Varžinaiskarielah da VepKar-korpussah näh, 2018

Hello! My name is Irina Novak. I am a Tver Karelian, I was born in the village of Yeremeevka, Spirovsky District. The inhabitants of our village speak the Тolmachevsky dialect of Karelian language. We all, Tver Karelians, speak Karelian Proper dialect, as well as the Karelians living in northern and central Karelia. Karelian Proper is one of the Karelian dialects. At the same time there are also Livvi and Ludic dialects. The Karelian Proper dialect has two large groups of dialects: North Karelian and South Karelian. Karelians who live in Loukhsky, Kemsky and Kalevalsky districts of the Republic of Karelia, as well as in the Kostomuksha urban district, speak the North Karelian dialects. The Karelians of Medvezhiegorsk, Belomorsky, Muezersky, Segezhsky and Suoyarvsky districts are native speaker of South Karelian dialects. The same language is spoken by Karelians who were evacuated from Finnish Karelia to Finland during the war years. The Tver Karelians and Karelians of the Leningrad region also speak South Karelian dialects of the Karelian Proper. In the Tver region, Karelians live mainly in Likhoslavlsky, Spirovsky, Maksatihinsky, Rameshkovsky and Vesyegonsky districts. In the Leningrad region, they live in Boksitogorsk and Tikhvinsky districts. In the first half of the last century, Karelian speech could also be heard in the Novgorod region from the Valdai Karelians. But now there are no native speakers left. It is difficult to calculate the number of Karelians which are native speakers of Karelian Proper dialect. Official data on the Karelians of Finland is not available. The last Russian Census provided the following data: the number of Karelians in the northern and central regions of Karelia was 12 thousand people, in the Tver region 7.5 thousand people. and in the Leningrad region about 500 people. Thus, we obtain an approximate figure - 20 thousand people. Less than half of these people speak Karelian, and in Tver Karelia only a third of people. A new census is coming, it will provide us with new data and figures. The North Karelian dialects of the Karelian Proper are used as the basis for one of the normalized Karelian language in Karelia. It will soon be 30 years old. We, the Tver Karelians, have our own literary language. Karelians of Finland are currently developing another version of normalized Karelian based on the dialects of Finnish Karelia. The Open corpus of Veps and Karelian languages, which contains all of our dialects and new-written variants, is a very good gift for all of us, all Karelians and all Veps. I am pleased to note that I am happy, because the Tver Karelian dialects are also represented in this corpus.