East Finnish culture and dialect are chiefly vested in the Savonians and the Karelians. There is less influence from Scandinavian and Finland-Swedish culture and language. The language is distinguished by vowel-diphthong shifts with respect to the standard language, and the use of palatalization. Epenthetic vowels are added after /l/, /h/ and sometimes /n/ in stressed syllable coda preceding a consonant (e.g. kylmä - kylymä), but this feature is not distinguishing, being also found commonly in most Western Finnish dialects.
Migrants of the last half millennium to central and northern Scandinavia and to Ingria were mainly of East Finnish origin, which is why dialects and languages such as Meänkieli and Ingrian are closer to the East Finnish dialects.
Read more about East Finnish: Subdivisions
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