- Lule Sami
Infobox Language
name=Lule Sami
nativename=julevsábme
region=Norway andSweden
speakers=~2,000
iso1=
iso2=smj
iso3=smj
familycolor=Uralic
fam1=Uralic
fam2=Finno-Ugric
fam3=Finno-Permic
fam4=Finno-Volgaic
fam5=Finno-Lappic
fam6=Sami
fam7=Western
script=Latin alphabet Lule Sami "(julevsámegiella)" is a Finno-Ugric, Sami
language spoken in Lule Lappmark, i.e., aroundLuleå Sweden and in the province ofNordland inNorway . It is written using an official Romanorthography .tatus
With 1,500 to 2,000 speakers it is the second largest of all Sami languages. It is reported that the number of native speakers is in sharp decline among the younger generations. The language has, however, been standardised in
1983 and elaborately cultivated ever since.Grammar
Cases
Lule Sámi has 8 cases:
Nominative
Like the other
Uralic languages , thenominative singular is unmarked and indicates the subject or a predicate.The nominative plural is also unmarked and always looks the same as thegenitive singular.Genitive
The "genitive" singular is unmarked and looks the same as the
nominative plural. The genitive plural is marked by an "-j". The genitive is used:*to indicate possession
*with prepositions
*with postpositions.Accusative
The
accusative is the direct object case and it is marked with "-v" in the singular. In the plural, its marker is "-t", which is preceded by the plural marker "-j".Inessive
The
inessive marker is "-n" in the singular and the plural, when it is then preceded by the plural marker "-j". This case is used to indicate:*where something is
*who has possession of somethingIllative
The
illative marker is "-j" in the singular and "-da" in the plural, which is preceded by the plural marker "-i", making it look the same as the pluralaccusative . This case is used to indicate:*where something is going
*who is receiving something
*the indirect objectElative
The
elative marker is "-s" in the singular and the plural, when it is then preceded by the plural marker "-j". This case is used to indicate:*where something is coming from
Comitative
The
comitative marker in the singular is "-jn" and "-j" in the plural, which means that it looks like the genitive plural. The comitative is used to state "with whom or what" something was done.Pronouns
The personal pronouns 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:
Verbs
Person
Lule Sami
verb s conjugate for threegrammatical person s:*first person
*second person
*third personMood
Lule Sami has 4
grammatical mood s:*indicative
*imperative
*conditional
*potentialGrammatical number
Lule Sami
verb s conjugate for threegrammatical number s:*singular
*dual
*plural Tense
Lule Sami
verb s has two simple tenses:and 2 compound tenses:
*perfect
*pluperfectVerbal nouns
Negative verb
Lule Sami, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and Estonian, has a
negative verb . In Lule Sami, the negative verb conjugates according to tense (past and non-past), mood (indicative and imperative), person (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and number (singular, dual and plural).Phonology
tress
Writing system
The orthography used for Lule Sámi is written using an extended form of the
Latin alphabet . There are few special characters: á (a-acute), ń (n-acute), and å (a-ring). The character n-acute (Ń/ń) is the eng sound found in the English word "song", IPA| [ŋ] . In place of n-acute (found inUnicode , but not inASCII ), many use ñ or even ng.References
* Spiik, Nils-Erik: "Lulesamisk grammatik"
* Grundström, Harald: "Lulesamisches Wörterbuch"
* Kintel, Anders 1991: "Syntaks og ordavledninger i lulesamisk". Kautokeino : Samisk utdanningsråd.
* Wiklund, K.B. 1890: "Lule-lappisches Wörterbuch". Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilaisen seuran toimituksia ; 1External links
* [http://www.ur.se/samasta/samasta1/index.html Sámásta Lule Sami lessons and resources] (in Swedish)
* [http://giellatekno.uit.no/d-smj.en.html Morphological analyzer for Lule Sámi]
* [http://giellatekno.uit.no/g-smj.en.html Language generator for Lule Sámi]
* [http://www.risten.no/bakgrunn/gram/smj/index.html Lule Sámi grammar in Norwegian] (Currently only covers pronouns).
* [http://www.bibeln.se/om_bibeln/adatestamenntadownload.html Ådå Testamennta] The New Testament in Lule Sámi (PDF)
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