300 km away
The traditional educated speech of Saint Petersburg. Distinct from Moscow Russian in clearer enunciation of unstressed vowels and a number of lexical preferences.
Karelian
Also known as: Karjala
A Finnic Uralic language spoken across the Republic of Karelia in Russia and adjacent parts of eastern Finland. Closely related to Finnish but distinct enough to be classified as a separate language.
Shareable facts
Want a Karelian app?
Vote and we'll prioritise it. Top-voted dialects move up the roadmap. One vote per email.
Frequently asked questions
What language is Karelian?
Karelian is a dialect of the Karelian language.
Where is Karelian spoken?
Karelian is primarily spoken in Russia, Finland.
Which region is Karelian associated with?
Karelian is part of the Europe region on DialectAtlas.
Is Karelian known by other names?
Yes — Karelian is also referred to as Karjala.
Nearby dialects
See on the atlas →306 km away
The Russian of the Pomor coastal communities along the White Sea. A North Russian variety with a distinct lexicon shaped by maritime life, fishing, and contact with Karelian and Saami.
436 km away
The northern Russian dialect group around Vologda and Arkhangelsk. Preserves okanye (clear /o/ in unstressed positions) lost in standard varieties.
521 km away
A Northern Romani variety spoken by the Finnish Kale in Finland and, through twentieth-century migration, in Sweden. It shows heavy structural and phonological influence from Finnish, including consonant gradation, and is one of the most distinctive Northern Romani dialects. Intergenerational transmission has weakened markedly.
539 km away
The Swedish of Finland's Swedish-speaking minority, co-official with Finnish. More conservative than Standard Swedish in pronunciation, retaining several older features.
539 km away
A Finnic Uralic language and an official language of Finland and the EU. Famous for its agglutinative grammar and vowel harmony, with a rich oral tradition recorded in the Kalevala.