There are two main dialects of Finnish, the Western, which has produced the modern literary language, and the Eastern, in which the Kalevala is written. There are also many others of which perhaps the most important is that called the Savolaks dialect, which is hardly a literary language, though in the ‘LÖnrÖtin Albumi,’ p. 286, there is a story called ‘Keisarin tuttu’ written in it. It appears to be characterized by a great fondness for the sound of i, which is added to other vowels; e.g. tiÄllÄ for tÄÄllÄ, hiÄn for hÄn. On the other hand i is often apparently shortened to a semivowel, merely modifying the previous consonant; e.g. olj for oli. The letter d does not occur, but is represented by j or v, meijÄnni for meidÄnkin, kÄyvÄ for kÄydÄ. The dialect would seem to be generally characterized by a soft and rather thick utterance. Olen becomes oun and olette, outta. V is frequently doubled; e.g. hyvvee pÄivee, and o is often used for a; e.g. mokomoo for mokomaa. So also we have forms like soatanoo for saatanee, pankoo for pankaa. The root of verbs has the letter k added in the negative and imperative forms: en annak, annak.

On the Eastern frontier of Finland and in the adjoining parts of the Russian Government of Olonetz is spoken a dialect called Karelian, which in its present form is much corrupted by the influence of Russia. The Kalevala, however, which was mostly collected in this part of the world, is written in a pure Finnish dialect, which has come to be accepted as the ordinary language of poetical composition.

The chief peculiarities of the dialect of the Kalevala are as follows[18]:—

I. The letter d does not exist. T disappears altogether in the cases where in the ordinary dialect it is softened to d. For instance—saa’a (saada), pÖyÄn (pÖydÄn), tieÄn (tiedÄn), tahon (tahdon), kahen (kahden), yhen (yhden), puhas (puhdas), ouoille (oudoille), eellÄ, eessÄ (edellÄ, edessÄ), sio (sido).

II. Similarly the letter k is dropped altogether when in literary Finnish it either becomes j or remains unchanged.

(1) lk, rk in a closed syllable become simple l and r, not lj, rj: e.g. jÄlen for jÄljen (jÄlki), kulen for kuljen.

(2) sk and tk, which are not subject to softening in ordinary Finnish, become s and t in closed syllables: kosen for kosken, kaselle for kaskelle, itettÄvÄ for itkettÄvÄ.

III. rt, lt are not assimilated in the infinitive of verbs of conj. 3: kuulta, surten for kuulla, surren.

IV. The pronominal affixes do not always prevent consonants being softened as in ordinary Finnish: ajansa for aikansa, iÄni for ikÄni.

V. Where long vowels and diphthongs are the result of contraction, the Kalevala employs dissyllabic forms. These contracted forms in ordinary Finnish may be divided into two classes.

(a) The long vowel is the result of the omission of h (representing an original s or other consonant) between the two component vowels. In such cases the Kalevala always employs the fuller and more primitive forms with h. So we have vierahan for the literary vieraan, kotihin for kotiin, kÄyÄhÄn for kÄydÄÄn (d omitted).

(b) But there are a number of cases where the long vowels aa and ÄÄ in ordinary literary Finnish are not the result of the omission of h. Under these circumstances the Kalevala has oa instead of aa and eÄ instead of ÄÄ. Thus the partitive singular of kala is formed by suffixing a—that is kala-a. In ordinary Finnish this gives kalaa (dissyllabic), but in the Kalevala we find kaloa. This form may be compared with the partitive plural, kaloja, where a becomes o in ordinary Finnish. It is to be noted however that the change to oa occurs in the Kalevala even when the vowel of the first syllable is a—oroa for oraa.

The instances of this change fall under three categories:

(1) Partitive cases of nouns and adjectives: aikoa for aikaa, ilmoa for ilmaa, luutoa for luutaa, pÄiveÄ for pÄivÄÄ, tereÄ for terÄÄ.

(2) The first infinitive of verbs: ajoa for ajaa, eleÄ for elÄÄ, lenteÄ for lentÄÄ, piteÄ for pitÄÄ.

(3) Contracted verbs of class 3: arvoan for arvaan, lupoan for lupaan, lepeÄmÄttÄ for lepÄÄmÄttÄ.

VI. The plural (except the nom.) is sometimes formed with the suffix -loi, before the case suffix. This form is used chiefly in words ending in o, Ö, u, y, i, and e; e.g. rekilÖitÄ, ristilÖitÄ, lukkoloita, mahtiloita.

VII. The style of the Kalevala is characterized by the frequent use of derivative forms from nouns ending in o, nen (or onen), yt (or ut), and kainen. These forms have a diminutive or endearing significance. They are mostly quite incapable of translation into English, but correspond to the Russian diminutives. E.g. from emÄ are formed emo, emonen, and emyt; from isÄ, iso, isonen, and isyt; from kaunis, kauno, kaunokainen or kaunukainen; from kesÄ, kesonen and kesyt; from meri, meronen and meryt; from neiti, neitinen, neito, neitonen, neiyt, and neityinen; from puu, puuhut; from pÄivÄ, pÄivÖnen and pÄivyt; from veli, velo, vello, veljyt, veijo, veito, veitonen, veikko, and veikkonen.

We also find a great quantity of derivative verbs ending in ella, skella, ahta, alta, etc., in which the exact force of the syllable added is often obscure.

VIII. In verbs the 3rd person sing. of the present is formed with the suffix vi, a weakening of the original pi used in monosyllables. E.g. tekevi, ajattelevi, sanovi, ajavi, kaatelevi. But in monosyllables pi is always used, uipi, saapi.

IX. Some verbal stems ending in a or Ä reject this vowel before t, k, n, and are conjugated as if they belonged to the third class. Thus lÖytÄÄ forms the past participle lÖynnyt for lÖytÄnyt: tietÄÄ forms concessive tiennen and past part. tiennyt. So seista, seiskaamme, seissut from seiso.

X. In the formation of the passive many verbs ending in ta, tÄ reject this syllable and also the consonant n, if it precedes. LÖytÄÄ makes the passive stem lÖyttÄ instead of lÖydettÄ: rakentaa, raketta for rakennetta: kuumentaa, kuumetta for kuumennetta.

XI. The conjugation of the reflexive verbs (as already mentioned) offers a mass of forms unknown to literary Finnish, which sometimes also occur in verbs which are not strictly reflexive.

The chief terminations found in these verbs are:—

The termination ime is also found in the 1st pers. sing. of the conditional and ihe in the 3rd sing. of the concessive and conditional. The 2nd sing. of the Imper. often ends in te or ite—veÄite (vedÄ itsesi), laskeite, paneite. The inf. of such verbs generally ends in itÄ; e.g. vetÄitÄ. Rarely are found such forms as kuolkosi, kaotkosi for kuollos, etc.

XII. The negative verb frequently follows instead of preceding the root which it negatives; e.g. oisi en paljo pitÄnyt, maha et lausua lapiksi.

XIII. The style of the Kalevala is characterized by a general absence of conjunctions and connecting particles, but on the other hand abounds in syllables used merely to give emphasis or quite pleonastically. Such are the suffixes pa, pÄ, han, hÄn, kana. The word on is used in the same way; e.g. juop’ on vanha WÄinÄmÖinen. Tuop’ on Pohjolan emÄntÄ sanan virkkoi. EnpÄ anna tyttÖÄni.

XIV. A number of other differences from the literary dialect occur, some of which may be classified as follows:—

(1) Contracted essives, where the ordinary language prefers the full form: lasna for lapsena; nuorra for nuorena; suurra for suurena.

(2) In pronouns ma, mÄ, or mie for minÄ; sa, sÄ, sie for sinÄ; milma, silma for minua, sinua; miusta for minusta; siulle for sinulle, ka or ken for kuka, mi for mikÄ.

(3) From the verb olla are found oo for ole; oisi for olisi; lie, liet for lienee, lienet; liekkÖ for lieneekÖ.

(4) The imperf. ends in ti where in ordinary Finnish it is softened to si: kynti, lÖyti, kaati, pyyti for kynsi, lÖysi, kaasi, pyysi.

XV. The syntax of the Kalevala is marked by extreme simplicity in its main features. This is natural in popular poetry, and, besides, the system of versification (short lines of eight syllables generally containing a complete sentence) and the tendency to parallelism and repetition, were all unfavourable to the growth of long and involved phrases. On the other hand, the sentences of the Kalevala are often difficult to understand on account of their irregularity. Not only are the boldest inversions and omissions permitted (e.g. Emo tuosta itkemÄhÄn for rupesi itkemÄhÄn), but words are frequently strung together in so loose a manner that, though the thought is plain, it is almost impossible to analyse the sentence grammatically. For instance, xl. 401, Anna luoja, suo Jumala, Anna onni ollaksemme, Hyvin ain’ eleÄksemme, kunnialla kuollaksemme. This clearly means, grant that we may be prosperous, live well and die gloriously, but it is almost impossible to explain it grammatically. Such a tendency to be more careful of the general sense than of the separate words and their correct relation to one another, is very natural in a poem whose authors were ignorant of grammar and had probably no written literature before them. It is accompanied in the Kalevala by a habit of repeating the same idea under numerous synonyms for the sake of emphasis and of creating new words for the sake of parallelism or alliteration, which have sometimes a meaning and bear testimony to the flexibility and fecundity of the language, but sometimes are absolutely unmeaning. Thus in Kal. xi. 55 we have EnkÄ lÄhe Inkerelle, Penkerelle, pÄnkerelle. Here pÄnkerelle means nothing at all, but is simply a kind of repetition of penkerelle. Similarly Kal. xlviii. 100, IhveniÄ, ahvenia, Tuimenia, taimenia. IhveniÄ and Tuimenia are meaningless words.