Skolt Sami
Encyclopedia
Skolt Sami is a Uralic
, Sami
language
spoken by approximately 400 speakers in Finland
, mainly in Sevettijärvi
, and approximately 20–30 speakers of the Njuõˊttjäuˊrr (Notozero) dialect in an area surrounding Lake Lovozero 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.
, Skolt Sami was spoken in Suonikylä and the village of Petsamo. This area was ceded to Russia in the Second World War, and the Skolts were evacuated to the villages of Inari
, Sevettijärvi
and Nellim
in the Inari
municipality.
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.
From 1978 to 1986, the Skolts had a quarterly called Sää´mođđâz published in their own language. To date, this is the only magazine or newspaper that has appeared in Skolt Sámi.
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 borne witness to a new phenomenon, namely it is being used in rock songs
sung by Tiina Sanila
, who has published two full-length CDs in Skolt Sami to date.
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.
with the addition of some special characters:
The letters Q
/q, W
/w, X
/x, Y
/y and Ö
/ö are also used, although only in foreign words or loans.
The caron marks postalveolars (Š [ʃ], Ž [ʒ], Č [tʃ], [dʒ]) and palatal
sounds ( [ɟ͡ʝ] and [c͡ç]). The letters and mark fricatives [ð], [ɣ]. The letters [dz] and [dʒ] mark voiced affricates. Skolt Sami has a separate glyph, , for the velar nasal
[ŋ] ("eng"). Additionally, suprasegmental palatalization is marked by a free-standing acute accent (´) added after the vowel.
A short period of voicelessness or h, known as preaspiration, before geminate consonants is observed, but this is not marked, e.g., joˊkke ‘to the river’ is pronounced [jo̟hk̟k̟e]. The epenthetic vowels are not phonemic or syllabic, and are thus not marked, e.g., mieˊll [miellɘ̯] ‘sandbank’ cf. mielle [mielle] ‘to the mind’.
Notes:
Long and short vowels contrast phonologically: cf. leˊtt ‘vessel’ vs. leeˊtt ‘vessels’. All vowels can occur as both long and short.
The vowels can combine to form twelve opening diphthong
s:
All diphthongs can occur as both long and short, 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.
1Unvoiced stops and affricates are pronounced preaspirated after vowels and sonorant consonants.
2Voiced stops and affricates are usually pronounced just weakly voiced.
3/x/ has the allophone [h] in initial position.
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'.
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:
The suprasegmental palatalization has three distinct phonetic effects:
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 to have secondary stress.
Zero stress can be said to be a feature of conjunctions
, postpositions, particles
and monosyllabic pronouns.
, 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.
, 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.
The genitive has been replacing the partitive for some time and is nowadays more commonly used in its place.
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 tääˊlv (the entire winter).
In addition, it is used with certain verbs:
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 -vuiˊm.
.
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:
This can be replaced with .
2. It is also used with certain postpositions:
This can be replaced with kuä'đ vuâstta'
3. It can be used with the comparative
to express that which is being compared:
This would nowadays more than likely be replaced by pueˊrab ko kåˊll
s have three numbers - singular, plural and dual
. The following table contains personal pronouns in the nominative and genitive/accusative cases.
The next table demonstrates the declension of a personal pronoun he/she (no gender distinction) in various cases:
s conjugate for four grammatical person
s:
s:
s conjugate for two grammatical number
s:
Unlike other Sami varieties, Skolt Sami verbs do not inflect for *dual number. Instead, verbs occurring with the dual personal pronouns appear in the corresponding plural form.
:
and 2 compound tenses:
. 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. Imperative Optative
sg. du/pl. sg. du/pl. sg. du/pl.
1 jiõm jeäˊp 1 - - 1 ? jeällap
jim jep
2 jiõk jeäˊped 2 jieˊl jieˊlled 2 jieˊl jieˊlled
jik jeˊped jeˊl jeˊlled jeˊl jeˊlled
3 ij jiâ, jeä, jie 3 - - 3 jeälas jeällaz
4 jeäˊt
Note that ij + leat is usually written as iˊlla, iˊlleäkku, iˊllää or iˊllä and ij + leat is usually written as jeäˊla or jeäˊlä.
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.
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
, Sami
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...
language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
spoken by approximately 400 speakers in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, mainly in Sevettijärvi
Sevettijärvi
Sevettijärvi is a village in the municipality of Inari, Finland approximately north of downtown Inari. Näätämö, as it is known on the Finnish side of the Norwegian border, is approximately away. The village’s green, yet stark terrain opens up as Näätämö approaches.The village is built on what...
, and approximately 20–30 speakers of the Njuõˊttjäuˊrr (Notozero) dialect in an area surrounding Lake Lovozero in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Skolt Sami used to also be spoken on the Neiden area of 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...
, although it has died out there. It is written using a Roman orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
that was made official in 1973.
History
Skolt Sami was spoken in four villages on Finnish territory prior to the Second World War. In PetsamoPechengsky District
Pechengsky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the five in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It is located to the northwest of the Kola Peninsula on the coast of the Barents Sea and borders with Finland in the south and southwest and with Norway in the west, northwest, and north...
, Skolt Sami was spoken in Suonikylä and the village of Petsamo. This area was ceded to Russia in the Second World War, and the Skolts were evacuated to the villages of Inari
Inari (village)
Inari is a population centre in the municipality of Inari in Finland.-History:The village grew up along in a spot where the fast-flowing Juutua River empties into Lake Inari. As the centuries went by, the village developed into a robust and active market and trade centre...
, Sevettijärvi
Sevettijärvi
Sevettijärvi is a village in the municipality of Inari, Finland approximately north of downtown Inari. Näätämö, as it is known on the Finnish side of the Norwegian border, is approximately away. The village’s green, yet stark terrain opens up as Näätämö approaches.The village is built on what...
and Nellim
Nellim
Nellim is a village on the shore of Lake Inari in Inari, Finland that has three distinctly different cultures: Finns, the Inari Sámi and the Skolt Sámi. Nellim is approximately northeast of Ivalo and approximately away from the Russian border...
in the Inari
Inari, Finland
Inari is Finland's largest, sparsely populated municipality with four official languages, more than any other in the country. Its major sources of income are lumber industry and nature maintenance. With the museum Siida in the village of Inari, it is a center of Sami culture...
municipality.
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 languagesSami 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...
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
Inari, Finland
Inari is Finland's largest, sparsely populated municipality with four official languages, more than any other in the country. Its major sources of income are lumber industry and nature maintenance. With the museum Siida in the village of Inari, it is a center of Sami culture...
, 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
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"....
, even more seriously than Inari Sami in the same municipality, which has a nearly equal number of speakers.
From 1978 to 1986, the Skolts had a quarterly called Sää´mođđâz published in their own language. To date, this is the only magazine or newspaper that has appeared in Skolt Sámi.
In 1993, language immersion
Language immersion
Language immersion is a method of teaching a second language in which the target language is used as the means of instruction. Unlike more traditional language courses, where the target language is simply the subject material, language immersion uses the target language as a teaching tool,...
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 borne witness to a new phenomenon, namely it is being used in rock songs
sung by Tiina Sanila
Tiina Sanila
Tiina Juulia Sanila-Aikio is a Skolt woman from Sevettijärvi, a village in Inari,who published the first full-length rock CD in Skolt Sami ever in 2005. The name of the CD is called Sää´mjânnam rocks! and it was produced by in Finland...
, who has published two full-length CDs in Skolt Sami to date.
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.
Writing system
Skolt Sami uses the standard Latin alphabetLatin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
with the addition of some special characters:
| А а | Â Â is a letter of the Friulian, Romanian, Vietnamese, French, Galician, Portuguese, Frisian, Welsh, Turkish, and Walloon alphabets.- Croatian and Serbian :... â |
B B B is the second letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is used to represent a variety of bilabial sounds , most commonly a voiced bilabial plosive.-History:... b |
C C Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing the sound .Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for all four of its postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets... c |
Č C Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing the sound .Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for all four of its postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets... č |
Ʒ ʒ | Ǯ ǯ | D D D is the fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic letter Dâlet may have developed from the logogram for a fish or a door. There are various Egyptian hieroglyphs that might have inspired this. In Semitic, Ancient Greek, and Latin, the letter represented ; in the... d |
| Đ đ | E E E is the fifth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used letter in the Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish languages.-History:... e |
F F F is the sixth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The origin of ⟨f⟩ is the Semitic letter vâv that represented a sound like or . Graphically, it originally probably depicted either a hook or a club... f |
G G G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,... g |
Ǧ G G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,... ǧ |
Ǥ ǥ | H H H .) is the eighth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The Semitic letter ⟨ח⟩ most likely represented the voiceless pharyngeal fricative . The form of the letter probably stood for a fence or posts.... h |
I I I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound... i |
| J J Ĵ or ĵ is a letter in Esperanto orthography representing the sound .While Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for its four postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets, the base letters are Romano-Germanic... j |
K K K is the eleventh letter of the English and basic modern Latin alphabet.-History and usage:In English, the letter K usually represents the voiceless velar plosive; this sound is also transcribed by in the International Phonetic Alphabet and X-SAMPA.... k |
Ǩ K K is the eleventh letter of the English and basic modern Latin alphabet.-History and usage:In English, the letter K usually represents the voiceless velar plosive; this sound is also transcribed by in the International Phonetic Alphabet and X-SAMPA.... ǩ |
L L Ł or ł, described in English as L with stroke, is a letter of the Polish, Kashubian, Sorbian, Łacinka , Łatynka , Wilamowicean, Navajo, Dene Suline, Inupiaq, Zuni, Hupa, and Dogrib alphabets, several proposed alphabets for the Venetian language, and the ISO 11940 romanization of the Thai alphabet... l |
M M M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu . Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water... m |
N N N is the fourteenth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History of the forms :One of the most common hieroglyphs, snake, was used in Egyptian writing to stand for a sound like English ⟨J⟩, because the Egyptian word for "snake" was djet... n |
Ŋ ŋ | O O O is the fifteenth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.The letter was derived from the Semitic `Ayin , which represented a consonant, probably , the sound represented by the Arabic letter ع called `Ayn. This Semitic letter in its original form seems to have been inspired by a... o |
| Õ Õ "Õ", or "õ" is a composition of the Latin letter O with the diacritic mark tilde.The HTML entity is Õ for Õ and õ for õ.-Estonian:... õ |
P P P is the sixteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Usage:In English and most other European languages, P is a voiceless bilabial plosive. Both initial and final Ps can be combined with many other discrete consonants in English words... p |
R R R is the eighteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The original Semitic letter may have been inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for tp, "head". It was used for by Semites because in their language, the word for "head" was rêš . It developed into Greek Ρ and Latin R... r |
S S S is the nineteenth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet.-History: Semitic Šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative . Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma came to represent... s |
Š Š The grapheme Š, š is used in various contexts, usually denoting the voiceless postalveolar fricative. In the International Phonetic Alphabet this sound is denoted with , but the lowercase š is used in the Americanist phonetic notation, as well as in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet.For use in computer... š |
T T T is the 20th letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used consonant and the second most common letter in the English language.- History :Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets... t |
U U U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details.... u |
V V V is the twenty-second letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Letter:The letter V comes from the Semitic letter Waw, as do the modern letters F, U, W, and Y. See F for details.... v |
| Z Z Z is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Name and pronunciation:In most dialects of English, the letter's name is zed , reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta but in American English, its name is zee , deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal... z |
Ž Ž The grapheme Ž is formed from Latin Z with the addition of caron . It is used in various contexts, usually denoting the voiced postalveolar fricative, a sound similar to English g in mirage, or Portuguese and French j... ž |
Å Å Å represents various sounds in several languages. Å is part of the alphabets used for the Alemannic and the Bavarian-Austrian dialects of German... å |
Ä Ä "Ä" and "ä" are both characters that represent either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter A with an umlaut mark or diaeresis.- Independent letter :... ä |
ˊ |
The letters Q
Q
Q is the seventeenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic sound value of Qôp was , a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in English or most Indo-European ones...
/q, W
W
W is the 23rd letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.In other Germanic languages, including German, its pronunciation is similar or identical to that of English V...
/w, X
X
X is the twenty-fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Uses:In mathematics, x is commonly used as the name for an independent variable or unknown value. The usage of x to represent an independent or unknown variable can be traced back to the Arabic word šay شيء = “thing,” used in Arabic...
/x, Y
Y
Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet and represents either a vowel or a consonant in English.-Name:In Latin, Y was named Y Graeca "Greek Y". This was pronounced as I Graeca "Greek I", since Latin speakers had trouble pronouncing , which was not a native sound...
/y and Ö
Ö
"Ö", or "ö", is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut to denote the front vowels or . In languages without umlaut, the character is also used as a "O with diaeresis" to denote a syllable break, wherein its pronunciation remains an unmodified .- O-Umlaut...
/ö are also used, although only in foreign words or loans.
The caron marks postalveolars (Š [ʃ], Ž [ʒ], Č [tʃ], [dʒ]) and palatal
Palatal consonant
Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...
sounds ( [ɟ͡ʝ] and [c͡ç]). The letters and mark fricatives [ð], [ɣ]. The letters [dz] and [dʒ] mark voiced affricates. Skolt Sami has a separate glyph, , for the velar nasal
Velar nasal
The velar nasal is the sound of ng in English sing. It is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N....
[ŋ] ("eng"). Additionally, suprasegmental palatalization is marked by a free-standing acute accent (´) added after the vowel.
A short period of voicelessness or h, known as preaspiration, before geminate consonants is observed, but this is not marked, e.g., joˊkke ‘to the river’ is pronounced [jo̟hk̟k̟e]. The epenthetic vowels are not phonemic or syllabic, and are thus not marked, e.g., mieˊll [miellɘ̯] ‘sandbank’ cf. mielle [mielle] ‘to the mind’.
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 (ˊ).Vowels
The system of vowel phonemes is as follows; their orthographic representations are given in brackets.| front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i (i) | u (u) | |
| close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
e (e) | ɘ (õ) | o (o) |
| open-mid Open-mid vowel An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel... |
ɛ (e) | ɐ (â) | ɔ (å) |
| open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
a (ä) | ɑ (a) |
Notes:
- The difference between /e/ and /ɛ/ is not indicated in the standard orthography, where both of these sounds are spelled e. is pronounced much like Estonian õ.
Long and short vowels contrast phonologically: cf. leˊtt ‘vessel’ vs. leeˊtt ‘vessels’. All vowels can occur as both long and short.
The vowels can combine to form twelve opening diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s:
| front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... to central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... to front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... to central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... to close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
ie (ie) | iɘ (iõ) | ue (ue) | uɘ (uõ) | |
| close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... to open-mid Open-mid vowel An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel... |
iɛ (ie) | iɐ (iâ) | uɛ (ue) | uɐ (uâ) | uɔ (uå) |
| close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... to open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
ua (uä) | ||||
| close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... to open-mid Open-mid vowel An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel... |
eɐ (eâ) | ||||
| close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... to open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
ea (ea) |
All diphthongs can occur as both long and short, 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.
Consonants
The inventory of consonant phonemes is the following; their orthographic representations are given in brackets:| labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
dental / alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
postalveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... |
palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant Sibilant consonant A sibilant is a manner of articulation of fricative and affricate consonants, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the sharp edge of the teeth, which are held close together. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words sip, zip, ship, chip,... |
sibilant | |||||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m (m) | n (n) | ɲ (nj) | ŋ (ŋ) | |||
| Stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... and affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
unvoiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... 1 |
p (p) | t (t) | t͡s (c) | t͡ʃ (č) | c͡ç | k (k) |
| voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... 2 |
b (b) | d (d) | d͡z | d͡ʒ | ɟ͡ʝ | g (g) | |
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
unvoiced | f (f) | s (s) | ʃ (š) | x (h) | ||
| voiced | v (v) | ð | z (z) | ʒ (ž) | ʝ (j) | ɣ | |
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r (r) | ||||||
| Lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
l (l) | ʎ (lj) | |||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
w (u) | j (i) | |||||
1Unvoiced stops and affricates are pronounced preaspirated after vowels and sonorant consonants.
2Voiced stops and affricates are usually pronounced just weakly voiced.
3/x/ has the allophone [h] in initial position.
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'.
Suprasegmentals
There is one phonemic suprasegmental, the palatalizingPalatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
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:
-
- vääˊrr '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 palatals: inherently palatal consonants (i.e. consonants with palatal place of articulation) such as the palatal glide /j/, the palatal nasal /ń/ (spelled
) and the palatal lateral approximant /ĺ/ (spelled ) 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.
Stress
Skolt Sami 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
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
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 to have secondary stress.
Zero stress can be said to be a feature of conjunctions
Conjunctions
Conjunctions, is a biannual American literary journal based at Bard College. It was founded in 1981 and is currently edited by Bradford Morrow....
, postpositions, particles
Grammatical particle
In grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...
and monosyllabic pronouns.
Grammar
Skolt Sami is a syntheticSynthetic language
In linguistic typology, a synthetic language is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a low morpheme-per-word ratio in what is described as an isolating language...
, highly inflected
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
language that shares many grammatical features with the other Uralic languages
Uralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
. However, Skolt Sami is not a typical agglutinative language
Agglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
like many of the other Uralic languages are, as it has developed considerably into the direction of a fusional language
Fusional language
A fusional language is a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by its tendency to overlay many morphemes in a way that can be difficult to segment....
, much like Estonian
Estonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
. 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.
Cases
Skolt Sámi has 9 cases in the singular, although the genitive and accusative are often the same:Nominative
Like the other Uralic languagesUralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
, the nominative singular is unmarked and indicates the subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
or a predicate
Predicate (grammar)
There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus...
.
The nominative plural is also unmarked and always looks the same as the genitive singular.
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 (Tuˊst lij muu .: You have my book.)
- to indicate number, if said the number is between 2 and 6. (Sieˊzzest lij kuõˊhtt põõrt. My father’s sister (my aunt) has two houses.)
- with prepositions (rääi + [GEN]: by, beyond something)
- with most postpositions. (Sij mõˊnne 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.
Accusative
The accusative is the direct objectObject (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
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 tääˊlv (the entire winter).
Locative
The locative marker in the singular is -st and -n in the plural. This case is used to indicate:- where something is (Kuäˊđest lij : There is a book in the kota.)
- where it is coming from (Niõđ puõˊtte domoi Čeˊvetjääuˊrest. The girls came home from SevettijärviSevettijärviSevettijärvi is a village in the municipality of Inari, Finland approximately north of downtown Inari. Näätämö, as it is known on the Finnish side of the Norwegian border, is approximately away. The village’s green, yet stark terrain opens up as Näätämö approaches.The village is built on what...
.) - who has possession of something (Suˊst lij čâustõk: He/she has a lasso.)
In addition, it is used with certain verbs:
- to ask someone s.t. : kõõččâd [+loc]
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 objectObject (grammar)An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
Comitative
The comitative marker in the singular is -in and -vuiˊm in the plural. The comitative is used to state with whom or what something was done:- Njääˊlm sekstet leeiˊnin. The mouth is wiped with a piece of cloth.
- Vuõˊlğğem paaˊrnivuiˊm ceerkvest. I left church with the children.
- Vuõˊlğğem vueˊbbinan ceerkvest. I left church with my sister.
To form the comitative singular, use the genitive singular form of the word as the root
Root (linguistics)
The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
and -in. To form the comitative plural, use the plural genitive root and -vuiˊm.
Abessive
The abessive marker is -tää in both the singular and the plural. It always has a tertiary stress.- Vuõˊlğğem paaˊrnitää ceerkvest. I left church without the children.
- Sij mõˊnne niõđtää põˊrtte. They went in the house without the girl.
- Sij mõˊnne niõđitää põˊrtte. They went in the house without the girls.
Essive
The dual form of the essive is still used with pronouns, but not with nouns and does not appear at all in the pluralPlural
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...
.
Partitive
The partitivePartitive
In linguistics, the partitive is a word, phrase, or case that divides something into parts. For example, in the English sentence I'll have some coffee, some is a partitive determiner because it makes the noun phrase some coffee refer to a subset of all coffee...
is only used in the singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
and can always be replaced by the genitive. The partitive marker is -d.
1. It appears after numbers larger than 6:
- kääuˊc čâustõkkâd: eight lassos
This can be replaced with .
2. It is also used with certain postpositions:
- kuäˊtted vuâstta: against a kota
This can be replaced with kuä'đ vuâstta'
3. It can be used with the comparative
Comparative
In grammar, the comparative is the form of an adjective or adverb which denotes the degree or grade by which a person, thing, or other entity has a property or quality greater or less in extent than that of another, and is used in this context with a subordinating conjunction, such as than,...
to express that which is being compared:
- Kåˊlled pueˊrab : better than gold
This would nowadays more than likely be replaced by pueˊrab ko kåˊll
Pronouns
The personal pronounPersonal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...
s have three numbers - singular, plural and dual
Dual (grammatical number)
Dual is a grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and plural. When a noun or pronoun appears in dual form, it is interpreted as referring to precisely two of the entities identified by the noun or pronoun...
. 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 | siˊjjid |
| Illative | suˊnne | suännaid | siˊjjid |
| Locative | suˊst | suännast | siiˊst |
| Comitative | suin | suännain | siˊjjivuiˊm |
| Abessive | suutää | suännaitää | siˊjjitää |
| Essive | suuˊnen | suännan | -- |
| Partitive | suuˊđed | -- | -- |
Person
Skolt Sami verbVerb
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 four 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
- fourth person, also called the indefinite person
Mood
Skolt Sami has 5 grammatical moodGrammatical 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
- imperativeImperative moodThe 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 :...
(Pueˊtted sõrgg domoi! Come home soon!) - conditionalConditional moodIn 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
- optativeOptative moodThe 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
Skolt Sami verbVerb
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 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:
- singularGrammatical numberIn linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
- pluralPluralIn 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...
Unlike other Sami varieties, Skolt Sami verbs do not inflect for *dual number. Instead, verbs occurring with the dual personal pronouns appear in the corresponding plural form.
Tense
Skolt Sami has 2 simple tensesGrammatical 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:...
:
- pastPreteriteThe preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
(Puõˊttem škoouˊle jåhtta.: I came to school yesterday.) - non-pastGrammatical tenseA tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
(Evvan puätt mu årra täˊbbe. John is coming to my house today.)
and 2 compound tenses:
- perfect
- pluperfect
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
Negative verb
Skolt Sami, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and Estonian, has a negative verbNegative 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 Skolt Sami, 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 and optative), 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, 3rd and 4th) 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).
Ind. pres. Imperative Optative
sg. du/pl. sg. du/pl. sg. du/pl.
1 jiõm jeäˊp 1 - - 1 ? jeällap
jim jep
2 jiõk jeäˊped 2 jieˊl jieˊlled 2 jieˊl jieˊlled
jik jeˊped jeˊl jeˊlled jeˊl jeˊlled
3 ij jiâ, jeä, jie 3 - - 3 jeälas jeällaz
4 jeäˊt
Note that ij + leat is usually written as iˊlla, iˊlleäkku, iˊllää or iˊllä and ij + leat is usually written as jeäˊla or jeäˊlä.
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.
External links
- Kimberli Mäkäräinen A very small Skolt Sámi - English vocabulary (<500 words)
- Northern Sámi - Inari Sámi - Skolt Sámi - English dictionary (requires a password nowadays)
- Names of birds found in Sápmi in a number of languages, including Skolt Sámi and English. Search function only works with Finnish input though.
- Sääˊmjieˊllem Sámi Museum site on the history of the Skolt Sámi in Finland
- Zita McRobbie-Utasi A number of linguistic articles on Skolt Sámi.
- Erkki Lumisalmi talks in Skolt Sámi (mp3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
)