Abstract

The Karelian language is the closest linguistic relative to Finnish. It is spoken in Finland and Russia, in the Republic of Karelia. Karelian is classified as a minority and endangered language. Karelian is divided into two main dialects; Karelian Proper and Olonets Karelian. Karelian Proper is divided into North Karelia (Viena), and South Karelian. Viena Karelian is the closest dialect to Finnish language and it is needed for the communication between Finns and Viena Karelians. In this paper, we propose gamification approach and serious games to be taken as tools for revitalizing Karelian language and culture. This paper presents game prototypes called Šanakoški and Hirsipuu, which have been developed for teaching and learning Viena Karelian. We conducted user experience evaluations with 16 participants whose age varied from 10 to 84 years and 63 % of them had prior skills of Viena Karelian. The Šanakoški prototype was regarded as Easy to use, Support learning, Useful and Entertaining. Hirsipuu prototype was perceived as Inspiring, Easy to use, Entertaining, Useful and Fun.