Sami languages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently (and erroneously) believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami languages: Saami, Sámi, Samic, Saamic, Lappish and Lappic. The last two are, along with the term Lapp, considered derogatory by some.

[edit] Classification

The Sami languages form a branch of the Uralic language family. According to the traditional view, Sami is within the Uralic family most closely related to the Baltic-Finnic languages (Sammallahti 1998). However, this view has recently been doubted by some scholars, who argue that Sami is not necessarily more closely related to Baltic-Finnic than to its more eastern relatives [1], but merely shows strong areal influence from Baltic-Finnic.

In terms of internal relationships, the Sami languages are divided into two groups: the western and the eastern ones. The groups may be further divided into various subgroups and ultimately individual languages. (Sammallahti 1998: 6-38.) Parts of the Sami language area form a dialect continuum in which the neighbouring languages may be to a fair degree mutually intelligible, but two more widely separated groups will not understand each others' speech. There are, however, sharp and absolute language boundaries, in particular between Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami, the speakers of which are not able to understand each other without learning or long practice.

Western Sami languages

• Southern Sami
• Ume Sami
• Pite Sami
• Lule Sami
• Northern Sami

Eastern Sami languages

• Inari Sami
• Kemi Sami (extinct)
• Skolt Sami
• Akkala Sami (extinct)
• Kildin Sami
• Ter Sami

[edit] Geographic distribution

Geographic distribution of the Sami languages: 1. Southern Sami, 2. Ume Sami, 3. Pite Sami, 4. Lule Sami, 5. Northern Sami, 6. Skolt Sami, 7. Inari Sami, 8. Kildin Sami, 9. Ter Sami.

The Sami languages are spoken in Lapland in Northern Europe, in a region stretching over the four countries Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, reaching from the southern part of central Scandinavia in the southwest to the tip of the Kola Peninsula in the east.

During the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age now extinct Sami languages have also been spoken in the central and southern parts of Finland and Karelia and in a wider area on the Scandinavian peninsula. Historical documents as well as Finnish and Karelian oral tradition contain many mentions of the earlier Sami inhabitation in these areas (Itkonen 1947). Also loanwords as well as place-names of Sami origin in the southern dialects of Finnish and Karelian dialects testify of earlier Sami presence in the area (Koponen 1996; Saarikivi 2004). These Sami languages, however, became later extinct under the wave of the Finno-Karelian agricultural expansion.

[edit] Written languages and sociolinguistic situation

At present there are nine living Sami languages. The largest six of the languages have independent literary languages; the three others have no written standard, and there are only few, mainly elderly speakers left. The ISO 639-2 code for all Sami languages without its proper code is "smi". The six written languages are:

• Northern Sami (Norway, Sweden, Finland): With an estimated 15,000 speakers, this accounts for probably more than 75% of all Sami speakers in 2002.^{[citation needed]} ISO 639-1/ISO 639-2: se/sme
• Lule Sami (Norway, Sweden): The second largest group with an estimated 1,500 speakers.^{[citation needed]} ISO 639-2: smj
• Southern Sami (Norway, Sweden): 500 speakers (estimated).^{[citation needed]} ISO 639-2: sma
• Inari Sami (Enare Sami) (Inari, Finland): 500 speakers (estimated).^{[citation needed]} SIL code: LPI, ISO 639-2: smn
• Skolt Sami (Näätämö and the Nellim-Keväjärvi districts, Inari municipality, Finland, also spoken in Russia, previously in Norway): 400 speakers (estimated).^{[citation needed]} SIL code: LPK, ISO 639-2: sms
• Kildin Sami (Kola Peninsula, Russia): 650 speakers (estimated).^{[citation needed]} SIL code: LPD

The remaining living languages Ter Sami, Pite Sami and Ume Sami are moribund and have very few (likely under 20) speakers left.^{[citation needed]} The last speaker of Akkala Sami is known to have died in 2003, and the eleventh attested variety Kemi Sami became extinct in the 19th century.

[edit] Orthographies

The Sámi languages use an extended version of the latin alphabet.

Note that the letter Đ is a capital D with a bar across it (Unicode U+0110) and is not the capital eth (Ð; U+00D0) found in Icelandic, Faroese or Old English, which it is almost identical to.

Kildin Sámi uses an extended version of the Cyrillic alphabet: Аа Ӓӓ Бб Вв Гг Дд Ее Ёё Жж Зз Ии Йй Ӣӣ Кк Лл Ӆӆ Мм Ӎӎ Нн Ӊӊ Ӈӈ Оо Пп Рр Ҏҏ Сс Тт Уу Фф Хх Цц Чч Шш Щщ Ъъ Ыы Ьь Ҍҍ Ээ Ӭӭ Юю Яя Јј Ѣѣ ʼ. It also uses macrons, which are difficult to show on the Internet due to technical restrictions.

Skolt Sámi uses ˊ (U+02CA) as a soft sign; due to technical restrictions, it is often replaced by ´ (U+00B4).

[edit] Official status

Adopted in April 1988, Article 110a of the Norwegian Constitution states: "It is the responsibility of the authorities of the State to create conditions enabling the Sami people to preserve and develop its language, culture and way of life." The Sami Language Act went into effect in the 1990s. Sami is an official language of the municipalities of Kautokeino, Karasjok, Kåfjord, Nesseby, Sør-Varanger and Tana.

In Finland, the Sami language act of 1991 granted Sami people the right to use the Sami languages for all government services. The Sami language act of 2003 made Sami an official language in Enontekiö, Inari, Sodankylä and Utsjoki municipalities.

On April 1, 2002 Sami became one of five recognized minority languages in Sweden. It can be used in dealing with public authorities in the municipalities of Arjeplog, Gällivare, Jokkmokk and Kiruna.

See also: Sami parliaments of Finland, Norway, and Sweden

[edit] External links

• Sami alphabets: Basics (in Norwegian) and references - from Skolelinux, in Norwegian
• Kimberli Mäkäräinen "Sámi-related odds and ends," including 5000+ word vocabulary list
• Dictionaries - at University of Tromsø
• Samisk språkråd - Sami language department of the Norwegian Sami parliament (in Norwegian and Northern Sami)
• Finland - Sámi Language Act
• Sami Language Resources All about Sami Languages with glossaries, scholarly articles, resources
• Álgu database, an etymological database of the Sami languages (in Finnish and North Sámi)

Northern Sami edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] References

• Itkonen, T. I. 1947. Lapparnas förekomst i Finland. - Ymer: 43–57. Stockholm.
• Koponen, Eino 1996. Lappische Lehnwörter im Finnischen und Karelischen. - Lars Gunnar Larsson (ed.), Lapponica et Uralica. 100 Jahre finnisch-ugrischer Unterricht an der Universität Uppsala. Studia Uralica Uppsaliensia 26: 83-98.
• Saarikivi, Janne 2004. Über das saamische Substratnamengut in Nordrußland und Finnland. - Finnisch-ugrische Forschungen 58: 162–234. Helsinki: Société Finno-Ougrienne.
• Sammallahti, Pekka 1998. The Saami Languages. An Introduction. Davvi Girji OS, Kárášjohka.