Eastern Finnish dialects are chiefly vested in the

Savonians Savonians ( fi, Savolaiset, Savonian: ''Savolaaset'', ''Savolaeset'') are a subgroup ( ''heimo'') of the Finnish people who live in the areas of the historical province of Savonia. History Savonians are descendants of Tavastian and Kareli ...

(the

Savonian dialects The Savonian dialects (also called Savo Finnish)( fi, Savolaismurteet) are forms of the Finnish language spoken in Savonia and other parts of Eastern Finland. Finnish dialects are grouped broadly into Eastern and Western varieties; Savonian diale ...

) and the

Karelians Karelians ( krl, karjalaižet, karjalazet, karjalaiset, Finnish: , sv, kareler, karelare, russian: Карелы) are a Finnic ethnic group who are indigenous to the historical region of Karelia, which is today split between Finland and Russi ...

(the southeast Finnish dialects). One of the Finnish language spoken group, the

North Karelia North Karelia ( fi, Pohjois-Karjala; sv, Norra Karelen) is a region in eastern Finland. It borders the regions of Kainuu, North Savo, South Savo and South Karelia, as well as Russia's Republic of Karelia. It is the easternmost region of Finlan ...

n, represents the East Finnish dialects, however this distinction is not established in any case. Other dialects, such as the North Finnish dialects, are considered as East or West Finnish dialects.

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and r ...

, one of the earliest and most significant works of

Finnish literature Finnish literature refers to literature written in Finland. During the European early Middle Ages, the earliest text in a Finnic language is the unique thirteenth-century Birch bark letter no. 292 from Novgorod. The text was written in Cyri ...

, was written in East Finnish and East Finnish features were used extensively in the

Finnish language Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ...

standardization. There is less influence from

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

n and

Finland-Swedish Finland Swedish or Fenno-Swedish ( sv, finlandssvenska; fi, suomenruotsi) is a general term for the variety of the Swedish language and a closely related group of Swedish dialects spoken in Finland by the Swedish-speaking population, commonly a ...

culture and language. The language is distinguished by vowel-

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...

shifts with respect to the standard language, and the use of palatalization. Epenthetic vowels are added after /l/, /h/ and sometimes /n/ in stressed syllable coda preceding a consonant (e.g. – {{lang, fi, kylymä), but this feature is not distinguishing, being also found commonly in most Western Finnish dialects.

Subdivisions

Savo Finnish The Savonian dialects (also called Savo Finnish)( fi, Savolaismurteet) are forms of the Finnish language spoken in Savonia (historical province), Savonia and other parts of Eastern Finland. Finnish dialects are grouped broadly into Eastern Finnish ...

(the Savonian dialects) . There are major differences between different Savo dialects. For example, North Savo has different personal pronouns from South Savo. * Karelian Finnish (the southeast Finnish dialects) *Some dialects of the

Karelian language Karelian (North Karelian and Livvi Karelian: ; Ludic: ; Tver Karelian: ) is a Finnic language spoken mainly in the Russian Republic of Karelia. Linguistically, Karelian is closely related to the Finnish dialects spoken in eastern Finland, and so ...

spoken within the former borders ( 1920 peace) are sometimes classified as "border Karelian dialects" (''Raja-Karjalan murteet'')

References

Ingria Karelia Savonia (historical province) Finnish dialects