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Sámi tungs (/ˈsɑːmi/[5]), in English also written as Sami and Saami, are a set of Uralish tungs spoken by the Sámi folk in Northern Europe (in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme north-western Russland). There are, depending on the nature and terms of division, ten or more Sami tungs. Several spellings have been noted for the Sámi tungs, including Sámi, Sami, Saami, Saame, Sámic, Samic and Saamic, as well as the exonyms Lappish and Lappic. The last two, along with the term Lapp, are now often seen as downputting.
Classification[]
The Sámi tungs 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 tungs (Sammallahti 1998). However, this view has recently been doubted by some scholars, who retch that the traditional view of a common Finno-Sami ortung is not as strongly supported as had been earlier assumed,[7] and that the similarities may stem from an areal influence on Samic from Finnic.
When it comes to the inner ties, the Sami tungs are shed into two sets: western and eastern. The sets may be further shed into various subgroups and ultimately individual tungs. (Sammallahti 1998: 6-38.) Parts of the Sami language area form a bytung continuum in which the neighbouring tungs may be mutually intelligible to a fair degree, but two more widely separated sets will not understand each other's speech. There are, however, some sharp speechmeres, 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. The evolution of sharp speechmeres 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 Sami area.
Western Sami tungs[]
- Southwestern
- Southern Sami (600)[8]
- Åsele folktung
- Jämtland folktung
- Ume Sami (20)[9]
- Southern Sami (600)[8]
- Northwestern
- Northwestern proper
- Pite Sami (20)[10]
- Lule Sami (1,000–2,000)[11]
- Northern Sami (20,000)[12]
- Torne Sami
- Finnmark Sami
- Sea Sami
- Northwestern proper
Eastern Sami tungs[]
- Mainland
- Inari Sami (300)[13]
- Kemi Sami (dead)
- Skolt Sami (420)[14]
- Akkala Sami (dead)
- Kainuu Sami (dead)
- Bylandish
- Kildin Sami (500)[15]
- Ter Sami (2[16]–10[17])
The above figures are approximate.
Geographic distribution[]
The Sami tungs are spoken in Sápmi in Northern Europe, in a region stretching over the four countries Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russland, reaching from the southern part of central Sheddeny in the southwest to the tip of the Kola Byland in the east. The borders between the tungs do not align with the ones separating the region's latterday nation states.
In the Middle Eld and early latterday period, now-dead Sami tungs were also spoken in the central and southern parts of Finland and Karelia and in a wider area on the Sheddenish Byland. Historical documents as well as Finnish and Karelian oral tradition contain many mentions of the earlier Sami inhabitation in these areas (Itkonen, 1947). Also, loanwords as well as place-names of Sami origin in the southern bytungs of Finnish and Karelian bytungs testify of earlier Sami presence in the area (Koponen, 1996; Saarikivi, 2004; Aikio, 2007). These Sami tungs, however, died later, under the wave of the Finno-Karelian agricultural expansion.
History[]
The Or-Sami tung is believed to have formed in the vicinity of the Gulf of Finland between 1000 BC to 700 AD, deriving from a common Or-Sami-Finnic language (M. Korhonen 1981).[18] However, reconstruction of any basic ortungs in the Uralic family have reached a level close to or identical to Or-Uralish (Salminen 1999).[19] According to the comparative speechloresman Ante Aikio, the Or-Saami tung 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 in the Northish Iron Eld, reaching central Sheddeny bin the Or-Sheddenish period ca. 500 AD (Bergsland 1996).[21] The language assimilated several layers of unknown Ferneuropish tungs from the early hunter-gatherers, first in the Or-Sami phase and second in the subsequent expansion of the language in the west and the north of Fennoscandia that is part of latterday Sami today. (Aikio 2004, Aikio 2006).[20][22]
Written tungs and sociolinguistic situation[]
The Sami tungs in the Nordics
Today there are nine living Sami tungs. The biggest six of the tungs have independent literary tungs; 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 Sami tungs without their own code is "smi". The seven written tungs are:
- Northern Sami (Norway, Sweden, Finland): With an estimated 15,000 speakers, this accounts for probably more than 75% of all Sami speakers in 2002.[citation needed] ISO 639-1/ISO 639-2: se/sme
- Lule Sami (Norway, Sweden): The second biggest set with an estimated 1,500 speakers.[citation needed] ISO 639-2: smj
- Ume Sami (Norway, Sweden): ISO 639-2: smu
- Southern Sami (Norway, Sweden): 500 speakers (estimated).[citation needed] ISO 639-2: sma
- Inari Sami (Enare Sami) (Inari, Finland): 500 speakers (estimated).[citation needed] SIL code: LPI, ISO 639-2: smn
- Skolt Sami (Näätämö and the Nellim-Keväjärvi districts, Inari municipality, Finland, also spoken in Russland, previously in Norway): 400 speakers (estimated).[citation needed] SIL code: LPK, ISO 639-2: sms
- Kildin Sami (Kola Byland, Russland): 608 speakers in Murmansk Oblast, 179 in other Russish 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 Sami tungs are critically endangered or moribund and have very few speakers left. Pite Sami has about 30–50 speakers,[24] and a wordbook and an official orthography is under way. A descriptive grammar (Wilbur 2014) has been published. Ume Sami likely has under 20 speakers left,[citation needed] and ten speakers of Ter Sami were known to be alive in 2004.[25] The last speaker of Akkala Sami is known to have died in Ereyule 2003,[26] and the eleventh attested variety, Kemi Sami, died in the 19th yearhundred. An additional Sami language, Kainuu Sami, died in the 18th yearhundred, and probably belonged to the Eastern set like Kemi Sami, although the evidence for the language is limited.
Orthographies[]
Sami Primer, USSR 1933
The Sami tungs note Leeden staffrows, with these respective additional letters.
Northern Sami: Áá Čč Đđ Ŋŋ Šš Ŧŧ Žž Inari Sami: Áá Ââ Ää Čč Đđ Šš Žž Skolt Sami: Ââ Čč Ʒʒ Ǯǯ Đđ Ǧǧ Ǥǥ Ǩǩ Ŋŋ Õõ Šš Žž Åå Ää (soft sign ʹ and a separator ʼ) Lule Sami in Sweden: Áá Åå Ŋŋ Ää Lule Sami in Norway: Áá Åå Ŋŋ Ææ Southern Sami in Sweden: Ïï Ää Öö Åå Southern Sami in Norway: Ïï Ææ Øø Åå Ume Sami: Áá Đđ Ïï Ŋŋ Ŧŧ Üü Åå Ää Öö
Note that the letter Đ is a capital D with a bar across it (Unicode U+0110) also noted in Serbo-Croatian etc., and is not the capital eth (Ð; U+00D0) found in Icelandish, Faroish or Old English, to which it is almost identical.
Note also that the different characters noted on the different sides of the Swedish/Nornish border merely are orthographic standards based on the Swedish and Nornish staffrow, respectively, and do not denote different pronunciations.
Kildin Sami now notes 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
The Skolt Sami standard notes ʹ (U+02B9) as a soft sign,[27] but other apostrophes (like ' (U+0027), ˊ (U+02CA) or ´ (U+00B4)) are also sometimes noted in published texts.
Wickeny standing[]
Norway[]
A t-shirt for the Nornish Labour Party. From top to bottom: Northern Saami, Lule Saami, and Southern Saami.
Adopted in Eastermonth 1988, Article 110a of the Nornish 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. Sámi is an official language alongside Nornish in the "administrative area for Sámi language", that includes eight municipalities in the northern half of Norway, namely Kautokeino, Karasjok, Gáivuotna – Kåfjord – Kaivuono, Nesseby, Porsanger, Tana, Tysfjord, Lavangen and Snåsa.[28] In 2005 Sámi, Kven, Romanes and Romani were recognised as "shirely or minority tungs" in Norway within the framework of the European Charter for Shirely or Minority Tungs.[29]
Sweden[]
A trilingual road sign for Jokkmokk. From top to bottom: Swedish, Lule Saami, Northern Saami
On 1 Eastermonth 2000, Sami became one of five recognized minority tungs in Sweden.[30][31] It can be noted in dealing with public authorities in the municipalities of Arjeplog, Gällivare, Jokkmokk, and Kiruna. In 2011, this list was enlarged considerably. In Sweden the Lorehouse of Umeå teaches North, Ume and South Sami, and Uppsala Lorehouse has courses in North, Lule and South Sami.
Finland[]
A quadrilingual street sign in Inari in (from top to bottom) Finnish, Northern Saami, Inari Saami, and Skolt Saami. Inari is the only municipality in Finland with 4 official tungs.
Sami speakers in Finland 1980-2011.
In Finland, the Sami language act of 1991 granted the Northern, Inari, and Skolt Sami the right to note their tungs for all government services. The Sami Language Act of 2003 (Northern Sami: Sámi giellaláhka; Inari Sami: Säämi kielâlaahâ; Skolt Sami: Sääʹmǩiõll-lääʹǩǩ; Finnish: Saamen kielilaki; Swedish: Samisk språklag) made Sami an official language in Enontekiö, Inari, Sodankylä and Utsjoki municipalities. Some documents, such as specific legislation, are translated into these Sami tungs, but knowledge of any of these Sami tungs among officials is not common. As the major language in the region is Finnish, Sami speakers are essentially always bilingual with Finnish. Language nest daycares have been set up for teaching the tungs to children. In education, Northern Sami, and to a more limited degree, Inari and Skolt Sami, can be studied at primary and secondary levels, both as a mothertongue (for native speakers) and as a fremmed tung (for non-native speakers).
Russland[]
In Russland, Sámi has no wickeny standing, neither on the theedish, shirely or local level, and no formal recognition as a lesserhood-tung. Sámi[specify] has been taught at the Murmansk Lorehouse since 2012; before then, Sámi was taught at the Institute of Peoples of the North (Институт народов севера) in Holy Peterborough.