Pite Sami, also known as Arjeplog Sami, is a Sami language

Sami languages

Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden 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...

 traditionally spoken in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. It is a critically endangered language

Endangered language

An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....

 that has only about 25–50 native speakers left and is now only spoken on the Swedish side of the border along the Pite River

Pite River

The Pite River is a river in northern Sweden, flowing through the Norrbotten County. It is one of the four major rivers in Norrland that have been left mostly untouched by water power plants, the river has a single dam at Sikfors approximately 15 km upstream from the sea.It starts in the large...

 in the north of Arjeplog

Arjeplog Municipality

Arjeplog Municipality is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Arjeplog....

 and Arvidsjaur

Arvidsjaur

Arvidsjaur is a locality and the seat of Arvidsjaur Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden with 4,644 inhabitants in 2005.Arvidsjaur is a large centre for the European car industry. During the winter months major car-manufacturers perform arctic trials in the Arvidsjaur Municipality area...

 and in the mountainous areas of the Arjeplog

Arjeplog Municipality

Arjeplog Municipality is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Arjeplog....

 municipality.

Cases

Pite Sámi has 9 cases

Grammatical case

In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...

:

• Nominative
  Nominative case
  The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
  
  
• Genitive
  Genitive case
  In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
  
  
• Accusative
  Accusative case
  The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
  
  
• Inessive
  Inessive case
  Inessive case is a locative grammatical case. This case carries the basic meaning of "in": for example, "in the house" is "talo·ssa" in Finnish, "maja·s" in Estonian, "etxea·n" in Basque, "nam·e" in Lithuanian and "ház·ban" in Hungarian.In Finnish the inessive case is typically formed by adding...
  
  
• Illative
  Illative case
  Illative is, in the Finnish language, Estonian language and the Hungarian language, the third of the locative cases with the basic meaning of "into ". An example from Hungarian is "a házba"...
  
  
• Elative
  Elative case
  See Elative for disambiguation.Elative is a locative case with the basic meaning "out of"....
  
  
• Comitative
  Comitative case
  The comitative case , also known as the associative case , is a grammatical case that denotes companionship, and is used where English would use "in company with" or "together with"...
  
  
• Essive
  Essive case
  The essive or similaris case carries the meaning of a temporary location or state of being, often equivalent to the English "as a ".In the Finnish language, this case is marked by adding "-na/-nä" to the stem of the noun....
  
  
• Abessive
  Abessive case
  In linguistics, abessive , caritive and privative are names for a grammatical case expressing the lack or absence of the marked noun...
  
  

Person

Pite Sami verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

s conjugate for three grammatical person

Grammatical person

Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...

s:

• first person
• second person
• third person

Mood

Pite Sami has five grammatical mood

Grammatical mood

In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...

s:

• indicative
• imperative
  Imperative mood
  The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
  
  
• conditional
  Conditional mood
  In linguistics, the conditional mood is the inflectional form of the verb used in the independent clause of a conditional sentence to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event, that is contingent on another set of circumstances...
  
  
• potential
• optative
  Optative mood
  The optative mood is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope. It is similar to the cohortative mood, and closely related to the subjunctive mood....
  
  

Grammatical number

Pite Sami verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

s conjugate for three grammatical number

Grammatical number

In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....

s:

• singular
  Grammatical number
  In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
  
  
• dual
• plural
  Plural
  In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
  
  

Tense

Pite Sami verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

s conjugate for two simple tenses

Grammatical tense

A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...

:

• past
  Preterite
  The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
  
  
• non-past
  Grammatical tense
  A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
  
  

and two compound tenses

Circumlocution

Circumlocution is an ambiguous or roundabout figure of speech...

:

• Present perfect
• Pluperfect

Negative verb

Pite Sami, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and Estonian, has a negative verb

Negative verb

A negative verb is a type of auxiliary that is used to form the negative of a main verb. The main verb itself has no personal endings, while the negative verb takes the inflection...

. In Pite Sámi, the negative verb conjugates according to mood

Grammatical mood

In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...

 (indicative, imperative

Imperative mood

The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...

 and optative

Optative mood

The optative mood is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope. It is similar to the cohortative mood, and closely related to the subjunctive mood....

), person

Grammatical person

Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...

 (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and number

Grammatical number

In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....

 (singular, dual and plural). This differs from some other the other Sami languages

Sami languages

Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden 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...

, e.g., from Northern Sami

Northern Sami

Northern or North Sami is the most widely spoken of all Sami languages. The speaking area of Northern Sami covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland...

, which do not conjugate according to tense

Grammatical tense

A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...

 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

Writing system

Pite Sámi is one of the four Sámi languages

Sami languages

Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden 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...

that does not have an official written language.

External links

• Pite Saami Documentation Project