Pite Sami

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Pite Sami
Spoken in:	Norway, Sweden
Total speakers:	~10
Language family:	Uralic  Finno-Ugric   Finno-Permic    Finno-Volgaic     Finno-Lappic      Sami       Western        Pite Sami
Writing system:	Latin alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	smi
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	sje
Pite Sami is 3 on this map.
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

Pite Sami, also known as Arjeplog Sami, is a Sami language spoken in Sweden and Norway. It is a dying language that has only about 10 native speakers left and is spoken mainly on the Swedish side of the border along the Pite River in the north of Arjeplog and Arvidsjaur.

Contents 1 Grammar 1.1 Cases 1.2 Verbs 1.2.1 Person 1.2.2 Mood 1.2.3 Grammatical number 1.2.4 Tense 1.2.5 Negative verb 2 Phonology 3 Writing system 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Cases

Pite Sámi has 9 cases:

• Nominative
• Genitive
• Accusative
• Inessive
• Illative
• Elative
• Comitative
• Essive
• Abessive

[edit] Verbs

[edit] Person

Pite Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical persons:

• first person
• second person
• third person

[edit] Mood

Pite Sami has 5 grammatical moods:

• indicative
• imperative
• conditional
• potential
• optative

[edit] Grammatical number

Pite Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:

• singular
• dual
• plural

[edit] Tense

Pite Sami verbs conjugate for two simple tenses:

• past
• non-past

and two compound tenses:

• perfect
• pluperfect

[edit] Negative verb

Pite Sami, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and Estonian, has a negative verb. In Pite Sámi, the negative verb conjugates according to mood (indicative, imperative and optative), person (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and number (singular, dual and plural). This differs from some other the other Sami languages, e.g., from Northern Sami, which do not conjugate according to tense and other Sami languages, that do not use the optative.

   Non-past indicative        Past indicative                           
   sg.  du.     pl.           sg.     du.        pl.      
1  iv   ien     iehp        1 ittjiv  iejmien    iejmieh    
                iep                   ittjijmen  ittjijmeh           
2  ih   iehpien iehpit      2 ittjih  iejtien    iejtieh    
        ehpien  ihpit                 ittjijtien ittjijteh                               
        ihpien
3  ij   iepaa   ieh         3 ittjij  iejkaan    ittjin     
        iepaan                        ittjijka                  

For non-past indicative versions that have more than one form, the second one is from the dialect spoken around Björkfjället and the third is from the Svaipa dialect. The plurality in the other forms is due to parallel forms that are not bound by dialect.

   Imperative                  Optative
   sg.    du.     pl.          sg.    du.      pl.                        
1  -      -       -         1  alluv  iellun   iellup
                                      allun    allup
2  ielieh iellien iellit    2  alluh  ielluten ielluteh
                                      alluten  alluteh
3  -      -       -         3  allus  ielluska ielluseh
                                      alluska  alluseh

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Writing system

Pite Sámi is one of the four Sámi languages that does not have an official written language.

[edit] References

• Lagercrantz, Eliel: Sprachlehre des Westlappischen nach der Mundart von Arjeplog. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen seura, 1926, ISSN 0355-0230.
• Lehtiranta, Juhani: Arjeploginsaamen äänne- ja taivutusopin pääpiirteet. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen seura, 1992, ISBN 951-9403-55-8.

[edit] External links

• Sámi lottit Names of birds found in Sápmi in a number of languages, including Skolt Sámi and English. Search function only works with Finnish input though.