Dobassian

Classification and Dialects
The Karelian language is spoken in the Karelian Confedereation (Karelianis Sajēnitis). It is an Indo-European language, which is very difficult for linguists to classify into a language sub-family. It is presumed that the Karelian language might be part of the Balto-Slavic language family. The problem is that Karelian shows some similarities with the Balto-Slavic languages (like aspects and noun declensions), but some big differences too (like partial ergativity).

Writing System
Some phonolgy and ortography rules :
 * The letter i preceeded by a consonant and followed by a vowel indicates palatalization : zviēra (=monster) /zvʲe:ra/
 * The letter u preceeded by a consonant or a vowel and followed by a vowel is pronounced as /w/ : dauba (=cupboard) /dawba/ or : pauačia (=tent) /pawatʃʲa/

Nouns
The nouns in Karelian are declined in ten different cases. The nouns can be either masculine or feminine and they follow three different declension paradigms.

Use of the cases

 * Nominative-Accusative : marks the subject or the direct object of a sentence. It marks also the attribute of the verbs biti (=to be) and feti (=to become). Some postpositions may take this case too. : Jo viros vid̦ia jo pieškis. (=The man sees the fish.); Jo viros ješt inžineris. (=The man is an engineer.); Jaš fio inžineris. (=I become an engineer.); Jo viros pieška jo pieškis ja d̦iona až . (=The man fishes the fish for the woman.)
 * Vocative : marks exclamations : Viro, pieškaš ē? (Oh man, do you fish?)
 * Ergative : marks the subject of sentence with a transitive verb put only in the aorist tense : Je vire pieškni sieptima pieškes. (=The man fished seven fish.)
 * Partitive : marks partialness : Jaš volio deučoliedi. (=I want some ice cream.)
 * Dative : marks the indirect object and is follwed by some postpositions : Jo viros da jo pieškis ji d̦ioni. (=The man gives the woman the fish.); Rad̦iū jo paklienus jaj očiriedis preku . (=They enjoy the ride despite the queues.)
 * Genitive : marks the possessed object, the direct object in a negative sentence (but not in the aorist tense!) and is followed by some postpositions : Jaš čito ja kniga ja inžineria. (=I'm reading the book of the engineer.); Jo viros nie vid̦ia ja pieškia. (=The man doesn't see the fish.); Jaš volio limonada šiekera  biez . (=I want a limonade without sugar.)
 * Instrumental : marks the noun being an instrument to the action and is followed by some postpositions : Piēšio piēsma štiftiom. (=I'm writing a letter with a pen.); but : as soon as the instrument is animated, the instrumental case must be followed by the postpreposition sa (=with) : Piēšio piēsma jom viriom  sa . (=I'm writing a letter with the man.)