Northern Karelian dialect

Northern Karelian (also called: White Sea Karelian, Viena Karelian and North Karelian) (North Karelian: Vienankarjala) is one of the two dialects of Karelian Proper. Northern Karelian is spoken mainly in White Karelia, and is also the traditional language of the villages of Hietajärvi, Kuivajärvi and Rimpi in the Kainuu region of Finland. Northern Karelian is the most mutually intelligible Karelian dialect to speakers of the Finnish language.

Northern Karelian differs from South Karelian due to its inclusion of the voiceless consonants p, t, k, s and š. It also differs due to its more common usage of the š [sh/see] letter more than in other Karelian dialects.