Parrot Time Magazine

Proverbs from the World:
Tver Karelian

The world is full of languages, which in turn are full of proverbs. Some of them are very culture related, some instead very universal. The language of choice this time is Tver Karelian, a minority language – also considered as a dialect of Karelian language – in current Russia, about 200 km from Moscow towards Saint Petersburg. In Tver Karelian the language is called "tverinkariela".

Tver Karelians don’t have a country, and it’s not easy to estimate how many they are and how many speakers the language has. They are descendants of those Orthodox Karelians who fled from Kexholm County (Finnish: Käkisalmen lääni) in the 1600s to avoid taxation and lutheranization by Sweden. There may be almost 60 000 Karelians and 15 – 20 000 Tver Karelians.

In the past their language was discriminated against since Stalin did not want a strong people close to Moscow, so their schools were closed, newspapers and magazines abolished, publishing work banned and so forth. Nevertheless, Tver Karelians managed to bring their traditions to the modern day. In 1990 a Tver Karelian cultural society was started. In 1993 voluntary native language teaching was started, and a Karelian-Finnish department was founded in the University of Tver. There is a newspaper called Karielan Šana. They have maintained their traditions well in the Karelian villages, and many people speak the language.

Tver Karelian belongs to the Uralic language family, also called Finno-Ugric. It's related to languages like Estonian, Hungarian, Sami languages, Veps and Komi – and of course Karelian. Karelian often means just a regional dialect of Finnish, but in this article, we talk about a Karelian language. Tver Karelian is so different from the northern dialects of Karelian that it has also been considered a language of its own. Plenty of Finnish people have roots somewhere in Karelia, either the Finnish side or current Russia, and many are interested in learning Karelian and contributing to its survival and vitality. There is also a friendship society called Tverinkarjalaisten ystävät ry (“Tver Karelian’s friends”).

Here are some selected proverbs about family and home.

1. Jogo linnulla on oma pežo kallis’.
Literal translation:
Every bird thinks its own nest is dear.
This is basically the same as “home sweet home”.

2. Mittyöt kannot, muozet i vežat.
Literal translation:
How are the stumps, so are also the saplings.
The word “sapling” refers to offspring, so “stumps” refer to parents. This is more or less like “the apple does not fall far from the tree”.

3. Opašša lašta, šuurella takka pane.
Literal translation:
Guide the child, put a burden on the big one.
Teach and guid a little child but give responsibilities to and demand more from an older child.

4. Lapšet kažvetah i huolet kažvetah.
Literal translation:
Children grow and worries grow.
The idea is, the bigger the child, the bigger the worries he/she causes.

The Tver Karelian teacher and researcher Irina Novak has taught Tver Karelian both in Finland and in Tver Karelia, and I had the pleasure of attending her one week-long intensive course in Helsinki Summer University in June 2018. Most of the students were at least partially of Karelian descent, even though not of Tver Karelian. She has included many proverbs, poems and riddles in her teaching material meant for native Finnish speakers, and the proverbs above are all from her course material.