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Sámi languages
Lappish
Saami
Native to	Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden
Region	Sápmi
Ethnicity	Sámi people
Native speakers	(30,000 cited 1992–2013)[1]
Language family	Uralic Finno-Ugric Finno-Permic Sámi languages
Early form	Proto-Samic
Official status
Official language in	Norway[2][3]; recognized as a minority language in several municipalities of Finland and Sweden.
Language codes
ISO 639-2	smi
ISO 639-3	Variously: sma – Southern sju – Ume sje – Pite smj – Lule sme – Northern sjk – Kemi smn – Inari sms – Skolt sia – Akkala sjd – Kildin sjt – Ter
Glottolog	saam1281[4]
Recent distribution of the Sámi languages: 1. Southern Sámi, 2. Ume Sámi, 3. Pite Sámi, 4. Lule Sámi, 5. Northern Sámi, 6. Skolt Sámi, 7. Inari Sámi, 8. Kildin Sámi, 9. Ter Sámi. Darkened area represents municipalities that recognize Sami as an official or minority language.

Sámi languages (/ˈsɑːmi/^[5]) are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sámi people in Northern Europe (in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia). There are, depending on the nature and terms of division, ten or more Sami languages. Several names are used for the Sámi languages: Sámi, Sami, Saami, Saame, Samic, Saamic, as well as the exonyms Lappish and Lappic. The last two, along with the term Lapp, are now often considered pejorative.^[6]

Classification

The Sámi languages form a branch of the Uralic language family. According to the traditional view, Sámi is within the Uralic family most closely related to the Finnic languages (Sammallahti 1998). However, this view has recently been doubted by some scholars, who argue that the traditional view of a common Finno-Samic protolanguage is not as strongly supported as had been earlier assumed,^[7] and that the similarities may stem from an areal influence on Sámi from Finnic.

In terms of internal relationships, the Sámi languages are divided into two groups: western and eastern. 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 mutually intelligible to a fair degree, but two more widely separated groups will not understand each other's speech. There are, however, some sharp language boundaries, in particular between Northern Sámi, Inari Sámi and Skolt Sámi, the speakers of which are not able to understand each other without learning or long practice. The evolution of sharp language boundaries seems to suggest a relative isolation of the language speakers from each other and not very intensive contacts between the respective speakers in the past. There is some significance in this, as the geographical barriers between the respective speakers are no different from those in other parts of the Sámi area.

Western Sámi languages

• Southwestern
  
  
  
  • 
    Southern Sámi (600)^[8]
    
    
    • Åsele dialect
    
    
    • Jämtland dialect
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • 
    Ume Sámi (20)^[9]
    
  
  
  
  


• Northwestern
  
  
  
  • Northwestern proper
    
    
    
    • 
      Pite Sámi (20)^[10]
      
    
    
    • 
      Lule Sámi (1,000–2,000)^[11]
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • 
    Northern Sámi (20,000)^[12]
    
    
    • Torne Sámi
    
    
    • Finnmark Sámi
    
    
    • Sea Sámi
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Eastern Sámi languages

Sámi languages and settlements in Russia:

  Skolt (Russian Notozersky)

  Akkala (Russian Babinsky)

  Kildin

  Ter

• Mainland
  
  
  
  • 
    Inari Sámi (300)^[13]
    
  
  
  • 
    Kemi Sámi (extinct)
  
  
  • 
    Skolt Sámi (420)^[14]
    
  
  
  • 
    Akkala Sámi (extinct)
  
  
  • 
    Kainuu Sámi (extinct)
  
  
  
  


• Peninsular
  
  
  
  • 
    Kildin Sámi (500)^[15]
    
  
  
  • 
    Ter Sámi (2^[16]–10^[17])
  
  
  
  

The above figures are approximate.

Geographic distribution

The Sámi languages are spoken in Sápmi 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. The borders between the languages do not align with the ones separating the region's modern nation states.

During the Middle Ages and early modern period, now-extinct Sámi languages were also 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 Sámi inhabitation in these areas (Itkonen, 1947). Also, loanwords as well as place-names of Sámi origin in the southern dialects of Finnish and Karelian dialects testify of earlier Sámi presence in the area (Koponen, 1996; Saarikivi, 2004; Aikio, 2007). These Sámi languages, however, became extinct later, under the wave of the Finno-Karelian agricultural expansion.

History

The Proto-Samic language is believed to have formed in the vicinity of the Gulf of Finland between 1000 BC to 700 AD, deriving from a common Proto-Sami-Finnic language (M. Korhonen 1981).^[18] However, reconstruction of any basic proto-languages in the Uralic family have reached a level close to or identical to Proto-Uralic (Salminen 1999).^[19] According to the comparative linguist Ante Aikio, the Proto-Samic language developed in South Finland or in Karelia around 2000–2500 years ago, spreading then to northern Fennoscandia.^[20] The language is believed to have expanded west and north into Fennoscandia during the Nordic Iron Age, reaching central Scandinavia during the Proto-Scandinavian period ca. 500 AD (Bergsland 1996).^[21] The language assimilated several layers of unknown Paleo-European languages from the early hunter-gatherers, first during the Proto-Samic phase and second in the subsequent expansion of the language in the west and the north of Fennoscandia that is part of modern Sámi today. (Aikio 2004, Aikio 2006).^[20][22]

Written languages and sociolinguistic situation

The Sámi languages in the Nordic countries

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

• 
  Northern Sámi (Norway, Sweden, Finland): With an estimated 15,000 speakers, this accounts for probably more than 75% of all Sámi speakers in 2002.^{[citation needed]}ISO 639-1/ISO 639-2: se/sme


• 
  Lule Sámi (Norway, Sweden): The second largest group with an estimated 1,500 speakers.^{[citation needed]}ISO 639-2: smj


• 
  Ume Sámi (Norway, Sweden): ISO 639-2: smu


• 
  Southern Sámi (Norway, Sweden): 500 speakers (estimated).^{[citation needed]}ISO 639-2: sma


• 
  Inari Sámi (Enare Sami) (Inari, Finland): 500 speakers (estimated).^{[citation needed]}SIL code: LPI, ISO 639-2: smn


• 
  Skolt Sámi (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 Sámi (Kola Peninsula, Russia): 608 speakers in Murmansk Oblast, 179 in other Russian regions, although 1991 persons stated their Saami ethnicity (1769 of them live in Murmansk Oblast)^[23]SIL code: LPD, ISO 639-3: sjd

The other Sámi languages are critically endangered or moribund and have very few speakers left. Pite Sámi has about 30–50 speakers,^[24] and a dictionary and an official orthography is under way. A descriptive grammar (Wilbur 2014) has been published. Ume Sámi likely has under 20 speakers left,^{[citation needed]} and ten speakers of Ter Sámi were known to be alive in 2004.^[25] The last speaker of Akkala Sámi is known to have died in December 2003,^[26] and the eleventh attested variety, Kemi Sámi, became extinct in the 19th century. An additional Sámi language, Kainuu Sámi, became extinct in the 18th century, and probably belonged to the Eastern group like Kemi Sámi, although the evidence for the language is limited.

Orthographies

Sámi Primer, USSR 1933

Most of the Sámi languages use Latin alphabets, with these respective additional letters.

Northern Sámi:	Áá Čč Đđ Ŋŋ Šš Ŧŧ Žž
Inari Sámi:	Áá Ââ Ää Čč Đđ Šš Žž
Skolt Sámi:	Ââ Čč Ʒʒ Ǯǯ Đđ Ǧǧ Ǥǥ Ǩǩ Ŋŋ Õõ Šš Žž Åå Ää, soft sign ʹ , and a separator ʼ
Lule Sámi in Sweden:	Áá Åå Ŋŋ Ää
Lule Sámi in Norway:	Áá Åå Ŋŋ Ææ
Southern Sámi in Sweden:	Ïï Ää Öö Åå
Southern Sámi in Norway:	Ïï Ææ Øø Åå
Ume Sámi:	Áá Đđ Ïï Ŋŋ Ŧŧ Üü Åå Ää Öö

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

The different characters used on the different sides of the Swedish/Norwegian border merely are orthographic standards based on the Swedish and Norwegian alphabets, respectively, and don't denote different pronunciations.

The Skolt Sámi standard uses ʹ (U+02B9) as a soft sign,^[27] but other apostrophes (like ' (U+0027), ˊ (U+02CA) or ´ (U+00B4)) are also sometimes used in published texts.

Kildin Sámi now uses an extended version of Cyrillic (in three slightly different variants): Аа А̄а̄ Ӓӓ Бб Вв Гг Дд Ее Е̄е̄ Ёё Ё̄ё̄ Жж Зз Һһ/ʼ Ии Ӣӣ Йй Јј/Ҋҋ Кк Лл Ӆӆ Мм Ӎӎ Нн Ӊӊ Ӈӈ Оо О̄о̄ Пп Рр Ҏҏ Сс Тт Уу Ӯӯ Фф Хх Цц Чч Шш (Щщ) Ьъ Ыы Ьь Ҍҍ Ээ Э̄э̄ Ӭӭ Юю Ю̄ю̄ Яя Я̄я̄

Official status

Finland

A bilingual street sign in Enontekiö in both Finnish (top) and Northern Sámi

Sámi speakers in Finland 1980-2011.

In Finland, the Sámi Language Act of 1991 granted Sámi people the right to use the Sámi languages for all government services. Three Sámi languages are recognized: Northern, Skolt and Inari Sámi. The Sámi language act of 2003 made Sámi an official language in Enontekiö, Inari, Sodankylä and Utsjoki municipalities.

Norway

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 Sámi people to preserve and develop its language, culture and way of life". The Sámi Language Act went into effect in the 1990s. Sámi is an official language of the municipalities of Kautokeino, Karasjok, Gáivuotna (Kåfjord), Nesseby, Porsanger, Tana, Tysfjord, Lavangen and Snåsa.

Russia

In Russia, Sámi has no official status. Sámi has been taught at the Murmansk University since 2012; before then, Sámi was taught at the Institute of Peoples of the North (Институт народов севера) in Saint Petersburg (Leningrad).

Sweden

On 1 April 2000, Sámi became one of five recognized minority languages in Sweden.^[28][29] It can be used in dealing with public authorities in the municipalities of Arjeplog, Gällivare, Jokkmokk, and Kiruna. In 2011, this list was enlarged considerably. In Sweden the Umeå and Uppsala Universities have courses in North Sámi, and Umeå University also teaches Ume Sámi and South Sámi.

See also

• 
  Sámi politics of Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia


• Norwegianization


• Pre-Finno-Ugric substrate

References

General

External links

Northern Sámi edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sámi languages test of Southern Sámi language at Wikimedia Incubator

Sámi languages test of Kildin Sámi language at Wikimedia Incubator

Sámi languages test of Ter Sámi language at Wikimedia Incubator

Sámi languages test of Inari Sámi language at Wikimedia Incubator

Sámi languages test of Lule Sámi language at Wikimedia Incubator

• Ođđasat TV Channel in Sámi languages


• On line radio stream in various Sámi languages


• Introduction to the history and current state of Sámi


• 
  Kimberli Mäkäräinen "Sámi-related odds and ends", including 5000+ word vocabulary list


• 
  Risten Sámi dictionary and terminology database.


• 
  Giellatekno Morphological and syntactic analysers and lexical resources for several Sámi languages


• 
  Divvun Proofing tools for some of the Sámi languages


• 
  Sámedikki giellastivra - Sámi language department of the Sámi Parliament of Norway (in Norwegian and in Northern Sámi)


• 
  Finland - Sámi Language Act
  


• 
  Sámi Language Resources – all about Sámi Languages with glossaries, scholarly articles, resources


• 
  Álgu database, an etymological database of the Sámi languages (in Finnish and North Sámi)


• 
  Sámi anthems in various Sámi languages


• 
  [2], The Internationale in Northern Sámi


• 
  [3] An extensive intro to Saami languages and grammar from How To Learn Any Language


• 
  Sámi dieđalaš áigečála, the only peer-reviewed journal in Sámi languages