect.

Before World War II, Livvi-Karelian was spoken both in Russia and in Finland, in the easternmost part of Finnish Karelia. After Finland was forced to cede large parts of Karelia to the USSR 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 remains 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.^[9] Livvi-Karelian long remained relatively uninfluenced by the Russian language despite the large influx of Russians following the founding of Saint Petersburg in 1703.^{[citation needed]}

Phonology

Karelian dialects mapped out, with Number 4 being the Livvi-Karelian dialect.

Vowels

	Front		Back
	rnd.	urnd.	rnd.	urnd.
Close	i iː	y yː		u uː
Mid	e	ø		o
Open	æ		ɑ

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			plain	pal.
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	tʲ		k
	voiced	b	d	dʲ		ɡ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s		t͡ʃ
	voiced				d͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	(f)	s		ʃ	(x)	h
	voiced		z		ʒ
Nasal		m	n			(ŋ)
Approximant		ʋ	l		j
Rhotic			r

• Consonants may also occur as geminated or long [Cː].
• Sounds /f, x/ are commonly heard from Russian loanwords.
• /h/ can have allophones of [x] or [χ].
• /n/ is heard as [ŋ] when preceding /k/ or /ɡ/.
• Palatalization [ʲ] may occur among different dialects when consonants are preceding vowels /i, y/.^[10]

Alphabet

Livvi-Karelian uses the Latin alphabet and has the following letters in its alphabet, which is called the Karelian alphabet: Aa, Bb, Cc, Čč, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Šš, Zz, Žž, Tt, Uu, Vv, Yy, Ää, Öö.^[11]

Until 2007, the ü letter was a part of the Livvi-Karelian alphabet, which has been recommended by the Karelian language board to be instead be changed to the y letter.^[12]

Grammar

Livvi-Karelian and its grammatical cases are quite similar to the Finnish language and other related Finnic languages.

The word 'food' in Livvi-Karelian cases:^[13]

case	singular	plural
nom.	syömine	syömizet
gen.	syömizen	syömizien
par.	syömisty	syömizii
ine.	syömizes	syömizis
ill.	syömizeh	syömizih
ela.	syömizes	syömizis
ade.	syömizel	syömizil
abe.	syömizettäh	syömizittäh
all.	syömizele	syömizile
abl.	syömizel	syömizil
ess.	syömizenny	syömizinny
tra.	syömizekse	syömizikse
com.	syömizen	syömizienke
prol.	syömizeči	syömiziči
term.	syömizessäh	syömizissäh
approx.	syömizellyö	syömiziellyö
acc.	syömine	syömizet

Common phrases

Source:^[14][15]

Hello! - Terveh!

How are you? - Kuibo dielot?

Good night! - Hyviä yödy!

Good afternoon! - Hyviä päiviä!

Do you speak Karelian? - Pagizetgo (sinä) karjalakse?

I'm sorry. - Minul on žiäli.

You're welcome. - Ole hyvä.

I love you. - Suvaičen sinuu.

Goodbye. - Jiä tervehekse.

My name is ... - Minun nimi on ...

Excuse me. - Prostikkua.

Help! - Avvutakkua!

Cheers! - Teijän tervehyökse!

Right. - Oigei.

Left. - Hurai.

Yes. - Da.

No.. - Ei.

One. - Yksi.

Two. - Kaksi.

Three. - Kolme.

Four. - Nelli.

Five. - Viizi.

See also

• Olonets
• Birch bark letter no. 292