Modern Karelian Online Dictionary

The project will be carried out as a collaboration between the discipline of Karelian language at the University of Eastern Finland and the Institute for the Languages of Finland. Teaching and research of the Karelian language have been concentrated at the University of Eastern Finland since 2009. From 2025 onward, the revitalization of Karelian has also been part of the university’s national special mission. The Institute for the Languages of Finland is a national expert in lexicographic work and the publication of online dictionaries. The project is carried out by grant-funded researcher Elena Rapa and research assistants in cooperation with the project’s steering group. The steering group consists of experts from the Karelian language discipline – Ilia Moshnikov, Niko Tynnyrinen, Natalia Giloeva, and Olga Karlova – as well as Lotta Jalava, an expert from the Institute for the Languages of Finland.
The project will develop, in collaboration with the Institute for the Languages of Finland, a modern and easily updatable online dictionary of contemporary Karelian. The dictionary will compile lexical materials from the three main dialects of Karelian, ranging from basic vocabulary to the most recent contemporary terms. There is a strong need for a modern online dictionary of Karelian, particularly for Viena Karelian and South Karelian, as comprehensive modern dictionaries for these varieties are not available.