Sami languages
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 believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami languages: Saami, Smi, Samic, Saamic, Lappish and Lappic. The last two are, along with the term
Lapp, considered derogatory by some.
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 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.
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 . 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 , 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. 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 languagesEastern Sami languagesGeographic distribution
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. Historical documents as well as
Finnish and
Karelian oral tradition contain many mentions of the earlier Sami inhabitation in these areas . 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 . These Sami languages, however, became later extinct under the wave of the Finno-Karelian agricultural expansion.
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 : With an estimated 15,000 speakers, this accounts for probably more than 75% of all Sami speakers in 2002. ISO 639-1/ISO 639-2: se/sme
- Lule Sami : The second largest group with an estimated 1,500 speakers. ISO 639-2: smj
- Southern Sami : 500 speakers . ISO 639-2: sma
- Inari Sami : 500 speakers . SIL code: LPI, ISO 639-2: smn
- Skolt Sami : 400 speakers . SIL code: LPK, ISO 639-2: sms
- Kildin Sami : 650 speakers . SIL code: LPD
The remaining living languages Ter Sami,
Pite Sami and
Ume Sami are moribund and have very few speakers left. The last speaker of Akkala Sami is known to have died in 2003, and the eleventh attested variety Kemi Sami became extinct already in the 19th century.
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
External links
...
, in Norwegian
- "Sámi-related odds and ends," including 5000+ word vocabulary list
- - at University of Tromsø
- - Sami language department of the Norwegian Sami parliament
- Finland -
- All about Sami Languages with glossaries, scholarly articles, resources
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 , 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.
