The Savonian dialects are of different origin than Western Finnish dialects. Savonian dialects form a dialect continuum with other Eastern dialects of Finnish and the Karelian language, with whom they have common ancestry in the Proto-Karelian language spoken in the coast of Lake Ladoga in the Iron Age.
Features
Although the Savonian dialects are spread over a large geographical area with significant variations, they are rather different from the standard language and are recognized as local dialects. There are large variations between different Savonian dialects, but a few of the most stereotypical features are:
Re-development of palatalized consonants from consonant + i, which is denoted by digraphs with a 'j', e.g. , . In conjunction, the word-final i is not generally added to stems ending in consonant + i. For example, standard ääni is reflected as iän.
Some long vowels and diphthongs have shifted with respect to the standard language; thus, where the standard language has a diphthong, Savo may have a long vowel, and vice versa.
*Stressed become opening diphthongs, first, and in most varieties further. E.g. mua for Standard Finnish maa "land, country, ground", or piä for pää "head".
* as the 2nd element of a diphthong lowers to, e.g. laeta for laita "side", söe for söi "ate".
* lower similarly to or they may assimilate completely to produce a long vowel, e.g. kaoppa or kaappa for kauppa "store", täönnä or täännä for täynnä "full".
*When unstressed, the bisyllabic combination of o/ö/e + a/ä is smoothed to a monosyllabic long vowel. E.g. ruskee for ruskea "brown", kyntöö for kyntöä "plowing ".
Word-medial simple consonants are geminated after a short initial syllable. A native Savonian doesn't say he speaks savoa, he says he speaks savvoo.
The combined effect of the three features above is referred to as speaking like one with a "crooked chin". Whereas standard Finnish has a "declarative" rhythm, Savo has an "expressive" rhythm. The different way of producing speech is noticeable even if the speaker speaks perfect standard Finnish.
The glottal stop replaces word-final, a trait common to many other Finnish varieties. For example, the genitive case is essentially marked by a glottal stop.
All syllable-initial consonants except the last one are systematically and completely removed in loans, e.g. traktori as raktorj.
An epenthetic vowel is inserted after a medial syllable coda of, /h/ or, in certain cases,, e.g. vanaha. This vowel is identical in quality to the preceding vowel. The resulting medial consonant is exempt from gemination.
Loi plural, e.g. risti – ristilöitä
Although standard and known elsewhere, the usage of verb compounds is particularly prevalent in Savo Finnish and a prolific source of creative expressions. The first verb is in the infinitive and indicates the action, and the second verb is declined and indicates the manner. For example, seistä toljotat "you stand there gawking" consists of words meaning "to-stand you-gawk".
Middle dialects of Savonlinna area are spoken in the Eastern Savonia, the municipalities surrounding the city of Savonlinna between Southern Savonia and North Karelia: Enonkoski, Kerimäki, Punkaharju, Savonranta and Sääminki. The dialect spoken in Enonkoski has many similarities with the dialects of Northern Savo, while the dialect spoken in the Southern parts of Punkaharju resembles South-Eastern dialects in many ways. The difference between dialects in Savonlinna district has its roots in the colonization history. The area of greater Kerimäki was settled by Karelian people till the 16th century, but from the 14th century the Savonian has started to settle to the Eastern side of Lake Pihlajavesi and the coasts of Puruvesi. The differences between natural and governmental borders goes together in many ways. In Enonkoski the dialect is more Savonian in the Northern side of Hanhivirta. The other reason to this is that the Northern villages of Enonkoski belonged to Heinävesi in the 19th century, while the Southern villages were part of Kerimäki. The Northern border of Puruvesi goes through Lake Puruvesi. So the old Karelian-based dialect features have kept in Punkaharju much better than in Kerimäki, which is located in the Northern side of Puruvesi.
Eastern Savonian dialects or the dialects of North Karelia
The expansion of Savonian slash-and-burn agriculture, which started in the beginning of Modern era, expanded to Central Scandinavia. Mostly in the beginning of the 17th century Savonian settlers, mainly from the parish of Rautalampi, settled in Värmland, Sweden. In the beginning of the 19th century tens of thousands of people spoke the Savonian language as their mother tongue. These "Forest Finns" were an interesting group from a linguistic point of view because their language was kept safe from other influences. The practice of slash and burn agriculture was prohibited in Sweden in the middle of the 17th century and no new Finnish settlers moved to the area. The language of Forest Finns lacked the Schwa vowel and gemination, which are used now in the dialect spoken in Rautalampi. Nowadays the Savonian dialect of Värmland is extinct. The last Savonian speakers were Johannes Johansson-Oinonen and Karl Persson.
