>
And more from "The Uralic Languages"
on Fennic (Baltic Finnic) (Tiit-Rein Viitso):
"
Karelian
Karelian consists of North (or Viena), South, Aunus (or Olonec) and
Lude Karelian.
North Karelian is spoken in North Karelia. South Karelian is a
scattered set of dialects, some few of which are spoken in Karelia,
but most of which are spoken in outlying parts of the Tver', St
Petersburg and Novgorod regions of Russia, to which Karelians moved
after 1617. The outlying regions are Tihvinä, Vessi (Ves'egonsk),
Valdai, Tolmac^c^u, and Djorz^a. Aunus (Karelian), called livvin
kieli, is spoken in Southwest Karelia. Lude (Karelian), called
lJüüdJin kielJi, is spoken in Karelia in a strip east of Aunus and
South Karelian, Lude is a dialect chain that can be divided into
North, Central, and Kuudärv dialects.
North and South Karelian (karjalan kieli) are often called Karelian
proper. North Karelian, however, is in fact more properly a dialect
close to East Finnish which has undergone strong South Karelian
influence. Similarly, Aunus and Lude are dialects that were first
close to Veps but later have undergone different degrees of South
Karelian influence. In any ease, Kuudärv Lude has remained closest to
Veps.
The first written document in Karelian is a spell from the eleventh
century, written on birchbark and found in Novgorod. Attempts to
create Karelian scripture date from the nineteenth century.
"
That should settle the question of what kind of substrate
Russian on evolved in Novgorod. All we need is a graphologist
to determine if that same guy also wrote in Russian on birchbark.
Torsten