Livvi-Karelian

Livvi-Karelian (Olonets Karelian, autonymously Livvinkarjala or Livgiläine) is a Finnic language of the Uralic family, spoken by around 14,000 people in the Olonets/Aunus district of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, south of Lake Ladoga. Linguistically, Livvi sits between Karelian Proper (krl) to the north and Veps (vep) to the south — sharing Karelian core vocabulary but exhibiting Veps-influenced features like reduced consonant gradation and distinctive case syncretism. Some classifications group Livvi as a Karelian dialect, while modern Russian and Finnish scholarship typically treats it as a separate language. The community survived Soviet-era Russification but was severely affected by 20th-century language shift; the post-1991 era brought a written standard and limited school instruction. The Pyöli (1996) dictionary is the major modern lexicographic work.