- Skolt Sami
Infobox Language
name=Skolt Sami
nativename= unicode|sääˊmǩiõll
region=Finland andRussia
speakers=~400
familycolor=Uralic
fam1=Uralic
fam2=Finno-Ugric
fam3=Finno-Permic
fam4=Finno-Volgaic
fam5=Finno-Lappic
fam6=Sami
fam7=Eastern
script=Latin alphabet
iso1=
iso2=sms
iso3=smsSkolt Sami "(unicode|sääˊmǩiõll)" is a Finno-Ugric, Sami
language spoken by approximately 400 speakers inFinland , mainly in Sevettijärvi, and approximately 20–30 speakers of the Njuõˊttjäuˊrr (Notozero) dialect in an area surroundingLake Lovozero inRussia . Skolt Sami used to also be spoken on theNeiden area ofNorway , although it has died out there. It is written using a Romanorthography that was made official in 1973.History
Skolt Sámi was spoken in four villages on Finnish territory prior to the Second World War. In Petsamo, Skolt Sámi 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 andNellim in the Inari municipality.tatus
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 languages 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 seriouslyendangered language , even more seriously thanInari Sami in the same municipality, which has a nearly equal number of speakers.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 songssung byTiina 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.
Writing system
Skolt Sami uses the standard
Latin alphabet with the addition of some special characters: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:
Verbs
Person
Skolt Sami
verb s conjugate for fourgrammatical person s:*first person
*second person
*third person
*fourth person , also called the indefinite personMood
Skolt Sami has 5
grammatical mood s:*indicative
*imperative ("Pueˊtted sõrgg domoi!" Come home soon!)
*conditional
*potential
*optativeGrammatical number
Skolt Sami
verb s conjugate for threegrammatical number s:*singular
*dual
*plural Tense
Skolt Sami has 2 simple tenses:
*past ("Puõˊttem škoouˊle jåhtta.": I came to school yesterday.)
*non-past ("Evvan puätt mu årra täˊbbe". John is coming to my house today.)and 2
compound tenses :*perfect
*pluperfectVerbal nouns
Skolt Sami verbs have 6 nominal forms:
*the infinitive
*the gerund
*the active participle (progressive)
*the abessive
*the present participle
*the past participleNegative verb
Skolt Sami, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and Estonian, has a
negative verb . 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.
References
*Korhonen, Mikko. Mosnikoff, Jouni. Sammallahti, Pekka. "Koltansaamen opas." Castreanumin toimitteita, Helsinki 1973.
*Mosnikoff, Jouni and Pekka Sammallahti. "Uˊcc sääm-lääˊdd unicode|sääˊnnǩeârjaž = Pieni koltansaame-suomi sanakirja". Jorgaleaddji 1988.
*Mosnikoff, Jouni and Pekka Sammallahti. "Suomi-koltansaame sanakirja = Lääˊdd-sääˊm unicode|sääˊnnǩeˊrjj". Ohcejohka : Girjegiisá 1991.
*Moshnikoff, Satu. "Muu vuõssmõs unicode|sääˊmǩeˊrjj" 1987.
* [http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaannokset/2003/en20031086.pdf Sámi Language Act]External links
* [http://www.uta.fi/~km56049/same/skolt/koltansaame.html Kimberli Mäkäräinen] A very small Skolt Sámi - English vocabulary (<500 words)
* [http://www.idolphin.fi/sanastotietopankki/ Northern Sámi - Inari Sámi - Skolt Sámi - English dictionary] (requires a password nowadays)
* [http://www.kirjasto.oulu.fi/saamilottit/ Names of birds found in Sápmi in a number of languages, including Skolt Sámi and English. Search function only works with Finnish input though.]
* [http://www.siida.fi/saamjiellem/english/index.html Sääˊmjieˊllem] Sámi Museum site on the history of the Skolt Sámi in Finland
* [http://www.sfu.ca/~mcrobbie/Research1.html Zita McRobbie-Utasi] A number of linguistic articles on Skolt Sámi.
* [http://www.helsinki.fi/~sugl_smi/aani/Kielinaytteet/Koltansaame.mp3 Erkki Lumisalmi talks in Skolt Sámi] (mp3 )
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