Skolt Sami

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Skolt Sami
sää'mǩiõll
Spoken in: Finland and Russia
Total speakers: ~400
Language family: Uralic
 Finno-Ugric
  Finno-Permic
   Finno-Volgaic
    Finno-Lappic
     Sami
      Eastern
       Skolt Sami 
Writing system: Latin alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1: sms
ISO 639-2: sms
ISO/FDIS 639-3: sms 
Skolt Sami is 6 on this map.
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Skolt Sami is 6 on this map.
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

Skolt Sami (sää'mǩiõll) is a Finno-Ugric, Sami language spoken in by approximately 400 speakers in Finland, mainly in Sevettijärvi, and approximately 20–30 speakers of the Njuõ'ttjäu´rr (Notozero) dialect in an area surrounding Lovozero Lake in Russia. Skolt Sami used to also be spoken on the Neiden area of Norway, although it has died out there. It is written using a Roman orthography that was made official in 1973.

Contents

[edit] History

The Skolt Sami language was spoken in four villages on Finnish territory prior to the Second World War. In Petsamo, there was Suonikylä, and the Petsamo village. This area was ceded to Russia in the Second World War, and Skolts were evacuated to the villages of Inari, Sevettijärvi and Nellim in the Inari municipality.

[edit] Status

Skolt Sami is spoken by approximately 400 individuals, nearly all of whom live in Finland; very few speakers remain today on the Russian side. On the Finnish side of the border, the language is recognized by the government as one of the official Sami languages used in Lapland and can thus be used by anyone conducting official business in that area. It is an official language in the municipality of Inari, and elementary schools there offer courses in the language, both for native speakers and for students learning it as a foreign language. Only a small number of youths do learn the language and continue to use it actively. Skolt Sami is thus a seriously endangered language, even more seriously than Inari Sami in the same municipality, which has a nearly equal number of speakers.

In 1993, language immersion programs for children younger than 7 were created. At present, however, no funding has been forthcoming for these programs in years and as a result they are on hold. These programs were extremely important in creating the youngest generation of Skolt Sami speakers.

Like Inari Sami, Skolt Sami has recently bore witness to a new phenomenon, namely it is being used in rock songs sung by Tiina Sanila, who recently published her first full-length CD in Skolt Sami.

In addition, 2005 saw the first time that it was possible to use Skolt Sámi in a Finnish matriculation examination, albeit as a foreign language.

[edit] Grammar

Skolt Sami is a synthetic, highly inflected language that shares many grammatical features with the other Uralic languages. However, Skolt Sami is not a typical agglutinative language like many of the other Uralic languages are, as it has developed considerably into the direction of a fusional language, much like Estonian. Therefore, cases and other grammatical features are also marked by modifications to the root and not just marked with suffixes. Many of the suffixes in Skolt Sami are portmanteau morphemes that express several grammatical features at a time.

[edit] Cases

Skolt Sámi has 9 cases in the singular, although the genitive and accusative are oftentimes the same:

[edit] Nominative

Like the other Uralic languages, the nominative singular is unmarked and indicates the subject or a predicate. The nominative plural is also unmarked and always looks the same as the genitive singular.

[edit] Genitive

The genitive singular is unmarked and looks the same as the nominative plural. The genitive plural is marked by an -i. The genitive is used:

  • to indicate possession (Tu'st lij mu ǩe'rjj.: You have my book.)
  • to indicate number, if said the number is between 2 and 6. (Sie'zzest lij kuõ'htt põõrt. My father’s sister (my aunt) has two houses.)
  • with prepositions (rääi + [GEN]: by, beyond something)
  • with most postpositions. (Sij mõ'nne ääkkäd årra.: They went to your grandmother’s (house). They went to visit your grandmother.)

The genitive has been replacing the partitive for some time and is nowadays more commonly used in its place.

[edit] Accusative

The accusative is the direct object case and it is unmarked in the singular. In the plural, its marker is -d, which is preceded by the plural marker -i, making it look the same as the plural illative. The accusative is also used to mark some adjuncts, e.g., obb tää'lv (the entire winter).

[edit] Locative

The locative marker in the singular is -st and -n in the plural. This case is used to indicate:

  • where something is (Kuä'đest lij ǩe'rjj: There is a book in the kota.)
  • where it is coming from (Niõđ puõ'tte domoi Če'vetjääu´rest. The girls came home from Sevettijärvi.)
  • who has possession of something (Su'st lij čâustõk: He/she has a lasso.)

In addition, it is used with certain verbs:

  • to ask someone s.t. : kõõččâd [+loc]

[edit] Illative

The illative marker actually has three different markers in the singular to represent the same case: -a, -e and -u. The plural illative marker is -d, which is preceded by the plural marker -i, making it look the same as the plural accusative. This case is used to indicate:

  • where something is going
  • who is receiving something
  • the indirect object

[edit] Comitative

The comitative marker in the singular is -in and -vui'm in the plural. The comitative is used to state with whom or what something was done:

  • Njää'lm sekstet leei'nin. The mouth is wiped with a piece of cloth.
  • Vuõ'lğğem paa'rnivui'm ceerkvest. I left church with the children.
  • Vuõ'lğğem vue'bbinan ceerkvest. I left church with my sister.

To form the comitative singular, use the genitive singular form of the word as the root and -in. To form the comitative plural, use the plural genitive root and -vui'm.

[edit] Abessive

The abessive marker is -tää in both the singular and the plural. It always has a tertiary stress.

  • Vuõ'lğğem paa'rnitää ceerkvest. I left church without the children.
  • Sij mõ'nne niõđtää põ'rtte. They went in the house without the girl.
  • Sij mõ'nne niõđitää põ'rtte. They went in the house without the girls.

[edit] Essive

The dual form of the essive is still used with pronouns, but not with nouns and does not appear at all in the plural.

[edit] Partitive

The partitive is only used in the singular and can always be replaced by the genitive. The partitive marker is -d.

1. It appears after numbers larger than 6:

  • kääu'c čâustõkkâd: eight lassos

This can be replaced with kää'uc čâustõõǥǥ.

2. It is also used with certain postpositions:

  • kuä'tted vuâstta: against a kota

This can be replaced with kuä'đ vuâstta.

3. It can be used with the comparative to express that which is being compared:

  • Kå'lled pue'rab : better than gold

This would nowadays more than likely be replaced by pue'rab ko kå'll

[edit] Pronouns

The personal pronouns have three numbers - singular, plural and dual. The following table contains personal pronouns in the nominative and genitive/accusative cases.

  English nominative English genitive
First person (singular) I mon my muu
Second person (singular) you (thou) ton your, yours tuu
Third person (singular) he, she son his, her suu
First person (dual) we (two) muäna our muännai
Second person (dual) you (two) tuäna your tuännai
Third person (dual) they (two) suäna theirs suännai
First person (plural) we mij our mij
Second person (plural) you tij your tij
Third person (plural) they sij their sij

The next table demonstrates the declension of a personal pronoun he/she (no gender distinction) in various cases:

  Singular Dual Plural
Nominative son suäna sij
Genitive suu suännai sij
Accusative suu suännaid si'jjid
Illative su'nne suännaid si'jjid
Locative su'st suännast sii'st
Comitative suin suännain si'jjivui´m
Abessive suutää suännaitää si'jjitää
Essive suu'nen suännan --
Partitive suu'đed -- --

[edit] Verbs

[edit] Person

Skolt Sami verbs conjugate for four grammatical persons:

[edit] Mood

Skolt Sami has 5 grammatical moods:

[edit] Grammatical number

Skolt Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:

[edit] Tense

Skolt Sami has 2 simple tenses:

  • past (Puõ'ttem škoou'le jåhtta.: I came to school yesterday.)
  • non-past (Evvan puätt mu årra tä'bbe. John is coming to my house today.)

and 2 compound tenses:

[edit] Verbal nouns

Skolt Sami verbs have 6 nominal forms:

  • the infinitive
  • the gerund
  • the active participle (progressive)
  • the abessive
  • the present participle
  • the past participle

[edit] Negative verb

Skolt Sami, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and Estonian, has a negative verb. In Skolt Sami, the negative verb conjugates according to mood (indicative, imperative and optative), person (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th) and number (singular, dual and plural).

    Ind. pres.                Imperatiiva         Optatiiva
    sg.      du/pl.           sg.    du/pl.       sg.    du/pl.                        
1   jiõm     jeä'p         1  -      -         1  ?      jeällap   
    jim      jep               
2   jiõk     jeä'ped       2  jie'l  jie'lled  2  jie'l  jie'lled
    jik      je'ped           je'l   je'lled      je'l   je'lled
3   ij       jiâ, jeä, jie 3  -      -         3  jeälas jeällaz
4       jeä't

Note that ij + leat is usually written as i'lla, i'lleäkku, i'llää or i'llä and ij + leat is usually written as jeä'la or jeä'lä.

Unlike the other Sami languages, Skolt Sami no longer has separate forms for the dual and plural of the negative verb and uses the plural forms for both instead.

[edit] Phonology

Special features of this Sami language include a highly complex vowel system and a suprasegmental contrast of palatalized vs. non-palatalized stress groups; palatalized stress groups are indicated by a “softener mark”, represented by the free-standing acute accent (´).

[edit] Vowels

The system of vowel phonemes is as follows.

front central back
unrounded unrounded unrounded rounded
close i u
close-mid e õ o
open-mid ɛ â å
open ä a

Notes:

  • The difference between /e/ and /ɛ/ is not indicated in the standard orthography, where both of these sounds are spelled e.
  • õ is pronounced much like Estonian õ.

Long and short vowels contrast phonologically: cf. le'tt ‘vessel’ vs. lee'tt ‘vessels’. All vowels can occur as both long and short.

The vowels can combine to form twelve opening diphthongs:

front front to central back to front back to central back
close to close-mid ie iõ ue uõ
close to open-mid iɛ iâ uɛ uâ uå
close to open uä
close-mid to open-mid eâ
close-mid to open eä

Also diphthongs contrast length, although this is not indicated in spelling. Short diphthongs are distinguished from long ones by both length and stress placement; short diphthongs have a stressed second component, whereas long diphthongs have stress on the first component. All diphthongs can occur as both long and short.

[edit] Consonants

Consonants may be phonemically short or long (geminate) both word-medially or word-finally; both are exceedingly common. Long and short consonants also contrast in consonant clusters, cf. kuõskkâd 'to touch' : kuõskâm 'I touch'.

In consonants, all voiced plosives are half-voiced (weak voicing). Alveolar affricates are denoted Ʒ [ʣ] (voiced) and C [ʦ] (voiceless). The caron is used inconsistently for postalveolar articulation in Č [ʧ], Ǯ [ʤ], Š [ʃ], Ž [ʒ], and for the palatal or velar palatalized stops Ǧ [ɟ] and Ǩ [c]. The latter (Ǩ, Ǧ) are in between K and T with respect to place of articulation. (Notice the disagreement between Skolt Sami orthography and IPA, and the difference between historical and synchronic palatalization.) The strike indicates fricative articulation; for example D is a voiced dental stop [d̪], Đ a voiced dental fricative [ð].

[edit] Suprasegmentals

There is one phonemic suprasegmental, the palatalizing suprasegmental that affects the pronunciation of an entire syllable. In written language the palatalizing suprasegmental is indicated with a free-standing acute accent between a stressed vowel and the following consonant, as follows:

vää'rr 'mountain, hill' (suprasegmental palatalization present)
cf. väärr 'trip' (no suprasegmental palatalization)

The suprasegmental palatalization has three distinct phonetic effects:

  • The stressed vowel is pronounced as slightly more fronted in palatalized syllables than in non-palatalized ones.
  • When the palatalizing suprasegmental is present, the following consonant or consonant cluster is pronounced as weakly palatalized. It should be noted that suprasegmental palatalization is independent of segmental palatalization: inherently palatal consonants such as the palatal glide /j/ and the palatalized nasal /ń/ (spelled <nj>) can occur both in non-palatalized and suprasegmentally palatalized syllables.
  • If the word form is monosyllabic and ends in a consonant, a non-phonemic weakly voiced or unvoiced vowel is pronounced after the final consonant. This vowel is e-colored if suprasegmental palatalization is present, but a-colored if not.

[edit] Stress

Skolt Sámi has four different types of stress for words:

  • Primary stress
  • Secondary stress
  • Tertiary stress
  • Zero stress

The first syllable of any word is always the primary stressed syllable in Skolt Sami as Skolt is a fixed-stress language. In words with two or more syllables, the final syllable is quite lightly stressed (tertiary stress) and the remaining syllable, if any, are stressed more heavily than the final syllable, but less than the first syllable (secondary stress).

Using the abessive and the comitative singular in a word appears to disrupt this system, however, in words of more than one syllable. The suffix, as can be expected, has teratiary stress, but the penult syllable also has tertiary stress, even though it would be expected that it would have secondary stress.

Zero stress can be said to be a feature of conjunctions, postpositions, particles and monosyllabic pronouns.

[edit] Writing system

Skolt Sami uses a Latin alphabet with a few special characters: A/a, Â/â, B/b, C/c, Č/č, Ʒ/ʒ, Ǯ/ǯ, D/d, Đ/đ, E/e, F/f, G/g, Ǧ/ǧ, Ǥ/ǥ, H/h, I/i, J/j, K/k, Ǩ/ǩ, L/l, M/m, N/n, Ŋ/ŋ, O/o, Õ/õ, P/p, R/r, S/s, Š/š, T/t, U/u, V/v, Z/z, Ž/ž, Å/å, Ä/ä, ´ (softener mark). The letters Q/q, W/w, X/x, Y/y and Ö/ö are also used in words of a foreign origin.

A short period of voicelessness or h before geminate consonants is observed, but this receives no marking, e.g. jo'kke ‘to the river’ is pronounced [jo̟hk̟k̟e]. The epenthetic vowels are not phonemic or syllabic, and thus not marked, e.g. mie'll [miellɘ̯] ‘sandbank’, cf. mielle [mielle] ‘to the mind’.

[edit] References

  • Korhonen, Mikko. Mosnikoff, Jouni. Sammallahti, Pekka. Koltansaamen opas. Castreanumin toimitteita, Helsinki 1973.
  • Mosnikoff, Jouni and Pekka Sammallahti 1988: U'cc sääm-lää'dd sää'nnǩeârjaž = Pieni koltansaame-suomi sanakirja. Jorgaleaddji.
  • Mosnikoff, Jouni and Pekka Sammallahti 1991: Suomi-koltansaame sanakirja = Lää'dd-sää'm sää'nnǩe´rjj. Ohcejohka : Girjegiisá.
  • Moshnikoff, Satu: Muu vuõssmõs sää'mǩe´rjj.
  • Sámi Language Act

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/k/o/Skolt_Sami_0060.html"