Karelian language revival

The Karelian language revival project has operated under the University of Eastern Finland since February 2021. The revival project is funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.

The revival project aims to support spoken and written Karelian. The project’s main objectives are to revive and develop the Karelian language, to create new materials in Karelian, and to raise awareness. Moreover, the project can work together with, for example, individuals or organizations. In addition to prior tasks, from 2023 to 2024, the project will be featured in establishing an operational program for the Karelian language.

The project is led by Helka Riionheimo, a professor of both the Finnish and the Karelian languages. Other workers of the project include language specialists Natalia Giloeva (Liygi Karelian), Katerina Paalamo (South Karelian) and Olga Karlova (White Sea Karelian), and coordinator Niko Tynnyrinen. Additionally, the language specialists form a vocabulary group, which aims to examine and develop new Karelian words and will eventually compile them online for the whole language community to see.