Publishing: New Vepsian-Russian dictionary comes out in Karelia

A new Vepsian-Russian dictionary has come out in Karelia. According to the Ministry of National Politics and Relations with Religious Associations of the Republic of Karelia, the dictionary now contains 12 thousand words and expression of both original vocabulary and neologisms. Phraseological units, proverbs, sayings are widely used in the dictionary to characterize definitions of words and their use in speech. The dictionary also contains a grammar essay on the Veps language. The number of printed copies is 1000.

Under the regional target program on the state support of Karelian, Vepsian and Finnish languages Karelia purchased dictionaries for distribution in cultural and educational institutions.

Vepsians live in Karelia, in the north-east of Leningrad oblast and the north-west of Vologda oblast. They belong to the Baltic-Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. According to the census of 2002 8240 Vepsians live in Russia. This is the seventh largest ethnic group, which speaks Ural languages.