Pomor dialects

Pomor is now a dying form of speech and only a few thousand speakers remain. There is no education in Pomor and only way to learn it is by self study. Most parents teach their children standard Russian and not Pomor. Pomor is almost extinct in Karelia and Murmansk and small communities exist in Arkhangelsk. But there has been fresh interest in Pomor and there are revival efforts.[2]

The Novgorod dialect spoken in the Kievan Rus was the predecessor to the Pomor language, beginning its development when settlers from Novgorod begun settling next to the white sea. The Uralic people of Bjarmia changed to Pomor in a five-century-long process, through this, Pomor gained many loans from the Uralic languages. The Pomor people were traders and from that Pomor gained a number of loans from the North-Germanic languages. During the Stalinist era, the Pomors were compelled to shift to standard Russian. Now only a few thousand people know Pomor.

The study of the Pomor dialects was undertaken by I. S. Merkuryev (1924-2001), a professor of philology and author of several books including Живая речь кольских поморов ("The Living Speech of the Kola Peninsula Pomors").

The Pomor dialects are most similar to northern Russian dialects.

The Pomor dialects are widely used in the works of the writers and folklorists Boris Shergin and Stepan Pisakhov. Influences from them can be seen in the poetry of Nikolai Klyuev.

Pomor dialects are spoken in the animated films of Leonid Nosyrev (Леонид Викторович Носырев), many of which are adaptations of stories by Shergin and Pisakhov. One example is Laughter and Grief by the White Sea (1987).

Bjarmian languages

• Leonid Nosyrev filmography at animator.ru

• Поморская нация