Pieni Prinsut — in Karelian.
Karelian / Karjala / Karjal / Kariela, is a Finnic language spoken by Karelian people. Karelia, or the land of Karelian people, is currently divided among the northwestern Russian Federation (in two Russian federal subjects: Republic of Karelia, and Leningrad Oblast) and Finland (the regions of South Karelia and North Karelia).
The Karelian language has two main dialects, Olonets and Livvik, which differ significantly in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. All variants are written with the Latin-based Karelian alphabet, though the Cyrillic script has been used in the past. Olonets Karelian is the most widely spoken dialect and is recognised as the official language in the Republic of Karelia in Russia.
Compared to Finnish, Karelian has some notable differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. One major difference is the presence of vowel harmony in Karelian, which is the agreement of vowels in a word based on their backness or frontness. This feature is present in Finnish as well, but it is not as prominent.
Karelian has also been influenced by Russian, which is evident in its vocabulary and grammar. For example, Karelian has borrowed many words from Russian, including some prepositions and conjunctions. Additionally, Karelian has a complex case system that is similar to Russian, while Finnish has a simpler case system.
This book is published by Karjalan Kielen Seura (Karelian Language Society).
